Time management is something that many of us wish we were better at. As much as we try, it seems that sometimes we only get so far before we hit a brick wall and cannot get everything we would like to get done in a single day. Thus, it is necessary to think about using time management more effectively. We should examine various time management styles to get a better idea of which ones may be the most useful for our purposes, and we ought to try to put those into play.
What are time management styles?
There are four main time management styles that you need to concern yourself with. Once you grasp these, it becomes easier to understand why people use different time management styles and which one may be the most useful for you. These styles are known as:
- The early bird
- The balancing art
- The pressure cooker
- The Improviser
We will get more in-depth with what each of these means and how they are used shortly. For now, you need to know that these are the four primary time management styles we will look at. You may fall into one category or another, but you won’t know the name for it until you have learned a little about these different time management systems.
If you are still uncertain about which category you fall under after doing this research, then perhaps you might want to pursue a few different ones until you discover which one feels like the most natural fit for you.
Why is it important to identify your time management style?
Most people don’t want to put more effort into the work. They think that using time management technique isn’t for them because they feel it will be too much work. That’s not true if you get the right time management technique. It is important to consider time management styles and which techniques work best for you.
When you discover which method works best for you, you will see a spike in your productivity. You will also likely see an increase in leisure time available. Both are true because you will be spending your time more effectively to get things done, and thus you will have freed up more of your spare time to enjoy.
People often get worked up because they spend so much time stressing about the things they “should be doing.” If you work on your time management skills, you can spend less time fretting about the things that you “should have done” and more time getting them done. When you know your time management style, you can start to use it to figure out what exactly would work for you.
The Early Bird
The early bird is a person who rises early in the morning to begin working on the projects that they need to take care of for the day. They focus on a concrete checklist of things to do. The early bird is diligent about keeping a checklist, and they get a lot of joy and satisfaction from being able to mark things off that list. They like to have virtually every moment of their day mapped out, and they do not like to deviate from their plans whenever possible.
The strengths that the early bird exhibits include the fact that they know what they want to achieve and have no lack of motivation to reach those goals. They are self-propelled by their desire to accomplish great things in life and will take the steps necessary to make it happen.
The challenges that early bird faces are that they often get singularly focused on knocking off items from their checklist and forget to give certain tasks enough time for consideration. They don’t allow themselves the space they need to think through complex and challenging problems. Some obstacles in life require a lot of time and attention to be paid to them.
The fact that the early bird gets so focused on getting things done as rapidly as possible means that they don’t always give proper attention to things that deserve more attention.
The early bird needs to give themselves some space to think and enjoy parts of life that they have allowed to slip by them for far too long. People with these tendencies know they can achieve a lot on a given day, but they may not use their time effectively to enjoy the process. Perhaps including a bullet point in their to-do list that allows them the space to step back and enjoy their day is worthwhile for an early bird.
The Balancing Art
Someone who defined “the balance art” would say that keeping everything in balance is a strong suit of theirs. They have a time and place for everything they do in their day, and they have developed the skills necessary to keep it all up in the air and balanced at all times.
This may be the result of years of practice doing that, or it may be because they have had to adapt to this way of living.
Regardless, a person who falls into this category ought to think about how they can best use some of the strengths that they are naturally gifted with to make the most of their time.
The strength that is most obvious for someone in this category is that they are a well-rounded person. They have various interests, and they keep up with all of them. They manage to juggle all of those various interests at all times because they are skilled at keeping things in perspective. They must change their various tasks and responsibilities because they know that keeping it all in the air like this is the only way to proportion.
The downside for someone who is a balancing art is that they can end up with a lack of motivation rather easily. They have proven that they have what it takes to keep various tasks moving simultaneously, but that doesn’t mean that this is what they desire to do. They can sometimes get bored with the juggling and wish they were managing their time differently.
To help keep themselves from falling into predictable patterns, people in this category should consider pushing their boundaries at least a little to see if they can potentially discover new things about themselves that they didn’t know before. With any luck, they can potentially discover a new hobby or passion that will drive them to want to press on.
The Pressure Cooker
We all know someone who could be defined as a pressure cooker. They work best when the pressure is on to get something done. They always manage to pull through, but they seemingly always get their work done at the last minute. They are dependable in that they seem to pull through when they are called upon to do so, but it is always a struggle to get them ahead of schedule on any project. They want to do things their way, precisely what they will do if left to their own devices.
The great thing about someone who is a pressure cooker is that they can sit still for hours and work on a single project to get it done. They are willing to go the extra mile at the last possible minute to pull things out of a ditch and make it work. This means that projects with extremely tight deadlines are often best left to these people. However, you may be frustrated that they always seem to have to wait until the last second to get it together and get something done. That is not ideal in some scenarios.
The weakness of the pressure cooker is that they can use their ability to pull things off at the last minute as an excuse to procrastinate. They manifest that reality when they let themselves wait until the last minute, assuming they will pull through in the end. The problem is that they may get so caught up in their procrastination that they push things too far and fail.
Pressure cookers can pull themselves out of bad habits they might have acquired over the years is to giving themselves short deadlines to meet throughout the project they are working on. Break things into smaller chunks and put themselves on a self-imposed deadline to let their pressure cooker ways kick into high gear. When they do this, they might be capable of pulling off some pretty impressive feats without pushing everything to the last possible second.
The Improviser
The Improviser shares many traits with the pressure cooker, which tends to push things to the last minute. However, the Improviser does it because they feel they can escape it. It is not that they work better under pressure; it is just that they don’t want to do all the work they have been assigned. They would much rather wait until the last minute to figure out how they will throw a plan together that can allow them to skate by. It is honestly a very risky way to play things because it means that anything going wrong at all can derail the entire plan.
The Improviser’s strength is that they can think on their feet. They can pull themselves (and their team) up at the last minute and come up with something quickly that might be able to pull everyone through the assignment or project.
The downside for the Improviser is that they may lack discipline in their approach to time management. They have gotten away with coming up with something at the last minute for so long that they now believe they can do so anytime they want. That kind of thinking may lead them to make poor decisions.
This type of person can turn things around. They need to set realistic goals for themselves that they know they can reach. They need to make those goals known to the people around them for accountability purposes, and then they need to accomplish them.
Identify your time management style:
Want to find out what your time management style is? Take this quick test to see where you land and how you might use that information to make some changes.
Bonus tips for time management
No matter your specific time management style, everyone can benefit from the following tips for managing their time:
- Set up your day the night before – Always have a plan for what you are going to do the next day. You don’t necessarily have to write it down as a checklist (unless this helps you), but you need to know what you will shoot for the next day.
- Find accountability partners – Find the people in your life that you know will hold you accountable for getting things done. These individuals are your lifeline towards getting the kind of results that you deserve to aim for when working on making yourself into a more productive individual.
Conclusion
This world is made up of people with all kinds of different organization and time management styles. We are fortunate to have so many different types of people capable of working on so many different things. We should celebrate those differences, but we should also recognize which categories we fall under and how we might improve ourselves by being aware of the changes we need to make.
