Gayathri Vasudevan shares 10 tips on how you can manage your time and be more efficient

Gayathri Vasudevan, Co-founder & CEO of Labour Net tells us why time management is an important and critical skill set for women.

Indian women, in spite of being all-rounders, are still “expected” to strike that perfect balance between their career and family. However, most Indian men usually get away with the traditional stereotype that they are still the primary caregivers.

While a woman may have an equally important career, the expectation from her is tilted towards being a good mother, a good wife and a good homemaker. Therefore, time management becomes an essential and critical skill set for women.

So how does one manage time when there are only 24 hours in a day?

Gayathri Vasudevan, Co-Founder & CEO, LabourNet Services India Pvt Ltd, gives some tips to create an efficient work-life balance.

1. Create a priority list that one needs to finish for a month, a week and a day. Think of each of the roles that one performs as a mother, wife and an employee as well as the hobbies and passions that one wants to pursue and set aside a time for each.

2. Negotiate first with yourself and then with your significant stakeholders for time to pursue your priorities. This is likely to be a tricky business as it is easy to give up on some of the priorities one sets on one self - we as women are programmed to prioritise family over our hobbies and fashion.

3. Forgive yourself if on some days or even weeks you are not able to follow the tasks that you set for yourself. However, revisit the priority list often and create the changes that is required to satisfy yourself.

4. Delegate all tasks that are important. Each role that one plays is paramount, but there are only 24 hours in a day. Therefore choose people in your circle to whom you can delegate some of the tasks that you have listed as a priority for yourself.

5. Empower those to whom you have delegated the task and don’t be too critical of outcomes even if they are not up to your satisfaction.

6. Be conscious of fatigue setting in both for yourself as well as those to whom you have delegated the task. It is important to be accountable and not to be military strict in the need to achieve the outcomes.

7. Don’t create too many artificial boundaries between personal and professional, between work and hobbies. Artificial boundaries create pressure and therefore tensions and unhappiness.

8. Enjoy prioritising and holding yourself accountable rather than creating a tight schedule and task lists.

9. Take a pause every year and abandon your list, task, responsibilities and accountability. The break will re-energise you and help you come back with renewed vigour.

10. Time is precious and therefore handle time well so that there is a good amount of time left for self-attention and care.

Time management is important for women, but the task should not become so burdensome that they are unable to enjoy their everyday journey.