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Business Time Management

Do you ever find yourself wishing there were more hours in the day? Do you find yourself staying late at work to get everything finished? If you could really choose how to spend your time, how would you spend it?

Hopefully, this isn't you but unfortunately most of us feel this way some time. Perhaps you are spending extra hours each evening at the weekend trying to get your work completed. Or you do not have time to spend with your children that you feel they deserve.

Do not fret, your worries could soon be over. There is a solution to your problems. It only takes a few small adjustments in the way you use your time to change your life forever. As well as finding more time for the things you want to do, you will also be more fulfilled in your life.

Business time management - managing yourself is essential

We have only so much time in each day. This is something that will not change and we can do nothing about it. While you may not be able to control this, you can manage yourself. This is where the answer to effective time management lies. You must train yourself to focus on the things that really matter to you and spend your time on these things only. Forget about everything else.

Making the changes necessary to manage your time effectively can be rewarding and fun, but some of these changes will take a leap of faith on your part. However, there is no need to rush, you can make the necessary changes at your own pace. If you bite off more than you can chew at the beginning there is a chance you may fail.

Business time management requires understanding yourself

To really manage your time effectively you must first learn to know yourself. With the pressures of modern life it is easy to lose sight of what we really want in our lives. For most people, this is an unfortunate fact of life.

Therefore, the first thing you need to do before you even begin to manage your time is to get in touch with what you really want from life. When you discover this you have discovered your vision. Remember a time earlier in your life when you felt anything was possible. How did your dream life look then, what did you really want in your heart? Your dreams and goals at this time may help you get in touch with your vision. No doubt, some priorities will have changed, but many will have remained the same.

Also ask yourself how you would like your personal and professional life to be. You should also think about your capabilities and what is possible for you in life. We will call this your vision.

Where are you now?

At this stage you probably have a fairly clear picture of what your ideal life would be like. So here comes the tough part. You need to look at your life now and compare it to your vision, to how you would really like your life to be like. If you are writing all of this down, the difference between the two probably will not make for very pleasant reading.

Don't worry if this is the case as bridging the gap between your ideal reality and your life now is much easier than you would expect. Many people think effective time management is all about calendars and diaries. Not so. Effective time management can transform your life on a much more fundamental level.

If you really want to manage your time effectively you will have to make some major changes and minor changes in your life. A small change would be something like taking a walk every evening. A big change might be starting up your own business. However, if you put your mind to it you could achieve either of these. You need to look at how you spend your days and plan your time with a view to achieving these goals.

Planning your day.

So have a think about your goals and as an experiment pick two that you want to achieve, one small and one big. Now, you want to think of one small step you can take towards achieving these that you can incorporate into one day. If you can do this successfully and complete the step you are on the road to success.

In truth, there is much more to it than this but this will show you that it is far from impossible and can be very rewarding. Now you need to make sure that everything you do each day is taking you towards your goals, and that you plan in such a way that you complete all of the tasks you need to do each day.

So for every day you need a clear plan, a time plan. You need to know what you are going to do and when you are going to do it. To help you in this it is useful to keep a time log for a week or two before beginning to plan your time in detail. A time log is a detailed record of how you spend your time each day. This will show you exactly how long different tasks and activities take. Then you can really plan your days accurately.

The 4 Ds of time management

Now, as you make your time plan for each day you need to decide how to handle the various tasks that need doing, and how to deal with any new tasks that may arise. For this you will need the four Ds of self-management. These are:

* Do it - This can not wait and needs to be taken care of now. * Delegate it - This task doesn't suit you, get someone else to do it. * Dump it - Anything that is unimportant now and in the future. Bin it. * Defer it - This needs to be done, but it can wait until later.

Most, if not all, of the tasks and activities day can be put into these categories.

Time wasters

And finally a quick word on time wasters. Time wasters can destroy any attempt at effective time management if they are not identified and eliminated. This is mainly because they can be very hard to spot and are often the most trivial things.

Examples of common time wasters are :

* Lack of or poor planning - File things properly, write down appointments, that kind of thing. Basically, you need to be organized to use your time effectively.

* Procrastination - Many people keep deferring things when they are best done immediately. Don't fall into this trap.

* Failure to delegate - Are there tasks in your day that are not effective use of your time? If so, delegate them.

* Interruptions - Set up your workspace so that there are no distractions that will disrupt your workflow.

These and other time wasters are probably eating into your time, so try to identify them and get rid of them.

These are just some of the basics of effective time management. There is no need to hurry, take the changes you need to make at your own pace. If you maintain this you will find yourself becoming more content in life and with much more time for the things that matter to you.

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