Using Emotional Intelligence to Improve your Time Management

Suppose we ask you your number one tip in managing time and being more productive. You'd most likely share the routine you follow or highlight a specific thing you do to help you work smarter. You might start listing tactics like "do the hardest task early in the day" or that you “start working earlier to avoid distractions." While these techniques are useful, we’re almost certain you didnt say, "I manage my emotions well." Daniel Goleman popularised the concept of "emotional intelligence" in his 1995 book on the topic. However, the term first appeared in a 1964 paper written by Michael Beldoch. According to the Oxford Dictionary, emotional intelligence is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.

You may be wondering what emotional intelligence has to do with time management. Well, so much of time management revolves around how you manage your energy. When we think of ‘our energy’, we often focus on our physical stamina. While this type of energy is essential, our mental energy is also critical to giving us the motivation and clarity to work smarter and accomplish more. Indeed, emotional intelligence is the key to both personal and professional success. If you're looking for a smart way to manage your time more effectively, consider how well you’re doing in these four areas of emotional intelligence:

Your Mood

As the name would suggest, the focus here is you and your mood. This area is about recognising and understanding your moods, emotions, and how your energy flows at different points in the day. To accomplish this, you need to become aware of your circadian rhythm which helps regulate your daily schedule for sleep and wakefulness. This rhythm is tied to your 24-hour body clock which is influenced by external conditions like lightness and darkness, temperature, and others. Your brain receives signals based on environmental stimuli and activates certain hormones, alters your body temperature, and regulates your metabolism to either keep you alert or draw you to sleep.

Have you ever noticed how certain tasks impact your energy and desire to work on the next item? Increasing your self-awareness will enable you to plan your day and align activities that drain or reenergise you with your circadian rhythm. 

Self-Management

We’ve all been there: you look at the next item on your to-do list and feel deflated or anxious. All we really want to do is skip that task and find some other thing that might be more fun. How does one address the instinct to work on something else? This is where self-management comes into play, the active recognition of disruptive impulses and controlling them.

Ding, you’ve just gotten an alert on your computer: an email, a Facebook message, a text from your mother asking you what a WIFI router is and how to reset it. All of these technologies are designed to grab our attention and hold onto it as long as possible. Good self-management practice would say that instead of responding every time you get a notification, you instead schedule a time to check emails, social media, texts, and all the rest at specific intervals in your day. This will reduce your distractions and help you focus on the task at hand.

Social Awareness

The next aspect of emotional intelligence is social awareness, which is all about empathy. How good are you at recognising the emotions of other people? Do you adjust your communication style to match the person you speak to? The best way to achieve a stronger social awareness is to stop and determine the personality type of the individual(s) you are speaking with and what their emotional drivers are. These drivers can be anything from a desire to stand out to a desire to belong, from feeling a sense of freedom to thrill seeking to security. Whatever underlying thing that drives a person’s actions is the key to building a connection, understanding them deeper, and an increased ability to influence them.

So what has this got to do with time management? The answer is that recognising the personality type and style of the person you are dealing with can show you quicker ways of interacting with them. For example, knowing that someone is fast paced and action-orientated means you can cut to the chase on that email. A few bullet points and a question for them will deliver a faster result than a drawn out email that’s pleasant but long-winded. Alternatively, knowing someone is sensitive, caring, and respectful of others will allow correspondence to be more empathetic and take a little longer to establishing rapport in the opening paragraph of that email. Social Awareness is a powerful tool when engaging with others.

Relationship Management

For sales leaders and managers who want to work smarter and maximise their time, this final area of emotional intelligence is critical. Your ability to surpass your sales goals comes down to securing the full engagement of every member of your team. To achieve this level of engagement, you must communicate in ways that connects with each of them on both a mental and emotional level. Piece of cake, right?

Think of it this way: there’s that famous optical illusion where some people see a young woman and others see an old woman’s face. This was first published in Punch magazine in 1915, adapted from a German postcard from 1888. Relationship management is a little bit like this illusion, in that one ‘image’ is presented (one instruction, direction etc.) and depending on your perspective you may interpret it differently. Good relationship management is understanding that not everyone will see ‘your picture’ the way you see it, and that’s just part of what it means to be human. Take the time to check in on your team to ensure they understand exactly what’s expected of them, and recognize that individuals will respond differently to the same stimulus.

Wrap Up

So, if you're looking to significantly improve your and your team’s productivity, stop trying to find more hours in your day – we promise you, they aren’t any. Balanced sleep, work, and leisure is vital for a healthy active lifestyle, so instead focus on developing your emotional intelligence in four key areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management to make the most of your time.

If you are interested in learning more about understanding EQ, check out our Emotional and Social Intelligence Assessment or to learn more about our new Get Shi!t Done, Time Management Programme contact us.