Best Time Management Tips for Interns from Business Leaders

Guest post by Jessica Robinson
Content Manager, The Speaking Polymath

Time management skills are essential for all of us to find success in life. If you’re an intern, employee, or the CEO of a leading business venture, you should know how to manage your time. It would not be wrong to say that your efficiency in working time is directly proportional to your growth.

Interns specifically have to cope with many time management challenges regularly. As an intern, you have to excel in academics and your internship program simultaneously. You feel that you are brimming with aspirations and dreams but always short of time.

Well, you need not worry at all as this blog illustrates some smart time management tips for interns. Internships can be exhausting and interns need help managing time. You can neither let your internship performance go down nor your academic grades. But your dream internship can give you the perfect launchpad for your career goals. All that you need to do to prosper is to learn a few time management skills. Here are some ideas that will help.

1. Develop the habit of noting things down

This is the basic technique that you can use to master time management. You should note everything down to keep your work more organized. Besides, when you write down things, you have better control over them. There’s less of a chance you can forget your tasks or find it challenging to manage your time.

Also, this improves your organizational skills in addition to time management skills. So, be practical, do not trust your memory blindly, and make notes. If your superiors are narrating any instructions, then you should note them down. Further, you should always note down the daily tasks that are assigned to you.

2. Batch your tasks

This recommendation comes from Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX. He suggests you should batch similar tasks together to be able to do them simultaneously. This way, you don’t lose time or the quality of your work. For instance, you can work on your emails while attending calls.

You can save on time you were going to spend separately on both tasks. However, it takes conscious effort to understand the pattern of your tasks and batch them.

3. Ask for help

The world needs to normalize the practice of seeking help. Does it feel awkward to ask for help from your boss? Son’t feel that way. Seeking help is a good thing.

When you are interning, you don’t have complete knowledge of the working culture of the organization. So, you’ll need assistance from your superiors at some point. As long as they are ethical and kind, they’ll be happy to help. Don’t waste time working on something you don’t understand. If you have to redo that work to make corrections, you lose time. It’s better that you ask for help beforehand and clarify any doubts.

4. Rely on technology

In all spheres of life, technology is reducing human effort and promoting higher productivity. Take advantage of it. For example, use a calendar application or set alerts on your phone to manage your time well. As much as you need to maintain a to-do list, do that over your phone. There are numerous other time management tools to help you stay ahead of the game. Let technology share your workload, and you can manage time much more efficiently.

5. Seek feedback

It’s vital to ask for feedback and reflect on your work. The regular employees of the company are going to be more experienced than you for sure. Their valuable feedback can help you boost your productivity. Because they have spent years working in the same organization, they can tell you how you can improve your work.

Constructive feedback can make your work less prone to errors. The fewer mistakes in your work, the better the productivity. If you don’t seek feedback and keep making the same mistakes, you’ll waste a lot of time in corrections.

What do top CEOs have to say about time management?

Do you know how the top CEOs remain so successful? A large part of their success can undoubtedly be credited to their time management skills. According to Bussiness Insider, the most successful CEOs master the art of delegation. They prepare for the next day and even stay cautious using emails. They realize that email can waste a lot of time.

Moreover, most CEOs begin their day as early as 5 am or 6 am to get an early start. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, wakes up before 4:00 a.m. and spends his first few hours working on emails. This is one of the common traits of the most inspiring CEOs. When you begin your day early, you have more time to manage your academics and internship responsibilities. So, by learning from top business leaders, you can make the most of your time by beginning your day early.

 

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