Because your time management plan will guide and motivate you when you feel like avoiding an activity that needs completion, you will effectively prevent procrastination. You will be conscious of your goals and rewards or benefits that come from attaining your goals; hence, you will feel the urge to complete each task within the set time without leaving any activity or task undone.
More Productivity and Success
It is possible to be productive but not successful. You can do one activity to perfection and produce the best results possible but leave other activities undone that would have led you to attain your goals. When this happens, you will fail to achieve your short and long-term goals.
Accomplish More with Less Effort and Time
When you create a schedule that guides the time you spend on any given task, the very nature of effective time management, you accomplish more with less effort and time.
Increased Learning Opportunities
Learning is a continuous process, the more you learn the more valuable you become. Learning opportunities are everywhere. If you plan, organize, and control your time, you will complete your daily goals and have extra time to take advantage of learning opportunities.
You can use those opportunities to research an issue you feel that you need to get more information on, attend part-time classes, and assist coworkers or course mates on projects you will learn new skills.
Enhanced Flexibility and Spontaneity
When you have good time management habits, you can squeeze in unexpected activities and spontaneously make changes to your schedule when the need arises. You will be able to respond to any “emergency” immediately and at any time without leaving important daily activities unattended because you will quickly reschedule your activities or squeeze in any important unplanned activity into your extra time.
A Happy and Healthy Life
When you manage your time, you eliminate the need to complain about not having enough time to complete your tasks and activities. You will enjoy your life because every second, minute, an hour of your day will be well accounted and be prepared. You will control your life and will have enough time to deal with everything that comes your way.
Better Work Quality
By freeing your schedule and having extra time, you focus on improving your output quality. You discover what you need to do to improve your work, which enhances the quality of your work. Moreover, time management also requires delegation of authority to the right people as a way to free up your time and direct it to the most critical tasks.
Complete Tasks on Time
By practicing effective time management, you manage to get everything done on time.
When you complete tasks and work on time, you eliminate the worry of missed deadlines, which leads to fantastic career opportunities.
If you want to enjoy the benefits of managing your time well, you MUST start learning essential time management.
Chapter 3: Effective Time Management Tools
Goal Setting
Where you want to be 5 years from today? What about 15 years from today? What about post-retirement? Have you thought about it? Have you visualized yourself in different stages in the future?
Without a clear-cut life goal, you would not have a direction. Even more important, you would not know whether you are successful or not. You would have nothing to measure your achievements against; neither would you know where your efforts ultimately lead.
It would help if you had goals to ensure that you have direction in life. This direction would define your purpose in life, make your experience most interesting, and have you motivated in your work.
With a set goal, you will be able to decide better what job is best for you, what type of relationship you are looking for, what leisure habits you could pursue, and so on. Life is much better when you have a set goal because then you have something to set your compass for; you have a destination, and through it, you gain a direction.
Create To-Do Lists
The “To Do” list will tell you how many things you have to do during the day, which is the no.1 priority and which can be deferred. It will also tell you how many tasks you have accomplished over the period and how many would need to be reinstated in tomorrow’s “To Do” list.
Please make no mistake of writing off this tool as insignificant or trivial because it most definitely is not. The “to-do” list is perhaps the most critical of all time management tools; one that will keep your mind uncluttered and focused, motivated to complete tasks each day.
Each day completed tasks will build towards achieving the ultimate – your life’s goal. The day is ultimately the smallest complete unit of your time and the “to do” list will ensure that it is used effectively and purposefully.
There is another huge benefit you will enjoy from using the “to do” list – and that is, you will be able to measure your progress. At the end of the day, when you see all those completed tasks scratched off the list, you will feel good about yourself and hugely satisfied that you have achieved so much. This feeling of satisfaction will act as a motivator to work more and better the next day, convinced and happy that you are moving in the right direction, and you are going to achieve your goal.
Do not work on tasks that are not present in your to-do list. When a new project or activity comes up, please include it in your “To-Do” list and assign its priority before working on it. If you will not add new activities in your list, and instead perform them as they arise, you won’t be able to control your schedule. You might even waste your precious time on unimportant activities.
There are various time management systems that you can use today. You can download a time management app on your smartphone. You may install time management programs onto your computer. If you are “old school”, you may use a pen and a notebook to plan your day. It doesn’t matter which medium you will use, as long as you can view or edit its contents quickly and easily.
