Life may be short, but when you cannot seem to get everything done daily, the days seem endless. Effective time management is what successful people use to control the flow of their days and their life. With the right tools and suggestions, you can be just as successful, and that is what this article offers.
Assign a time to any activity or conversation that is important to your goals. Too many things on a to-do list make them hard to complete. You can also use appointment books. Schedule personal appointments and make time blocks for those conversations, actions and thoughts. Schedule their beginnings and endings. Make sure you complete them on schedule.
If it is difficult for you to manage your time, examine your current work method and determine how it is supporting you. If you can’t concentrate on tasks or stick with them until completion, then figure out why. In order to manage time more efficiently, you have to find out what is working now and what is not.
Create a list of all of the tasks you have for a day. Once you have the list, go through and prioritize each item on the list. If you get behind on the day, you can knock off something that is at the bottom of the list and reschedule it for another day.
If you want to maximize your time, start your day by taking 30 minutes to plan your entire day. This time you take to plan out your day will save you a lot of time in the long run. By having your day planned out, you will have a schedule to follow and will avoid wasting time with unnecessary tasks.
A big reason that people cannot effectively manage their time is that they are not organized. Take some time and organize the files on your computer and in your office. So much time is wasted searching for things that are not in the right place. Everything file and folder should have a place and be put in the right place.
In order to manage your time well, you need to develop a good sense for the prioritization of the different tasks assigned to you. If you can tell whether or not a new task is urgent, you’ll be able to slot it into an appropriate space in your schedule. By giving more attention to the most urgent jobs you have, you’ll become more productive and more efficient.
If you have a task that you have been dreading, break it up into several sittings. If you work on the project for ten or fifteen minutes at a time, you can get through it much easier. You will not have to dwell on the stress and pain that you are going through while doing it.
Make it a habit to hold on to communication until you’re done with the things that take the most focus. Emails and telephone calls are huge interrupting forces when it comes to time management. You may think that you need to answer every email as it comes in, but really you don’t! Hold them until you’re done with your current work. It’s a much better use of time.
Sometimes, time management problems arise because you do not say “no”. When you take on more than you can handle, of course you will not finish all of your tasks on time. When a new task is thrust upon you and you already have a full schedule, either give a firm “no” or defer the task to a later period of time.
If you have trouble managing your time, consider keeping a diary. For three days write down everything you do to pinpoint how you are spending your time. A diary will help you understand how much time you spend doing productive things and how much time you waste on unproductive conversations, thoughts and actions.
Try keeping a simple diary to help your time management. This will allow you to see what you are doing on paper. At the end of the week, analyze what you have recorded and see where you can make improvements.
Decline any tasks that are really nonessential. Take care of those things that are urgent or important. Most of your time will be spent on matters that are both urgent and important. Anything that falls outside of these two categories does not deserve much of your time if you want to get things done.
Calendars are essential time management tools. Calendars have been around for thousands of years. It stands to reason that this is an important tool. Make time to schedule priorities on your calendar. You will find yourself spreading your tasks through the week much more effectively. Without a calendar, you will just feel like everything must be done now.
Break down what you must do into 4 quadrants. Prioritize the vertical columns from important to not so important. Your horizontal columns can be labeled based on urgency. Do not spend too much time on the things in the not time-sensitive and not important section of the list. Spend the majority of your time on the important tasks. Be sure to leave room in your day for things that fall into the important-but-not-urgent category, because they can turn into emergencies down the road if not addressed at some point.
A great thing to do when you want to manage your time is to find out what your priorities are. When you know what (and who!) your priorities are, you are better able to avoid activities that don’t fit into your goals. When you have a long-term plan, you can avoid things that don’t get you where you want to go, and that can free up time.
As you have read this article, you should have started understanding just how well proper time management can benefit you. Stop rushing through your day with no idea how you will get it all done. Use this advice, and any other you can find, that will help you get your days to a comfortable level of success.
