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Personal Time Management

Do you find that there are just not enough hours in the day? Do you find yourself staying late at work to get everything finished? 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. There is a big chance that your work is consuming much more of your time than you want it to. Or you feel bad because you are missing out on important occasions with family and friends.

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.

Personal Time Management means managing yourself

There are 24 hours in the day. This is something that will not change and we can do nothing about it. You can not manage time, but you can manage yourself. Once you realize this you have taken the first step towards effective time management. 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.

Know Yourself for Personal Time Management

Knowing yourself is the essential first step on the road to effective time management. 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. You need to get in touch with yourself and discover 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. Your vision now may not exactly match what you wanted then, but it will probably be close.

Think about how you would like your life to be at home and at your work. And think about what is possible for you and what you can really achieve. We will call this your vision.

Where are you now?

By now, you should have a reasonable idea of what you would like your life to be like. Now comes the scary 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.

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. 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.

Living your life and spending your time the way you want to will involve a few changes - some big, some small. 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 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 need to think of one thing you can do towards achieving these goals that you can fit into tomorrow's schedule. If you can do this, and complete those steps then you are on the way.

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. 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. With a time log you write down in detail how you spend your time. 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 - This can not wait and needs to be taken care of now. * Delegate it - Not the best use of your time. Pass it on to someone else. * Dump it - Not important. Forget about 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

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. This is mainly because they can be very hard to spot and are often the most trivial things.

These are some time wasters to watch out for:

* Bad planning - Make sure you keep yourself organized. Keep everything filed appropriately and be sure to write down all meetings and appointments.

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

* Not delegating - You can't do it all yourself. Do the things that you are good at and enjoy. Someone else can do the rest.

* 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.

Hopefully, this will help you get started in managing your time more effectively. As a general rule, try to take it step by step and as you make a change maintain it until it becomes a natural part of your life. 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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