Quick Tips To Manage Your Time
Is your idea of managing time simply ‘doing more with less’ or ‘finding an extra hour in the day’?
Managing your time is more than just doing more with less time…and there are only 24 hours in a day, no matter how you look at it.
- Managing time is a creative and conscious combination of:
- Spending time on activities that give value to your life,
- Organizing your time to get the most out of the 24 hours you have in a day. and
- Becoming aware of how much influence you really have over how you spend your time in any given day.
Some of the problems associated with poor time management are:
- constant rushing
- feeling distressed, tense, anxious
- frequent lateness
- low productivity, energy, and motivation
- frustration
- impatience
- difficulty setting and achieving goals
Tips
- Learn to set limits and say “no.”
- Minimize time wasters. Cut back on television, unnecessary checking of voice mail and e-mail, unproductive meetings, activities that lack direction, and overly ambitious goals.
- Use time more efficiently. Double up on activities (e.g. make a “to-do” list while waiting in line), watch television while doing housework, match your tasks to your varying energy level (e.g. save challenging tasks for when you have high energy and routine, mundane tasks for when your energy is lower).
- Purchase a time organizer and learn to use it.
- Don’t waste time on decisions with equal consequences. Flip a coin and get on with it.
- Make daily goals and longer-range plans. Review these regularly.
- Plan phone calls better. If someone is unavailable, find out the best time to call back or leave your number and a time to reach you. Don’t “hold” unreasonably long, agree when to ring back or leave a message.
- Handle interruptions assertively. Let others know your time constraints. Politely say “I only have a few minutes to discuss this.” Or meet others in their office so that you can leave when you need to.
- Arrange breaks when you cannot work effectively.
- Protect your time. Let others know when you are available and for how long, and when you are not. Protect and defend this time vigorously.
- Don’t postpone what you don’t like to do. The more you procrastinate, the harder the job will be to get done and the more stress you will experience until it is finished.
