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Time and Stress 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? Do you find that you don't have time for the things that matter to you?

If you do it is okay as most of us feel like this on a regular basis. You may be under stress because you are not achieving enough in your professional life. Or you just do not have enough leisure time to pursue your hobbies and do the things you enjoy.

However, don't worry just yet. 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. This is not only about managing your time effectively, it can change your life fundamentally and for the better.

Time and stress management is about learning to manage yourself

We have only so much time in each day. This is something that will not change and we can do nothing about it. Time can not be changed, but the way you approach it can. This is where the answer to effective time management lies. You must look at the things that are important to you in life and devote your time to these. 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. For this reason it is important to take it at your own pace and make one change 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.

For time and stress management you need to know yourself well

To take the first step in effective time management you need 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. This is where you find your vision. Try to remember yourself as a child or as a young adult when you felt you could achieve anything. How did you envisage your life at that time? 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. This is your vision.

Where are you now?

At this stage you probably have a fairly clear picture of what your ideal life would be like. The next step is tricky. 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, do not let this phase you as it is always possible to bridge the gap between the two if you believe in yourself. You may think of effective time management as a tool that will help you to get you to meetings on time. Not so. Effective time management is much more about you and how you choose to spend your time.

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. Quitting your job and starting a business, that is a big change. 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.

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 need to think of one thing you can do towards achieving these goals that you can fit into tomorrow's schedule. If you can complete the one step towards achieving each goal then you have made an excellent start.

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. 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.

This is why you need a clear time plan for every day. You need to know what you are going to do and when you are going to do it. If it is your first time using a time plan you may want to keep a time log for a week or two first. A time log is a detailed record of how you spend your time each day. Keeping a time log for a week should give you a clear picture of how long the various tasks you need to do take. Then you can really plan your days accurately.

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 - Not important. Forget about it. * Defer it - Something for the 'to do' pile. Come back to it 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 eat into our time and can make it very difficult to manage our time effectively. This is mainly because they can be very hard to spot and are often the most trivial things.

Examples of common time wasters are :

* 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 - No one person can be good at everything. You need to delegate tasks that eat into your time unnecessarily to other people.

* Interruptions - Don't let clutter and noise eat into your productive time. Make sure there are no interruptions when you want to work.

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. 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. As you continue on the journey to effective time management you will find yourself more fulfilled and with more time on your hands for the things that matter to you.

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