Effective time management is one of the most vital factors that decide your success or failure- in lame terms, your fate. There are both success and failure stories all around us. And if we ever want to succeed in life we should learn from at least a handful of them.
Apart from success, managing your time effectively guarantees peace of mind.
Whatever time management tools or strategies we use, all we can do is manage our tasks accordingly. Why? It is because we can never manage our time. Why? It is because everybody is given 24 hrs per day!
No matter if you are rich, poor, strong, weak, white, black whatever. You just have got 24 hrs not more, not less.
Those who have achieved many things in life and are have succeeded in many aspects are not given extra time while at the same time those who fail are not given lesser time. So why the difference?
The key is to manage our tasks and hence make effective use of the given amount of time.
Optimize time usage
This can be done if you engage yourself only in those activities that will either increase your productivity or your reputation. Identify those times when you are highly productive and engage yourself in tasks that need hard work or intense concentration.
At the same time make sure that the work is part of your reputation, job or productivity profile.
At times when you are not productive do things that will relax you, or you can take up tasks that are lighter, but still part of your plan. Doing something that is neither part of your productivity profile nor a relaxing thing is simply wasting time.
The ‘To Do’ List
This is one of the best ways to manage, not only time, but also your discipline. By writing down a ‘To ‘Do’ list everyday and crossing out one by one of the finished tasks you declare that you are a systematic person. This will indirectly help you to build up on your confidence. You can also do a little analysis at the end of the day with the list.
Don’t just write a to-do list but write an effective one.
Priority
While writing a ‘To Do’ list don’t forget to rank all the items. Do things first that really need to be done. There are always certain things that can wait- but don’t postpone them to the next day. That’s a bad habit.
Find out the quadrant in which your task falls. This will give you the right idea about the priority of your task.
Multi-tasking is not always good
Many people now-a-days perform more than one tasks simultaneously. There are some tasks that can be combined, for example, listening to podcast while walking, reading your emails and responding while waiting to meet someone, watching a video while exercising and so on. But this does not work always. Everybody knows!
Switching between tasks take time. And, when your concentration needs to shift from one task to the other, you lose some productive juice too.
But it depends. Find out what works for you and stick to it. If you can multi-task and still stay effective, go ahead.
Use your mobile while travel/waiting
Instead of calling back your friends and engaging in long conversations during work hours, use your travel time to return calls. You can use your travel time efficiently by this way.
This way, you can avoid sitting idle during your travel or waiting in a queue or at the Doctor’s place. You can also analyze and improvise on your time usage and to-do list during your travel/waiting time.
Learn to say NO
Never say a ‘Yes’ when you should say ‘No’. I hope that’s enough and everybody knows! When you don’t say a ‘No’ you flood yourself with tasks that are either not your business or that are not of your expertise.
Plan Ahead
Don’t do anything in a haste! Doing so will consume your time. By planning something ahead you always have control over the situation and you have almost everything ready for that occasion.
Know your capabilities
Do not overload yourself with non-stop appointments or tasks. Do not also expect too much from yourself. Know your limits, and plan accordingly!
Organize
Make best use of your mobile phone appointment applications and PDAs. Use online business tools. Do everything in an organized manner. Take decision on junk immediately.
Do not stuff your table up with unnecessary files, papers etc. Decide and file those needed and dump those that need to be dumped. You should be organized in order to be productive.
Take note of only those things that you think are extremely needed
Do not waste your time in jotting down stuff that you will never take a look later. Most of the people never know where they lost their notes, some people will forget right away after putting the piece of paper in their file.
Wasting time in gathering such unwanted information will also make you ineffective.
Got more tips? Share them in the comments.
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmorgan/2331754875/
About Jane
One of the most effective way to time management is making a to do list. Organizing tasks depends on their priority level also helps you determine tasks you need to do first. I also believe that multitasking is not always good because there are times that you tend to forget ideas and you can’t focus on tasks that make you unproductive. When getting projects to clients be realistic that you can fulfill to finish the entire tasks that has been given. Online tools are also very useful when managing time effectively. Tools like Google calendar can help you schedule tasks, events, meetings and etc. Time tracking tools can also help you manage time. It can be used to track time spend on each task and setting an amount of time when working on each task. This way you can finish tasks on time and meet deadlines.
It is very true that all human beings have 24 hours in one day. How we use those hours will determine how successful we become. Time management is a topic which has been talked on from time to time but still so many people do not know how to manage time. These tips will be of great help on time management for all those who have read.
” never say yes, when you really want to say No” I absolutely agree with this statement, just do one thing at a time.
You’re so right. I’m not the most organized person and that’s what I really need to change, I must stop multi-tasking ’cause it’s really tiring and I’m not capable to finish my works. I’ll bookmark this post and read it several times. Hope it’ll help me.
There are a lot of common distractions to our work. A big problem is that most of us don’t take notice of this. If you start to record what you’re doing at regular intervals and what you’ve accomplished, it will force you to take notice and refocus your brain.
As they say time is money so it’s very important to manage your time in the best possible way, I usually try to plan ahead and use lists of what I have to do during a day and a week and it works fine for me
That sounds like a good plan Kostas. To have a list for the week is great too!
Time management is one of my biggest issues, actually. I am really good at setting aside time for certain things – it’s just a matter of actually DOING the things in the allotted time slots that I sometimes have a problem with. This list seems like it could really help though, so thanks a ton!
Glad that I could be of help Natasha. To start with you can allow some flexibility in timing. Later on as you practice well you can tighten things up; since your body and mind will be trained to work in a time limit.
Well explained. Yet another good job from you Jane.
