How to Manage Time Effectively

Time management tips are useful to everybody because time managing is one of the most interesting topics of the 21st century. Stress followed by the speeded up way of life makes it harder to spend our time and money adequately. Therefore, we are forced to find ways to manage our time in the best way possible. If time managing represents a problem for you, these time management tips may help you learn about ways to manage time effectively.

There are numerous theories about planning made by generations – from simple lists, commitment logs (Master lists) to actual management of our time and life. There are different tools available to help us in the procedure – we need to:

• understand the meaning of time
• evaluate personal use of time
• determine goals
• think about ''time hackers''
• think about time outs
• learn about plans and planning
• learn how to plan personal work – try to be more efficient
• learn to make decisions when we have deadlines
• decide on priorities – urgent or/and essential
• learn about time types
• adopt tools and techniques for better time management
• learn to save time
• adopt useful habits

#1 Carry a notebook. Write things down!

(1) A common time management mistake is to try to use your memory to keep track of too many details leading to information overload so write things down. Carry a notebook because you never know when you are going to have a great idea or brilliant insight. Another option is to use a digital recorder.

#2: Prioritize your to-do list!

Prioritize your to-do list and rate your tasks into categories using the ABCD prioritization syste because this helps you focus and spend more of your time on the things that really matter.

#3: Plan your week!

Manage your time by planning your week. Spend some time (fifteen to thirty minutes) at the beginning of each week to plan your schedule. Taking the extra time to do this will help increase your productivity and balance your important long-term projects with your more urgent tasks.

#4: Say no to low priority requests!

A lot of people become overloaded with too much work because they overcommit; they say yes when they really should be saying no. Learn to say no to low priority requests.

#5: Focus on your own work!

Don’t do other people’s work. Doing this takes up time that you may not have. Instead, focus on your own projects and goals, learn to delegate effectively, and teach others how to do their own work.Prevent yourself from taking on too much work - think before acting. How many times have you said yes to something you later regretted?

#6: Expand your knowledge!

Make time in your schedule to learn new things and develop your natural talents and abilities. Continuously improving your knowledge and skills increases your marketability, helps boosting your career, and makes way to the most reliable path to financial independence.

#7: Eliminate bad habits!

Make a list of bad habits that are stealing your time, sabotaging your goals, and blocking your success. Work on them one at a time and systematically eliminate them from your life. Remember that the easiest way to eliminate a bad habit, it to replace it with a better habit.

#8: Keep a goal journal!

Start a journal and write down your progress for each goal. Keeping a goal journal will help you to go through your goal journal each week to make sure you are on the right track.

#9: Be aware of "efficiency traps!"

Avoid “efficiency traps” like taking on tasks that you can do with efficiency that don’t need to be done at all.

#10: Prevent burn out!

Be careful to avoid burnout – it occurs when your body and mind can no longer keep up with the tasks you demand of them. Don’t try to force yourself to do the impossible. Delegate time for important tasks, but always be sure to leave time for relaxation and reflection.

* introduced by Harold Taylor time consultants :

#1: We cannot control time! → TRUE ✔

This is true because time goes by inspite all of our efforts to control it. We've got only 24 hours a day to use them the way we want to. The importance lies in how we use this time. We can use it wisely or waste it, but we can never keep it. At the end of the day, time has passed irretrievably. Time management tip: The only thing we can control is ourselves!

#2: Time management is a way of doing more things in a short notice of time.

→ FALSE x

Some people believe that time management is a way of doing more things in a short notice of time. However, effective time management means completing several tasks of greatest importance. If we are aware of our priorities and we focus our attention to these priorities only, and not on irrelevant or less important things, we'll be more effective.

#3: Making to-do lists helps getting things done. → TRUE ✔

It's nothing more than a project or a task. To-do lists simply remind us of the things we haven't done yet. Time schedule in your planner book made for implementing and completing tasks is always a better solution. Making lists is intention only, and the divided time to do tasks is a commitment.

#4: People need a personal organizer or a similar time management system to organize themselves.

→ FALSE x

People aren't organized because they use a certain time management system or they are organized because of using a certain time management system. Personal organization is something that happens spontaneously after you've given up on some old habits and you've created some new, more effective ones. It's more a state of mind than a certain office/home situation. Another useful time management tip: some people are better organized only because they use a simple reminder block, rather than some other using electronic organizers (palm pilots).

#5: ''A quiet hour'' is a great tool for improving your time management

→ FALSE x

There isn't a thing such as ''quiet hour''. We can reduce interruptions and intrusions, but we can never completely eliminate them. In order to be effective we have to learn how to work inspite of all time outs and intrusions. Very often, time outs aren't just a wasted time, but also possibilities occurring in an inopportune time.

#6: Regular keeping of a time log is a good start to see where our time goes by.

→ FALSE x

Regular keeping of a time log should be done at the end, not at the beginning. If we are buried with papers and affairs to be done, the last thing we want is more paper and more work. First, we need to organize ourselves and adopt effective habits, to divide time in a proper way, practice the techniques of reducing time and procedures. In the end (if there is time) we keep a time log in order to effectively perfect ourselves in the future.

#7: The biggest waste of time during the day includes phone calls, visitors, meetings or rush jobs.

→ FALSE x

Phone calls, visitors, meetings and/or rush jobs are not a waste of time but commitments that are a part of a working package. The biggest waste of time is always caused on a personal basis: procrastination, making mental constructions, self-interrupting, looking for things, perfectionism and time wasted on trivial tasks.

We should try keeping in mind where we keep our things, keep everything in order and not exaggerate in trying to be perfect. Doing our best with proper time management spontaneously brings on perfectionism without us worrying too much about it. Very often we are our worst enemies. To be effective means to control oneself and not by constantly blaming somebody or something else for proper failures.

#8: It's effective to stick to one task until it's finished.

IT DEPENDS!

It may be an effective way to manage time to finish that task, but it may also be ineffective because we're rarely going to have that much time at disposal. It's always better to work on a big project divided into smaller tasks or affairs which can be done in an hour or so and complete them every day.

#9: You need one planner at the office and one at home.

→ FALSE x

You need only one planner. You're a person sharing life with other people at work, at home, in school…Since we have one life only, we need to have one planner only. Personal and work affairs should be organized in one planner in order to avoid interference one with another.

#10: Time is money!

→ TRUE ✔

This is true, but time is more than money, it's life. We can always earn more money but we can never earn more time. It's an irreplaceable agent. When it's gone – it's gone!