Do you feel like you’ve never been able to find an effective way to manage your time? Maybe you’ve tried some of the most commonly suggested methods, and they haven’t worked for you?
Know you are not alone. When figuring out your time management style, it’s important to factor in your personality type. Someone who is more inclined to become a data scientist will likely have a very different style of doing things than someone who is an artist. Regardless of your career or profession, here’s a guide to the best time management styles for your personality type.
Whether you’re hunting for a job or looking to become more effective at what you do, you should start by figuring out your personality type. Some questions to help this process include:
- Are you more introverted or extroverted?
- What do you like to do in your spare time?
- What activities make you forget to look at the clock?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Do you prefer to work with people or with numbers?
While this is by no means a list of comprehensive questions, it’s a great place to start when determining your personality type. One of the most common personality tests is the Myers-Briggs test, which places you in one of 16 categories based on your level of introversion vs. extroversion, sensing vs. intuition, thinking vs. feeling, and judging vs prospecting.
For example, if you are more outgoing, a time management strategy like Parkinson’s law may be a good choice. With Parkinson’s law, you create deadlines for a task and push each deadline up by a day. This strategy ensures that each task has a clear and defined deadline — and lives by the principle that the more time you have to do something, the more time it will take.
Another time management tactic best suited for more introverted types is the Pomodoro Technique, which is based on the time-blocking idea of working for 25 minutes, taking a 5 minute break, repeating the cycle four times, then taking a longer break. This tactic helps improve concentration and helps your brain focus for short-term intervals.
For those who enjoy the fulfillment of helping others, the task-batch method may be a good time management tactic to try. With the task-batch method, you group similar projects together during the day to minimize interruptions. For example, if you were a student recently out of school looking for a job, you could work on looking for job listings and updating your resume together, before moving on to sending out applications and asking for informational interviews afterward.
No matter your personality type, it’s important to find a time management style that works best for you. For the millions of people adjusting to working and schooling from home, time management is becoming more important than ever. More than anything else, It’s important to focus on your emotional and mental health in times like these.
If you’re on the lookout for a new job or are just trying to find a way to keep track of your time more efficiently, check out the graphic below to find the best time management strategy for your personality type.