Making a Schedule and Sticking to It
Schedules can make life so much easier. You can use a calendar, your phone, or even just a notebook. All of the most successful people keep a schedule. It is the single most critical thing you must have. Schedules can help you keep track of time and things that you have done and need to do.
When you have commitments, make sure that you write them into your schedule immediately. By doing this, you can see exactly where you have time for other things. Make sure that you think ahead when you are scheduling to give yourself time to get to different events or appointments. If you have appointments 20 minutes apart and it takes you 30 minutes to get to the second one, you don’t have enough time.
Calendars are great because you can hang it on the wall or have it on your desk. So when someone calls or you have to make an appointment, all you have to do is look at it. It is also helpful if other people in your house have things to schedule as well. It is beneficial if you have to take them to these appointments or other events. It is something that you will have to look at every day, so it makes it harder for you to forget. It also makes it harder for others to schedule overlapping events.
Phones always have calendars on them. You can enter information into them to keep track of your schedule daily, weekly, or even monthly. You can also add alarms and reminders into the calendar to keep you on schedule. It can be one of the best tools when it comes to managing your time. This is especially helpful for people who take medication. You can set alarms to make sure that you take them on time and at the same time every day.
Computers also have calendars, it is great for someone who spends a lot of time on the computer for work. You can pull it up and see what you have planned.
Time Blocking
Blocking your time is one of the most effective ways to get tasks done. You use this strategy on complex tasks that require focus and many hours of work.
To start time blocking, you need to choose one task. You should then remove all the distractions around you before you start working on that task.
If you have anything else scheduled in the next hour, you should reschedule it. It would be best if you also tell the people around you not to disturb you for the next hour. If this is not possible, you should relocate to a place where no one can bother you.
Before you start working on your task, you should declare your goal for this task. Your goal will determine if you are completed or not. In the next hour, you should work only on your chosen task. If it is not done yet by the time the hour ends, you should block another hour for the task. It would be best if you only stopped working when it is done or when you have more critical responsibilities in line. If you have to leave your current task without finishing it, you should find the next time slot for it before moving to a new activity.
The lack of focus can easily alter one’s level of productivity. Instead of accomplishing tasks on time, you can waste hours procrastinating at your desk. An excellent strategy to help you manage your time better is called time blocking. The concept is pretty simple. To make every workday as productive as possible, you should assign specific tasks to specific time blocks during the day.
Hard as it may seem, scheduling tasks on fixed time blocks work quite effectively because doing so trains the mind to work with time limits per task. It is also a great way of keeping track of your work. By having distinct time allotments for your entire shift, you can do away with costly distractions and unproductive multitasking. Every minute has a purpose.
Although many people consider multitasking to be a particular skill, it has been proven to be counter-intuitive to being productive. It removes a distinct focus away from each of the tasks at hand. Instead of tasks being completed, each one is left partially done.
With time blocking, you can ensure that you achieve certain levels of progress on specific tasks at the right time. By having a full-proof structure in place, you get to experience close to double the productivity that you are used to given your standard workweek. You will be surprised as to the number of tasks you get to accomplish in a shift.
Like other time management strategies, to succeed at time blocking, you need to engage yourself in severe and dedicated planning. It is crucial that you give sufficient time for preparation. By doing so, you can save more time during your workweek for other, more meaningful, activities. Your time spent planning will indeed be time well spent.
You can do this overnight, before heading for the sheets, or in the morning as you prepare for your upcoming shift. Start by writing out about three to five of your most essential tasks for the day. Focus on tasks that need to be completed. Follow this list with another one this time carrying three to five secondary tasks, those that can be pushed to the next day if time doesn’t permit their completion.
Always remember to divide the tasks accordingly. Be mindful of the time you allot for each one. Although it can be tempting to make a schedule that fits everything into the day, always remind yourself to be practical. The goal is to finish as much as you can without pushing yourself too hard. Keep in mind that if you become overwhelmed with your schedule, you may find it challenging to focus and end up procrastinating.
Start the Day Right
It would help if you began managing your time from the moment you wake up. If you wake up an hour earlier than everybody else does but you spend your first-hour reading emails, you are no different from the people who wake up an hour later but get directly to work. To start your day right, you need to become an early riser and be productive before everybody else.
