Time management

There’s no mystery to managing time. Everyone has 24 hours each day to eat, sleep, relax and work. It’s what you do with those 24 hours that really counts.

Learning to manage your time well equips you to get the most out of every day. Most people spend their days in a frenzy of activity. But, often they don’t achieve their goals because they spend time on the wrong things.

Effective time management techniques can help you deal with the time crunch that rules your life. These strategies teach you to shift your focus and to concentrate on results, not just on being busy. It’s worth making the effort to learn these new skills because the payoff is significant – you’ll enjoy a less frazzled, more fulfilling life.

Benefits of time management:

· Reduce frustration – most frustrating situations can be avoided with good planning and sound organizational techniques. When you overcome frustration, you’ll be much more productive

· Effective goals – when you don’t know where you’re going or how you’re going to get there, it’s easy to become anxious and dissatisfied. By learning to set smart goals, you’ll have a target to aim for and you’ll be able to determine the best way to get there

· Overcome guilt – do you struggle with a constant sense of guilt over all the things you haven’t done or should be doing? Time management techniques help you stop procrastinating and learn to prioritize. You’ll be much more confident and decisive in dealing with your daily challenges

· Increased energy – worrying about ‘unfinished business’ and tasks left undone drains your mental and physical energy. As you become more organized, you’ll find your energy levels actually increase

· Quality time – boring, mundane tasks can take up a lot of your time and keep you from enjoying other, more rewarding activities. When you take steps to organize these tasks efficiently, you’ll get them out of the way quickly and have more time for the fun things in life

Taking charge

In many ways, time management is actually a process of self-management. Time management teaches you to plan, delegate, organize, direct and control. If you’re a busy person with a demanding schedule, out of necessity, you’re probably quite organized already. But how are you allocating your time? Are you prioritizing the things that are important to you? Or is your efficient, organized and hectic schedule preventing you from spending any time on yourself and your passions?

Start an activity log

One of the first steps towards improving your life management skills is to determine exactly how you’re spending time. Start by keeping an activity log for a few days – you’ll be astonished at how much time you waste reading junk mail, making coffee and chatting to colleagues.

Fill in the activity log by recording all the things you do in a day, as you do them. Try not to modify your behaviour – be honest with yourself! Record the time of each activity and track how you feel while you’re completing each task. Are you alert, tired, energetic, bored etc.?

By analyzing your log, you’ll see how much time you spend on low-value or mundane tasks. You’ll also be able to determine when you perform at your best. During some parts of the day you’ll be energetic and at other times you’ll be flat and listless. A lot will depend on the number of breaks you’ve taken, the food you’ve eaten and the quality of your nutrition.

The activity log will give you a sound basis for experimenting with these and other variables. Once you know more about your time and how you spend it, you’ll be able to reduce the number of time-wasting jobs that clutter your schedule. You can also plan important tasks when you know you’ll be most focused and alert.