Everyone always thinks they have more time in their day than they do. When the harsh reality of the ticking clock meets the objectives that the individual was attempting to reach, things can get tricky. You don’t want to be the person who is constantly running behind schedule and has to make excuses for your delay. An element of emotional intelligence goes into properly structuring your day so that you are never the one holding everyone else up.
Is time management emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence and time management are the same. You cannot be fully emotionally intelligent and not also be a good steward of your time. Emotional intelligence is made up of a variety of important elements, including:
- Self-regulation
- Self-awareness
- Empathy
- Motivation
- Social abilities
Take another look at that list and see if you can’t find how time management fits in perfectly. Managing one’s own time in a way that is considerate of others requires many of the traits listed above. Those who do not have those traits are bound to struggle to keep up with their time, and they may discover that they easily fall behind on the set tasks for the day.
Those who don’t show emotional intelligence will find a way to make excuses for their lack of time management. They frequently blame external forces that they claim are outside of their control. In reality, they have failed to manage their time as properly as they should have, leading to their failures. It is only after someone has begun to show emotional intelligence that they can be trusted to keep themselves in check regarding getting to where they need to be on time.
Is emotional intelligence important for time management?
Emotional intelligence is one of the most important aspects of time management. It is essential to improve emotional intelligence if you want to have any hope of managing your time efficiently. Bigspeak.com laid it out perfectly when they stated the following about the correlation between the two skill sets:
Simply defined, emotional intelligence is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions
You can continue to make excuses for why you are always running behind if you want to. You can comfort yourself and say that these things are not your fault, but you are simply pulling the wool over your own eyes when you do things like that. The reality is that you can and should take steps to worry about the time that you are taking away from others.
When you don’t manage your schedule well enough to get where you need to be on time, people may avoid making plans with you.
Think about the impression that it gives other people who may want to work with you in the future. They will see that you can’t even respect them enough to show up on time, which will likely make them not want to cooperate with you in the future.
7 ways emotional intelligence affects time management
Now, let’s draw the lines between how one shows emotional intelligence and how that manifests in time management skills. It is important to see the correlation between the two if you would like to better prepare yourself for how to become more emotionally intelligent and better prepared to handle your tasks for the day.
1. When You Are Self-Aware, You Make Other People’s Time A Priority
Self-awareness is a great attribute of emotional intelligence, and it is the most likely thing to help make you care about other people’s time and how you use it. If you are aware that you are dragging away too much of their time because you are not handling your schedule properly, then hopefully, you will make some changes in your life to ensure that doesn’t happen again.
Start by putting yourself in the other person’s shoes, and think about your actions impact them.
2. Focus On Emotional Intelligence And Time Management
Blaming other people or forces beyond your control may seem like the ideal approach, but it will earn you a reputation for being the kind of person who cannot accept the fact that they make mistakes. You don’t ever want to be that person, and there is no reason why you need to be.
Instead, you should manage your emotional intelligence and time management skills before blaming others. If you take responsibility, you are demonstrating emotional intelligence and can create a better schedule for yourself.
The billionaire Richard Branson says he wakes up at 5 am every morning to work out and create a list of 5 things he must do that day. If he can get more than that done, then it th all a bonus as far as he is concerned, but he says that he must do those 5 things for the day to be completed. He manages his emotional intelligence and time management before saying anything about what others are doing.
3. Good Social Skills Will Make You Want To Make Time For The Important Things
Many of us forget our manners when practicing good social skills and getting where we need to be on time. We think only of the things we want to be doing now. If you start building up your social skills by practicing better emotional intelligence, you will come up with better ways to take care of what matters.
4. A More Structured Life Means Less Stress
Most people suffer from overwhelming levels of stress. They put too much on their plate at any given time, meaning they can’t take on much more even when needed.
Wh, en you practice good time management, you can start relieving some of your life stress so that you can focus on the people you need to spend your time with. Not only that, but you may see some health benefits from lower stress levels, such as:
- Weight control
- Improved mood
- Better focus
- More Relaxation
- Better mental health
Do not brush these aside. When you improve your health outlook, you improve a lot about what you can do with your day. You may discover that you have time to take care of more in your day than you ever dreamed possible, which can keep you motivated and moving forward.
5. Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Earn More Business
People want to work with those they know can come through for them in a pinch. Therefore, no matter what line of work you are in, you can benefit from exhibiting proper emotional intelligence and time management to help earn yourself more business.
People will see that you are on top of everything that needs to be done in the day, and they will want to work with a person like that. Thus, your emotional intelligence will play perfectly into what they expect from someone they work with to get things done.
6. Time Management Can Make You A Better Partner
Staying on top of your schedule frees up more of your free time to spend with your family and other loved ones. You don’t want to squander that.
You can easily waste the day with distractions and other things that don’t serve you very well, or you can structure your day so that you have free time at the end of the day that you can spend with your family. You and your loved ones will benefit greatly from that.
7. People Will Look Up To You
Finally, we must mention that people often look up to those who practice excellent time management. They are seen as leaders, and we all want to follow the example of leaders. Getting the ball rolling on good time management may be enough to get others to buy into the idea, and you can start something truly special when you lead by example.
