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Lessons On Time Management

These lessons on time management will help you if you ever find yourself wishing there were more hours in the day? Is overtime becoming the norm for you? Do you wish you had more time to spend doing the things that you really want to do?

For most of us the answer to these questions is 'yes', and it is not a good feeling. Maybe work is not going how you would like. Or you feel that you just do not have the time to achieve your goals in life.

However, don't worry just yet. 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.

Lessons on time management; Manage yourself

Each day has only 24 hours. That is not going to change so we are going to have to accept 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. Everything else should be eliminated from your life.

It is important to point out at this stage that making the changes necessary to manage your time effectively can mean making some fundamental changes in your lifestyle. 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.

Lessons on time management; Know and understand 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.

So this is the first step in effective time management - finding out what you really want from life. When you discover this you have discovered your vision. Try to remember yourself as a child or as a young adult when you felt you could achieve anything. How did your dream life look then, what did you really want in your heart? This could help you to get in touch with your vision. Your vision now may not exactly match what you wanted then, but it will probably be close.

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?

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 must take your vision and compare it to your life at present. Be prepared for a shock here as there will most likely be a vast difference between the two.

However, no matter how wide the gap is between your ideal reality and how you live your life now, it can be bridged. There is a widely held belief that effective time management is about good time-keeping. 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.

Living your life and spending your time the way you want to will involve a few changes - some big, some small. For example, watching less television, that is a little change. A major change could be quitting your job to travel the world. There is a big difference between the two, but both goals are attainable. You will have to take a close look at how your hours are spent and make the necessary adjustments so you can achieve what you want to achieve.

Planning your day.

You should start by picking two things you want to achieve, one big and one small. 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.

This is just one very small step on the way to effective time management but should show you that if you go at your own pace that it is far from impossible. However, doing this effectively requires a lot of planning so that you complete all of the tasks you need to do each day while ensuring that all of these tasks are in line with your vision.

So for every day you need a clear plan, a time plan. Each day, you will need to have a clear idea of what needs doing and find a suitable place for it on your schedule. At the beginning it can be difficult to know how long each task will take so it may be a good idea to keep a time log for a week before starting to keep a time plan. 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. When you know this you can plan your days much more accurately and effectively.

The 4 Ds of time management

Now you can move onto looking more closely at the things you need to do each day and deciding how to handle them. For this you will need the four Ds of self-management. These are:

* Do it - Get it done, the sooner the better. * Delegate it - Not the best use of your time. Pass it on to someone else. * Dump it - This is not important, thrash it. * Defer it - This needs doing but not now, so it can wait.

You should be able to file any task that arises in your average day under one of the four Ds.

These pointers should help you in your first steps towards effective time management. Keep any changes you make gradual and maintain them until they become second nature to you. Each of these small steps will bring you closer to your vision and leave you with time to do all of the things you want each day.

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