Effective Time Management
There are 24 hours in a day, but there still never seems to be enough time. Where does all the time go? Let’s presume that you spend eight hours a day sleeping, you are still left with 16 hours a day. Why does it seem that you never have enough time to do what needs to be done?
One of the main reason we never have enough time is because we spent most of our time doing things that are not productive. Here are some examples of activities that are time killers:
- Talking on the phone
- Checking the email every half an hour
- Traffic jam
- Watching too much television
- Gossiping
These are just some examples and the list could go on.
If you want to have time to finish all the necessary tasks, you need to get organize and manage your time wisely.
Here are few tips to help manage your time:
- You need to set goals and write down your priorities. Set a date for each goal so that you will have a clear idea of what and when something needs to be accomplished.
- Have a to-do list. List everything in order of importance. What need to get done now? What can wait? You need to make daily list of things that must be accomplish in that day. You also need to have weekly and monthly to-do lists.
- Set a block of time for some specific tasks each day. Determine how long will you work on each task and how long will you take a break. An example would be: a 45 minutes work time and a ten minutes break after that. It is crucial that you stick to the timetable. It might be difficult in the beginning, but after a while it will get better.
- Identify which task is more important to achieving your goal. Do the most important task first.
- Delegate tasks to someone else who has the time and the expertise. Do not become jack of all trades. Do things that you like and are good at. Get someone else to things you dislike, as long as it is within your budget.
- Keep everything organized. How often have you wasted your time finding something you need but could not find just because your desk was so disorganized?
- If there is a big project, slice it into chunks so that you will not be overwhelmed by the size of the project.
- Write down the pros and cons of why you should or should not do what is on the list. This will enable you to remove unnecessary task from your list.
- Don’t over commit. Learn to say *No*.
- Don’t procrastinate. Just do it.
- Deal effectively with interruptions. Schedule a time when you will only do the task you set out to do without being sidetrack by interruptions.
- Reward yourself when you accomplish the task you set out to do.
These are just some steps you can take to manage your time effectively. If you follow the steps outlined above for a period of at least thirty days, it would eventually be come habitual. It might seem difficult at first, but after thirty days it would become quite natural.
Time management is essentially the result of self management. Time management will enable you to achieve more in less time. Eventually you will have more time to do what you want and enjoy doing.
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Sometimes I think it might be worth hiring a virtual PA purely to deal with my inbox.