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Free Time Management Tips

Do you find that there are just not enough hours in the day? Do you wish you could spend less time working and more time with your family? Do you wish you had more time to spend doing the things that you really want to do?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above questions you are probably not feeling too good right now. You may be under stress because you are not achieving enough in your professional life. Or you could be feeling guilty because you are not spending enough time at home with your family.

Don't worry, it may not be as bad as you think. There is a solution to this problem and it is far easier than you might think. Simply by changing the way you approach the use of your time you can find the hours to do all the things you want to, and even have some time left over. Not only will this help you manage your time more effectively, it can help you to achieve the things you really want to in life.

Free time management tips: Manage yourself

Each day has only 24 hours. That is not going to change so we are going to have to accept it. Time can not be changed, but the way you approach it can. This is the secret of effective time management. You must look at the things that are important to you in life and devote your time to these. Forget about everything else.

Managing your time effectively will bring about some dramatic improvements in your life, but you must be prepared to make some fundamental changes. Because of this, you need to take one step at a time. It is best to go slowly, at least to begin with, as you may not succeed if you try to do too much, too soon.

Free time management tips: Know and understand yourself

Knowing yourself is the essential first step on the road to effective time management. As we grow older it is easy to lose track of the things that really matter to us in life. 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. This is where you find your vision. Cast yourself back to when you were an adolescent or a young adult, a time when anything seemed possible. How did your dream life look then, what did you really want in your heart? What you wanted then may really be what you want now, it may just be that you have lost sight of your true 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. Also consider your potential and what you think you can really achieve in life. When this becomes clear to you, you have found your vision.

Where are you now?

By now, you should have a reasonable idea of what you would like your life to be like. So here comes the tough part. I want you to compare this vision of your ideal life to your life as it really is now. For most people, the difference between the two can be quite daunting.

However, no matter how wide the gap is between your ideal reality and how you live your life now, it can be bridged. You may think of effective time management as a tool that will help you to get you to meetings on time. This is not the case. Effective time management goes much deeper than that and can make major changes to the way you live your life.

Achieving your ideal reality will involve little changes and big changes in your life. A small change would be something like taking a walk every evening. A major change could be quitting your job to travel the world. 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.

To get started you should choose two goals that are important to you, one big and one small. Once you have chosen, you should decide on one small step you can take towards achieving each of these tomorrow. If you can do this successfully and complete the step you are on the road to success.

In truth, this is just a first step on a long journey but the point is to show that effective time management and achieving your ideal life can be achieved and the process can be 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 have a very clear idea of what needs to be done, how long it will take, and when it is going to be done. 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. Do this for a few days and you will get a clear idea of how you spend your days and how long various tasks take you. When you know this you can plan your days much more accurately and effectively.

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. This is where the 4 Ds of time management come in. They are:

* Do it - This can not wait and needs to be taken care of now. * Delegate it - It needs to be done, but someone else can take care of it. * Dump it - Anything that is unimportant now and in the future. Bin it. * Defer it - This needs doing but not now, so it can wait.

When you plan your day, and even during the day, you should be able to file all the things that need doing under one of the four Ds.

Time wasters

Now let's look at time wasters. These are basically the things that eat into your time unnecessarily and are arguably the single greatest barrier to effective time management. They can be the most trivial of things, and are therefore very hard to spot.

Here are just a few time wasters:

* 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 - Chatty colleagues, needless phonecalls, noisy surroundings. These can all distract you from the task at hand and should be removed.

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. Keep any changes you make gradual and maintain them until they become second nature to you. As you continue to take more steps you will move closer and closer to your goals and find yourself with all the time you need for the things you want to do.

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