Time Management skills are essential for successful people - these are the practical techniques which have helped the leading people in business, sport and public service reach the pinnacles of their careers.
Benefits of Time Management
§ Increased individual productivity, accountability and commitment
§ Much more timely individual and team project completion
§ More effective communication throughout the organization
§ Less negative organizational stress
§ Noticeably improved teamwork
§ More control and value from your time and your life
§ Increased recognition and reward from higher personal productivity levels
§ Improved relationships both on and off the job
§ Reduced stress and more enjoyment of everyday life
Time Management Tools
Costing Your Time - Finding out how much your time is worth helps to see if you are spending your time profitably and whether it is worth doing particular jobs.
Deciding Your Work Priorities – Finding out what to spend your time on helps to clarify what you enjoy, understand what your strengths and weaknesses are and last but not least work out both what your job is and what constitutes excellent performance.
Activity Logs – Finding out how you really spend your, and when you perform at your best. It’s important to keep a track on changes in your energy, alertness and effectiveness throughout the day and then analyze the log.
Action Plans – This is a Small Scale Planning. Action Plan is a list of tasks that you have to carry out to achieve an objective and helps you to concentrate on the stages of that achievement, and monitor your progress towards it.
To-Do Lists – Remembering to do all essential tasks in the right order. A “To-Do List” is a list of all the tasks that you need to carry out. It also consolidates all the jobs that you have to do in one place and then prioritize these tasks in order of their importance.
Personal Goal Setting – Planning to live your life your way helps to decide what is important for you to achieve in your life, separating what is important
from what is irrelevant and motivating yourself to achievement. Building your self-confidence based on measured achievement of goals
Effective Scheduling – Planning to make the best use of your time. First understand what you can realistically achieve with your time, and then plan to make the best use of the time available. Not to forget to leave enough time for things you absolutely must do. Also preserve contingency time to handle ‘the unexpected’. Also try to minimize stress by avoiding over-commitment to yourself and others.
By first ensuring that your large priorities are tackled, scheduled, and done for the day, you can then let the smaller but less important things in until you have somehow allowed time in your day for everything you needed to do, while still relaxing and having fun.
Three keys to time management are:
Remembering: It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking "I won't forget that." But the important thing is not just to remember it, but to remember it at the right time. Use calendars and lists. Everybody has lists of things that can be done at home, lists of things that can be done when the stores are open, lists of things to do before going to work in the morning, etc. By looking at the appropriate list, you can forget about everything else and concentrate on the work appropriate for that moment.
First thing First Place: If you write a list of things to do this evening, it probably contains way more things than you can actually accomplish, that’s fine. The list is valuable. By looking over it, you can choose the most important things and do them first. The rest can be transferred to other lists. Its worthwhile taking a few minutes to read over the list and choose the most important to do first.
Motivation: You've set goals, written lists, chosen priorities, and identified what's important to do right now .Graph the total number of check marks per day. This feels good and gives motivation to finish lots of things on to-do lists. Plan rewards and celebrations for yourself, such as special snacks after getting certain things done. Just taking a few seconds to admire the finished work, such as a tidy table or pile of clean laundry, is an excellent reward. Smile and tell yourself what a good job you did.
Its strongly encourage everyone to use at least one Time Management System. It empowers you to actually do instead of scurrying about without any goals in sight.
A Well-Balanced Schedule
It is time to make your plans more concrete by developing a schedule and follow the steps below:
Phase 1: Add All Regularly Scheduled Meetings and Classes.
Phase 2: Add Time for Eating (3 meals!), Sleeping & Personal Essentials.
Phase 3: Add Time for Reading, Studying (especially for students) & Assignments.
“You make time for everything, and everything simply fits well where it is supposed to fit”.