Start early
You will have more time to work if you wake up early. If most people in your line of work wake up at 6 AM, you should wake up at 5 AM. It would help if you did this to avoid all the stresses that come with rush hour. By waking up an hour early, you will be on the road earlier than most people will. It will allow you to avoid traffic jams, you will arrive at your workplace and start on your tasks earlier than everybody else.
Make your bed
When we were young, we were instructed to make our beds the moment we got up. However, some of us never developed this habit. If you want to be successful in controlling your time, you need to do this symbolic activity. It symbolizes that you are starting your day the right way.
Sit down and plan your activities for the day
After making your bed, you should also take 30 minutes of each day to prepare. It would help if you started working on these tasks by including them in your schedule.
Planning should always follow the habit of making your bed. By doing it this way, it will be easier for you to make planning a practice. As mentioned above, your mind loves patterns in your actions. The more you do these two activities in the right order, the easier it will be for you to start your day.
Wake your mind with the right stimulation
After planning your day, you should choose an activity that will wake your mind up. Most people take a bath right after waking up as doing so sends a cold or warm sensation throughout the body. In a way, it wakes the senses up.
To maximize the effects of these activities, you should create a morning routine with them. Your morning routine is another habit that you can stack with the two mentioned above. You should include all the activities that will instantly wake your mind up from its low-energy state.
Focus on how you start your workday
Your success for the day usually depends on how you start it. When a person moves from one home to another, for example, he is generally confused with how to start his day. The things that he needs are not in their proper places—at least not just yet. The environment is new, and it takes the person a few moments to think before he can to start his routines. For people who cope poorly with changes, these small differences in the environment may affect their whole day. The bad start in the day also affects their attitude towards work.
Coming Up with Methods to Make Your Chores Easier
The most significant part of our society is that there are creative people who are continually coming up with new inventions to make lives more comfortable. Don’t think of these inventions as an excuse to be lazy, but rather, look at them as an opportunity to get more accomplished faster. Not only are there great inventions to help you with your life, but you can also come up with hacks and other methods to make what must be done easier and less time-consuming.
Use Tools that Make the Job Easier
We may make fun of people for some of the ideas that they try to market, but some of the tools to make life easier. Try taking some of these tools and making them work for whatever you’re working on at the time. If you’re in charge of cooking a meal, try using the microwave tools that will help you to accomplish the same quality of the product without as much hassle. If you find that you do some tasks more often than others, find tasks that will help you to get them done faster with the same quality.
Learn Tricks to Getting Tasks Done from Others
People are always finding creative ways to get what you want to accomplish done faster. It can benefit you to take a look at some of these tips and try using them when you’re trying to perform tasks of your own. Numerous websites offer advice and hacks on how to do everyday household tasks in different ways that you may not have thought about. Take some time and explore alternatives, it will help you out a lot especially if it is a task that you often do.
Look for Ways to Cut Corners Without Cutting Quality
You may think that cutting corners on a project can harm the quality of the result, but there are ways to do this without compromising the quality. Find ways to cut corners in everyday tasks so that you can get the job done faster. If you find that cutting corners cuts quality, find other ways to make the task easier.
Take the Advice of Others and Try it
The significant part about family and friends is that they have a wealth of tips and advice to make life easier. Don’t be afraid to try some of this advice to make your own life more manageable. Some of it may work for you, while other bits of advice might be useless. The point is that you won�
��t know if it’s useful or not unless you give it a try!
Establishing Your Daily Activities
When planning your daily activities, you will need two notebooks. The first one is a planner that you will use to list down all your future activities. When an event is scheduled, you should place it immediately in your planner. You should carry this notebook around with you; thus, it needs to be compact and lightweight.
You should have this notebook with you every day to avoid putting your schedule in different tools. Some people have a planner in their computers, phones, and other devices. Because they shift from one medium to another when checking their schedule, the action never becomes a habit.
You should stick to only one planning tool. We suggest that you use a notebook planner because it is a one-function item. If you check your schedule in your smartphone, there is a good chance that you will be distracted by other notifications from your apps. This can distract you from the task that you need to do. On the other hand, a one-function tool allows you to schedule events with complete focus. When you are done checking your schedule, you will be able to go back to doing the next task in your list without distractions.
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