Trouble With Time Management? Try These 10 Simple Tips
Posted on | May 3, 2009 | No Comments
Time management is a topic that interests many….until it comes time to actually put time management skills into practice.
But now, more than ever, you have to practice good time management skills if you ever hope to get through a hectic day or ultimately achieve your goals, dreams and desires.
Time is the great equalizer because everyone has exactly the same amount every day.
Those people who are successful recognize this and use wise time management skills to do their work and achieve their goals while finding time for relationships and everything the world has to offer them.
How about you? Why do you want to learn wise time management skills?
Do you have a heavy load at work and want to be more effective to your company? Are you stressed and want to learn how to do more with less effort? Do you just want to feel more in control of your time instead of having the clock control you?
You need not collapse each night from exhaustion any longer.
One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.
Chinese Proverb
Whatever your definition, the tips and tricks you find within this article will help you take the tiger by the tail and tame your time. Let’s first look at an overview of the science of time management.
Time Management: An Overview and Definition
Simply stated, time management is a set of skills, tips, tricks, principles and practices that work together to help you make more efficient use of your time so that you can improve the quality of your life by having more time to devote to the things that you want to do instead of the things that you are required to do.
It is not necessarily about getting things done. It focuses on accomplishing those tasks that are important and move you closer to achieving your goals, dreams and desires.
Successful people realize this principle and jealously guard their time and how it is spent.
They practice the type of time management that allows them to spend their time on a few important life affirming projects, rather than wasting this valuable resource on many unimportant tasks that don’t really matter.
If you become proficient at time management, you will be able to do the same while feeling more relaxed, focused and in control. If you don’t learn how to manage your time well, you’ll be far less productive than you could be and you’ll get a lot less done. You’ll also feel much more stressed and overwhelmed, and you’ll struggle to find time to spend with the people you care about and to do the things you enjoy.
Time Management Skills: How To Learn Time Management
The good news is that time management is a skill that can be learned by anyone.
Since everyone has the same amount of time each day, learning effective time management skills can put you on equal footing with the most successful people in society. More importantly, since most people do not practice effect time management, you will be way ahead of most of your peers.
Here are ten tips for effective time management.
Ten Time Management Tips
Make A List. Scientists say that you cannot hold more than six to eight things in your memory at any given time. As such, you have to make a list. Make a list of everything you have to do and place a “T” for today, a “W” for this week; and a “M” for this month.
Prioritize your list. Rate your tasks into categories using the method above. Write down the top three things that you must get done today. Draw a line below them and put the rest of the tasks that have a “T” beside them. Do not do anything below the line until you have done all that you can do in furthering the tasks that are above the line.
Keep A Weekly Planner. In order to be an effective planner, you have to plan a week at a time. You simply cannot get everything done in one day. When you take the tasks on your list and spread over the course of a week, you find that the list is not so daunting. Therefore, carrying a notebook is essential. You cannot depend on your memory to remind you to write it down later. A notebook also keeps you from over committing and makes it easier to tell others “no.” (see below)
Tell People “NO”. Many people become overloaded because they cannot tell others “no.” Realize that you are not making friends by taking on more responsibility than you can handle. Either you will fail to accomplish the task and the other person will think you are incompetent, or you will somehow succeed and the other person will assume you can work at this high level all of the time. This leads to burnout. Another reason is that oftentimes, people who over commit are easily identified by the lazy and incompetent in society. They will not hesitate to pawn their work off onto you.
Time is like a canteen full of water. God gives each of us the same amount each day. When you let someone sip from your canteen, he drinks more and you drink less. Be careful who you let sip from your canteen.
Douglas E. Manning
Quit Doing Other People’s Work. They will probably not appreciate it. You will not be a hero. Focus on your own projects and goals, while delegating to others where necessary. Teach others how to do their own work.
You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day. You can teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.
Reevaluate Your Commitments. Is that two hour a week game of Warcraft really working for you? Maybe. But, it is wise to regularly reconsider where you are spending your time. You might need to cease an activity that is no longer furthering your goals so you can spend the time doing something else.
Eliminate Bad Habits. Are you engaging in self sabotage, self defeating behavior or lack self discipline? It is time to make an honest evaluation of the bad habits that are derailing your time management efforts. Work at systematically eliminating them from your life by focusing on why you engage in the self defeating behavior. Remember that the easiest way to eliminate a bad habit, it to replace it with a better habit.
Keep A Journal. Start a journal and write down your progress for the goals, dreams and desires you have for yourself and your family. Make sure that you write down what you have done each week in furtherance of these goals. If you have several weeks where you do not “get around” to furthering your own goals, it is time to reevaluate your time management choices.
Don’t Be A Perfectionist. If you are reading this article, you probably have too much to do. You probably have too much to do because others have come to you to help them accomplish their tasks. They probably did so because they liked your work product and they knew you would say “yes.” All of this is to say that your definition of “okay” is probably well above society’s definition of acceptable. You do not have to be perfect. Sometimes (most of the time) for a person like you, “good enough” is good enough.
Watch Out For Make Work. Often, when you have a list of important projects, you procrastinate out of a fear that you will not do the project perfectly. In an effort to justify the procrastination, you will often find “make work” to do instead of the important task at hand.
I remember when I was studying for the bar exam. My wife was gone and I simply had to completely clean the apartment before I could get down to the business of studying. But wait, now the clothes have to be washed as well. I wasted a lot of time cleaning instead of studying. I paid for it later by pulling a week’s worth of “all nighters” in order to get properly prepared.
Time Management: How Will You Spend Your Time?
God gives each of us the same amount of time each day. Will you spend it furthering your goals and dreams or the goals and dreams of others?
The good news is that time management is a skill that anyone can master. It involves keeping track of what needs to be done and when. Time management also means making time for you and your family.
Remember that everyone, regardless of efficiency, practice some form of time management.
Some manage their time. Others let their time manage them.
Related posts:
- Need A Time Management System? Use These Tools For Effective Time Management
- Time Management Tools: Creating An Effective To Do List
- Time Management – Pareto’s Law
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