Great list! I am a huge multitasker but I never realized that it could cost me time instead of saving it… Thanks for pointing that out
Rosie, you are welcome. That is the sad thing about multi-tasking. Actually we think that we are smart but it is costing a lot more time than if we did one task at a time
Hi there. Thanks for sharing this. I’ve always got a hard time to manage my own time really well.
A huge problem of mine was taking all the jobs that came my way, till i eventually got to spend nights just to finish projects. It’s understandable i didn’t last long like that, the human body is not built for only sleeping every three days.
Learning to say “No” made me slowly recover my free time.
Amit, one of the worst practices I had in my early days of blogging was taking things and working on them when and as they come in. You know, the dog should wail it’s tail not the other way LOL
I totally agree with the fact that multiple tasking is not always good. There are many problems which a man have to handle’s .But If that person will work on all them then he will be show out of bound and starts making mistakes .
Yes Nicholas, with multi-tasking there is a high probability of making mistakes since the focus is shared between many tasks.
Great tips for Time management. This is a great help for me as a worker. thanks a lot!
Awesome time management tips. I certainly find 24 hours a day is far from enough for me, so I am sure these tips will be really useful for me. I need to manage my time better so that I will have more time to blog and guest post, etc!
Glad that I could be of help Jasmine. Hope you can manage all your 24 hours better now.
I do multitasking all the time and trust me: Is the easiest way to not concentrate on anything you’re doing. Try to focus 100% on one thing and avoid checking your email every 5 minutes.
Mario, as I said in one of the comments, some people are quite good at multi-tasking, apart from the fact that it strains the brain. More power to you
You are right! I do not really organize all the time like i supposed to. My big problem is that i do not know how to say No. If somebody ask for help, i help him even is not my expertise.
I will try to remember this tips, at last some of the tips.
Sam, that’s a serious pit fall. It is true that you have to be nice to people but you also have to be accountable for yourself too. Hope you can improve on saying “No”. Start practising small.
Totally agree with the jotting down unnecessary notes. It’ll all go to a waste if you don’t bother doing it in the later part.
Yup honestly most of the time we don’t even look into it next time, right?
I totally agree with the fact that multi tasking isn’t always good. I find I can’t really do that, I need to concentrate on one thing, and one thing only, for it to be done well. Plus, you do paradoxicaly loose a lot of time by multi tasking…
Very interesting post!
Mathilde, usually multi-tasking takes up lots of energy. I find it really tiring to switch back and forth and I get easily exhausted when I’m multi-tasking. But some people do it with practice.
From your this post I have concluded that always give priority to your work and say no for other irrelevant work.
Multitasking create distraction and distraction leads one towards destruction. Always focus on a single task and manage it accordingly.
Hi Jane,
I’ve tried for long to manage my time using To Do List but it seems not to work the way many people says it does, but, reading this post give me confidence that it will work for me this time
Thanks a ton for these great steps…
Olawale
Olawale, that’s true. To do lists don’t work so well at the start. It takes a bit of time to get disciplined and actually get committed to do thing without snoozing. Good luck with using a list
Nice set of points….Use your mobile while travelling but dont do it if you r driving
….Yes, I too believe in listing down things to do…One added advantage is as you tick tasks accomplished it gives you a great feeling of satisfaction.
Lol ya certainly not during driving.
Sure the feeling of striking out a task is just great.
Hi Jane,
Some of the steps/ideas are really a must for 90% of people. Another thing I found and that gets more and more popular is to use time trackers. One that I’ve been using the past few months is Paymo, in particular the Plus version that keeps track of everything you do on the computer. That basically helps you know where all your time goes into.
Time management is one of the most important things these days when we are always running out of time. I have read your free e-book on time management which I got from your old site FindAllAnswers. The book is great and got a lot of tips.
A few tips from this post were already enclosed in the book but got a couple of new ones which were a plus.
Thank you. You always have something useful to say.
Thanks for sharing time management related tips. If some one is interested in learning time management in detail then “First things first” is a good book.
Thanks for the suggestion Retro!
Great post, and these are points that we must all remember!
Glad to see people who are like minded
Thanks for stopping by Farhan!
use your mobile and have a to do list!!!thats what gets me through my busy schedules!and with a mobile phone(smart phone ) you have no excuse because you can do pretty much everything on a mobile phone that you would do on a desk top.
For time management always divide a big task into smaller part and dedicate your time to each of atomic steps without diverting attention to low precedence tasks. Concentrated attention will lead you real time management.
Well explained jane ,
Actually i will use tasks widget that given defualt by Microsoft windows 7 OS . Its helping to done my tasks every day .
The 10 point your have covered through this post for effective time management is really good. Thanks for this post.
These are great tips for effective time management. I agree multitasking can be hazardous sometimes. With so many tasks to accomplish, sometimes 24 hours seem so less. With effective time management we can utilize each minute in a proper manner. Thanks for this great share.
I work from home and need to effectively manage time- else end up like a puppet being pulled from all sides. These tips are great and effective- everyone needs to follow them- not just people who have online businesses etc.
Hey Jane,
Thanks a ton for sharing this post. I myself crib a lot when it comes to time. I always say that 24 hours a day are so less for me to accomplish all the tasks. After reading this post, I got to know many aspects that were absent in my routine. I will surely practice these tips and hence manage the crucial hours effectively. A wonderful share.
You’re welcome Aayna. Glad to know that you have found the post useful.
I particularly learned a hard lesson with “learn to say no.” I usually accept tasks all the time. This makes work quality low because I had to rush everything to complete them on time. I definitely learned to just accept work loads that I know I can do well with the given amount of time.