Time Management Skills: Examples + Improving Them

Most people don’t know how to prove they have good time management skills on their resume. Find out how in our guide to creating an effective time management skills resume, which includes several eye-catching examples.

1. What is Time Management?

Let’s start by giving you the definition of time management skills.

Time management skills allow you to work on a schedule, avoid distractions, and finish projects on time.

Time management is a soft skill. Soft skills are related to your personality, so you learn them naturally as you grow up. However, they can be improved through practice.

Your time management skills will help you prove to hiring managers that you can work independently and achieve goals on time. They could also eventually open the door to benefits like remote working and even pay raises.

2. How to Improve Time Management

Overcoming procrastination and improving your time management don’t have to be difficult. There are many free (or affordable) resources for self-improvement in this area available online:

• Alison
• Udemy
• Coursera
• LinkedIn
• BusinessBalls
• BizLibrary
• Pryor
• 100% Effective
• Business Training Works

3. Five Examples of Effective Time Management Skills

Enhance your application by including one or more examples of good time management skills in your resume.

1. Planning

Planning is a vital part of good time management skills. Successful planning hinges on the ability to block time effectively. If you continuously knock off tasks in a timely manner, you’re a good planner.

If you give yourself too much time for a task, you’ll end up procrastinating. On the other hand, if you give yourself too little, you’ll end up stressed and chasing deadlines.

Planning-related skills to list on your resume include:

2. Prioritizing

Time management involves deciding what tasks are the most urgent, and handling them first. Important but non-urgent tasks should also be prioritized, but can be tackled gradually before their due date. Other tasks can be completed when you have nothing essential on your to-do list.

Prioritization-related skills to list on your resume are:

3. Decision-making

Being able to quickly make a decision is a key time management skill. That’s because hemming and hawing over a decision is a major waste of time.

Part of decision-making is deciding when you should delegate a task, and when you should handle it yourself. By delegating certain responsibilities to someone else, you save yourself time that can be used for more important tasks.

Here are some decision making-related skills to list on your resume:

4. Self-motivation

Key to time management is keeping motivated despite the demons that want you to be unproductive: procrastination, perfectionism, and distractions.

Keeping yourself motivated is not easy. That’s why so many self-help books have been published offering hundreds of strategies for keeping us hard at work.

Self starter–related skills to list on your resume include the following:

5. Organization

A well-organized worker is an industrious worker. If you know where you’ve filed your documents and saved your work, you’re someone who can manage time effectively. So time management and organizational skills are fundamental.

Wasting precious time hunting through folders is exactly that — a waste.

Here are some organizational skills to list on your resume:

4. Time Management Skills on Resumes (Sample Gallery)

Of course, some roles and jobs out there are particularly suited to candidates with excellent time management skills.

Have a look at these resumes that showcase such skills. A recent graduate’s resume, for instance, should show how important time management skills are for students.

Takeaway

Now that you have some ideas of effective time management skills, it’s time to put them on your resume! If you’re still struggling though, check out our complete guide on how to write a resume that lands interviews.

Lacking inspiration? Check out our full catalog of beautiful resume templates — one is sure to catch your eye.

Need to create a resume quickly? With our free resume builder, you can create a high-quality resume in mere minutes.