Effective time management is a skill that the translator gradually acquires when earns many practical experience, and it is difficult to unexpectedly acquire. The translator must initially makeits plans, although this step is not enough to reduce the waste of time, as this goal requires a great amount of self-discipline.
Here are some tips that may help the translator to manage time:
1. GoalsSetting:
Try to make a written list of your goals to serve as a tool for long-term steps. The list should include daily, weekly and annual short-term and long-term goals. This written list will help you clearly reviewing your goals when you come back to use it. You should remember to be flexible in adjusting your goals to suit your business needs.
2.Simple Rewards:
You mustn’tdelay your tasks and get them done all at once, this action makes you work for long periods of time without taking a break. Try to put simple rewards in your schedule, and if you intend to carry out a task, follow it up with another one you enjoy doing it. Remember that these “simple rewards” in your schedule will help you increase your productivity.
3. Maintain Lists:
Keep a task list ‘in progress’to include daily tasks as well as long-term tasks. This list will help you focus on priority projects and will prevent you from getting distracted or forgetting some points.
4. Be Realistic:
Be realistic in what you intend to achieve, do not go beyond reality to imagination, and be aware of your current position so as not to raise your expectations to unattainable level.
5. Priorities Setting:
Arrange your priorities in a list according to their importance and time of completion. You will find that some items require urgent completion, while others are necessary but not urgent. When setting your priorities, try not to be like the “fireman”, who fully focuses on urgent tasks, but rather distribute your attention to the tasks according to the requirements of their completion, whether the task is urgent or not.
6. Don’t Waste Time:
If you have periods of time you spend waiting or daily travelling to work, try to find ways to make that time productive, such as listening to digital files, reading or writing, correcting spelling mistakes, revising your schedule, planning your next activity, etc. Usually do it remotely to fill in some inevitable “lost” time in your work schedule, and try to find unusually interesting and productive things to do during the downtime.
7. Setting Time Limits:
Set reasonable time limits for tasks, and when working on those tasks, calculate the time you spend on each item.
8.Workplace Organization:
Organize your workplace and remove any clutter because time spent searching for something in a clutter is wasted time… and time meansmoney. So, organize all your files on your computer and your actual workplace, so that everything you need is close at your hand.
9. Reducing Distractions:
In the event that you find yourself taking up your time on social media, Facebook, chatbots, or other social media, set aside a specific period through your day to participate in the online community, and other than those specified time slots, set your status to ‘Unavailable’ so that you are not interrupted for the duration of your work. Finally, try to reduce interruptions and distractions as much as possible.
10. Thinking:
At the end of the day, think about what you’ve accomplished, and if you can’t calculate any specific time period, or find that a day is not productive, take an inventory and try to identify the reason for wasting your time within management system.
Keep in mind that not all days will be as productive as you would like. Unexpected things can always come up. No matter how hard you try, try not to lose heart. Instead, simply stay focused and make an effort to be more productive the next day.
Esraa Badawi
Gomaa is a professional translator who is holding a translation services company in different countries.