A fresh new year is a great time to reflect on your career and where you want your future to go. Efficient time management, says Sean McLoughney, is critical to making these plans a reality.

It is that time of year again when ambitious business goals are agreed upon, strategic plans are discussed, and managers set performance expectations for their team. It is also when people think about their careers and set themselves some career goals.

Central to these plans and discussions is goal setting. While people are generally good at writing goals and planning their next career move, achieving them is still challenging. One of these challenges is time or, more precisely, the perceived lack of time. However, this is a convenient excuse in most cases – we tend to spend more time planning our annual holiday than planning our careers. This year make your career a priority by devoting sufficient time to ensure you achieve your career goals.

Below are six time management steps that will get the best return on your time when managing your career.

Step one – Set your career goals

High-performing companies are underpinned by a good business plan with action goals used as a roadmap for success, so why not apply that strategy to your career path? Start your career plan by writing what success looks like for you by the end of the year. This might entail describing the role you seek, the type of work you would like to do or what you would like to achieve. Next, write some goals that will enable you to turn your plan into reality. Use the SMARTER Goal system when writing your goals:

• Specific – have you described the process needed to achieve your goals?
• Measurable – can the goal be measured? If so, how will you measure it, and how will you know that you have completed the goal?
• Aligned – have you aligned your goals to your career plan?
• Realistic – how realistic are your goals regarding your experience, skills and time capacity?
• Time –how much time will you need to complete your goals? Are you benchmarking progression?
• Engaging – how do these goals motivate you? How will they impact your career?
• Reward – what will you gain when a goal is achieved?

Step two – Why it matters

When you set a motivational goal, you are more likely to set aside sufficient time to complete it. It would help if you visualised your reward to remain motivated. Answer these questions: Why does this goal matter to you? What will you gain by achieving it? Your answers should increase your motivation levels and provide some focus when you encounter a setback.

Step three – List your activities

Break your goals down into concrete action steps or tasks. Use a spreadsheet or planner to list your tasks to give you greater oversight of everything you need to do to achieve your career goals. For example, you might need to complete a skill gap analysis by comparing your current skills set against the skills required for your preferred role.

Step four – Estimate time

One of the main reasons career planning fails is not calculating how much time it will take you to complete a task – you write a plan, but you don’t work out how much time you need to implement it.

In your spreadsheet or planner, write the estimated time you require to complete each task on your list. Now you can see clearly where your time can be spent and start to budget accordingly.

Step five – Time-management balance sheet

Understanding your time capacity by applying the ‘time-management balance sheet’ principle is simple. The time-management balance sheet is a snapshot of your time capacity at a particular moment. In step four, you have calculated the amount of time required to complete your career goals; now, you must find the available time. Check your diary to see when you are free to spend time managing your career. Aim to spend some time working on your career progression every week. Ensure you have enough time available to complete your tasks. If you don’t have enough available time, you need to prioritise your list.

Step six – Commit to your schedule

Once you have identified an opening in your schedule, allocate this time to a specific task – book in the task in the same way you would a meeting. Commit to completing the action at the agreed time. Schedule a month’s worth of tasks to begin this approach. Writing the tasks into your diary will also increase your accountability. Review your progress at the end of each month and then set aside time for next month’s tasks.

Remember, successful careers don’t happen by chance; they result from good planning and taking personal responsibility for its direction. Planning is a forerunner to success; great careers also require an investment in time.