Techniques for more effective time management

20 de June, 2025

June 20th is World Productivity Day and you can’t talk about productivity without talking about time management. By improving our ability to manage our time well, we are helping to work more productively and, above all, more efficiently.

Although some people think they are naturally more disorganized, or more prone to distraction, the truth is that time management is a skill that can be learned and improved.

Come and discover with us why it’s important to manage your time more effectively at work and what techniques you can use to do so.

Why is it important to manage your time better?

Time management refers, in practice, to the process of allocatingyour time more intentionally, more intelligently and more effectively. This allows you not only to increase the quantity of work produced – to do more in less time – but, more importantly, to boost the quality of the results.

Good time management brings advantages such as:

• Reduced stress at work (as you are less overwhelmed by the workload);
• Increased energy and confidence;
• Increased efficiency and job satisfaction;
• Possibilities for career growth and progression;
• Better work-life balance (by having more quality time for yourself).

Tips for more effective time management

Managing your time better can involve various strategies related to setting limits and priorities, eliminating distractions and organizing your work more clearly.

1 – Realize how you are spending your time

The first step to managing your time better is to know how long it takes you to complete your tasks. Do a sort of audit of your time, in other words, monitor the time you spend on recurring activities in your job. You can use a time tracking tool or application, such as Toggl, Harvest or ClickUp, for example.

Try to do the same for the time you might spend procrastinating or distracting yourself with external stimuli (e.g. social media).

Having a better idea of these figures will allow you to be more realistic when planning your work, to understand whether it is possible to optimize the execution of some routine or repetitive tasks and also to consider mitigating potential distractions.

2 – Set priorities with the Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix has become a famous time management model and consists of organizing tasks by urgency and importance. By distributing your tasks in the four quadrants of this matrix, you’ll have more visibility as to which ones you should prioritize.

These quadrants are:

1. Important and urgent: tasks that are relevant to your goals and should be prioritized;
2. Important, but not urgent: they can be done later;
3. Urgent but unimportant: if possible, they should be delegated, as they don’t contribute to your objectives;
4. Not very urgent and not very important: they can only be done when you have free time.

3 – Divide your time into blocks

There are some time management models that recommend dividing time into blocks, so that people can focus their energy on one task or project at a time.

Two of the most recognized techniques are Pomodoro and Eat The Frog (swallow the frog).

The Pomodoro method suggests that people, using a timer, divide their working hours into 25-minute intervals, followed by a 5-minute break. During these 25 minutes, they should focus on a single task and avoid distractions, and they can use the next 5 minutes to rest. After four “pomodoros”, i.e. four sets of 25+5 minutes, you can take a longer break of 20-30 minutes. Taking regular breaks promotes concentration and creativity, as well as helping to reduce mental fatigue.

In turn, the Eat The Frog method aims to help people who tend to procrastinate or who find it difficult to avoid distractions. The premise of this technique is simple: if there is a bigger, more important or more challenging task, then that should be the first task. Only after people have “swallowed that frog” should they move on to the next tasks. This vision aims to counteract the habit that many people have of putting off the most difficult tasks, which can generate stress and anxiety throughout the working day.

4 – Make a daily plan

Take a few minutes out of your day to plan the tasks you want to do the next day. This way, you’ll already know exactly what you have to do and which tasks to prioritize when you start work.

Your to-do list should be realistic and achievable given the time you have available. In addition, you can mark off the tasks you have already done to gain motivation to carry on with your work.

5 – Dedicate yourself to one task at a time

Contrary to what some people might think, multitasking tends to be the enemy of productivity and efficiency.

Several studies have shown that by devoting your attention partially to several things at once, this can result in an incomplete understanding of needs and a more imprecise execution of tasks. Ultimately, although you may have produced more in less time, the results are likely to have been more inefficient.

In addition, the mental overload associated with multitasking is greater than when focusing on just one task.

6 – Automate repetitive tasks

Do your jobs require you to perform the same task over and over again? For example, manually entering data into a platform, creating monthly reports, sending follow-up emails, answering frequently asked questions in customer service, among many others.

Identify these routine tasks and see if they can be automated using any rules or automation tools. By creating these automations, you are not only optimizing your time management, but also allowing you to be more available for more strategic projects with greater added value.

7 – Block out any distractions

Depending on where you work and the type of job you do, external stimuli and potential distractions can be varied. For example, if you work at a computer, you may be tempted to open your social networks, news sites or shopping sites. The same can happen if you have your cell phone nearby.

As far as your cell phone is concerned, you could consider keeping it further away or, alternatively, disabling notifications. You can also install the Forest app, which encourages you to stay off your phone while contributing to the sustainability of the planet. The logic is as follows: the longer you don’t touch your phone, the more the trees grow, but if you go to your phone before the set time, the trees die. You can then convert the virtual coins you earn in the app into donations to plant real trees in deforested areas of the planet.

On your computer, you can install the Freedom application, which allows you to block access to social networks, shopping sites, videos, games and more. You can decide which sites to block and the time intervals in which they should be inaccessible.

8 – Keep your workspace organized

Clutter or untidiness can contribute to increased levels of stress and anxiety. Consequently, people’s response, even if unconscious, tends to be to escape from the work that needs to be done.

Get rid of any objects you don’t need in your workspace and file or recycle any documents you no longer need.

Do the same with your “virtual” workspace. If you work on a computer, organize your files in properly identified and easily accessible folders. Also delete all the files and applications you no longer use.