Translation is a strict process in which time is one of the important elements. Managing time efficiently will do you a great favor during translation, especially when you have to handle projects with a tight schedule. How to effectively use time has become an increasing concern. In my opinion, the following ways can be helpful.

First of all, distributing time. Each translation project has a time limit. The moment you get the task, you should immediately get to know the deadline, the amount of work, the instructions, etc. Then you can draw a schedule according to above points, which means you should distribute time to each part of the task.

After the schedule is worked out, you should follow it strictly during the course of the work. If there are some delay or unexpected factors which slow down the progress, then you should take measures to speed up, such as utilizing the spare time to ensure progress and quality.

Secondly, avoiding external disturbance. Some people may indulge in online shopping, then the shopping websites such as Taobao may become a strong incentive for them.

They may go to these websites intentionally or unintentionally or may be attracted by a discounted product. This distraction will waste a lot of time unconsciously, while that time is very valuable for the task. Besides, online chatting is another external disturbance which will greatly influence the translation.

It is not only wastes time but also energy. Therefore, to control time reasonably, you should prevent online shopping and chatting from disturbing you. The right thing is to disable online shopping platform and chat tools during translation in case you cannot control yourself.

Thirdly, adopting right methods. The effective translation methods are helpful, such as creating translation memory or terminology bank for follow-up work, effective source search and selection, which will help save a lot of time.

During translation, you can keep a little bit of mental strain to aid you in concentrating on the task. And you can also bear in mind the task deadline, then you can translate more efficiently by this psychological hint.

Furthermore, you can divide the task into several parts and strive to finish a short part within the stipulated time. By this way, the more parts are finished, the more confidence you will gain.

Then you will find this difficult task is easily completely. And you should spare some time to check the whole translated text. As you do not waste any time at the beginning, so you will have enough time to carefully inspect the translation with the purpose of maintaining quality.

Read Also: How to Maintain Consistency in Translation