Stop looking at the clock every second
5: Additional Reminders
Be Patient
Be Prepared to Make Adjustments
Learn from Mistakes
Enjoy
Conclusion
1: Why Manage Your Time
Time is fleeting. What may seem as a long period of time can zoom past you. Before you know it, the allocated time for a deadline is up. Since you can’t reclaim lost time, you need to make use of whatever time you have left. After all, there are various benefits of making good use of your time.
Helping yourself
You want to manage your time for you to be able to cope with challenges more effectively. First of all, you would be less stressed if you know what to do with all the free time you have. If you are bombarded with multiple reports, exams, and other activities, you would have an advantage if you properly managed your time. In fact, if you stick to whatever plans you created, you would fully utilize the time you have and may even have some spare time to do additional tasks. Hence, you wouldn’t have to go through the horrors of procrastinating hours before a deadline. Instead of having a mind drowning in anxiety and fear, you would be calm and focused even if the deadline nears.
In addition to feeling less stressed, you wouldn’t have to physically punish your body just to get a job done before the deadline. Specifically, you would reduce your need to work overtime or sleep less. Because you followed a set plan, the burdens of cramming wouldn’t take effect in your activities. Hence, you would have a lower risk of developing a weaker immune system or getting sick. Thus, it is clear that having proper time management improves both your physical and emotional stability.
Of course, since you are able to manage your tasks, you would also feel more energetic and optimistic with your work. You wouldn’t abhor whatever you’re doing because you would realize that these can be finished. Although they may be challenging, proper time management helps you overcome the demands of such tasks. In effect, you develop positive feelings to these activities. Instead of dreading the next assignment, you would look forward to it.
External Benefits
Time management doesn’t only revolve around you. Your actions would have a significant effect on the peers you work with. If you succeed in effectively allocating your time, you are bound to get better results for whatever you do.
First of all, you can produce quality work if you spread your time properly. Instead of having to finish everything within the last three hours before the deadline, you would benefit from working on a project if you start on it as soon as possible and dedicate smaller periods to do it each day. Hence, you would have more time to make room for any improvement and think of better concepts to make your project stand out. Since you are also not disturbed, it would be easier for you to complete the project.
Submitting quality work creates a big impact on who you work with. If you are working on a group project, your peers would appreciate your efforts for the tasks assigned to you. In effect, they would consider having you once again as their groupmate. They can even recommend you to other peers or employers as they are convinced that you have excellent time management skills. Because people would recognize your skills, they would offer you more opportunities to succeed. You may be highly sought after because of the excellently prepared work you submit. Hence, you would obtain better rewards and enjoy your working environment even more.
Although these may be theoretical possibilities, it is clear that proper time management is a highly valued skill in modern society. From school to the working field, people need to balance their time to carry out their tasks excellently. This is essential if they desire to get high grades, be promoted, and succeed in their activities.
2: Mental Preparations
As you begin managing your time, you need to mentally prepare yourself for this process. At first, it can be overwhelming to organize your activities to utilize the limited time you have. However, if you are able to overcome the mental barriers that may provoke you, managing your time would be easier and fulfilling.
Know your goals
What you do should have a purpose. Even if you have set your tasks, you would have difficulty performing them if you don’t know why you’re doing these in the first place. Hence, you need to understand what you want to achieve. For example, you want to finish your homework within a set time for you to proceed to reviewing for an upcoming exam. In having concrete goals in mind, you can find time management more reasonable and acceptable. Of course, your goals would vary depending on the time frame you are working on.
For best results, you can create goals for the short, medium, and long term. For example, you want to organize your business report as soon as possible for you to work on additional tasks assigned for you. This would serve as your short term goal. For the middle term, you would want to maintain this healthy performance for you to get a raise. Eventually, your excellent work would hopefully give you the opportunity for a promotion. As seen in these goals, you would have the proper motivation to start with whatever you are doing and balance your time.
Set your priorities
In this day and age, you’re bound to have multiple tasks. You may want to watch a movie, finish your homework, do a business proposal, and spend time with your family. However, it’s obvious that you can’t do these all at the same time. Before you execute your tasks, you need to prioritize what to do first. In clearing your mind and setting your intended path, you would be more focused with what you’re going to do. Hence, you will end up being more productive. If you don’t set your priorities, you would be constantly disturbed by other activities you have to do. In effect, you may have difficulty concentrating on the current task you’re doing. This becomes counterproductive; you produce mediocre work just to start with the next task.
Know your limits
As much as you want to finish everything in one sitting, you sometimes can’t. Because of the scale of work that needs to be done, you would have to devote several days, weeks, or even months to get it done. Knowing this, you should patiently pace yourself instead of stuffing everything in a shorter period of time. Although having more freedom after quickly finishing a task seems to be rewarding, you should realize that you also have your limits. Working too much may even lead to health problems. Hence, while you do your work, you need to realize that taking care of yourself should always be prioritized. After all, if you do succumb to any negative events, you would have more problems on how to carry on with your succeeding tasks.
3: Managing Your Time
There are many concrete ways to effectively manage time. Though this concept may seem to be easy, implementing it into your life may be challenging. However, once you pass the initial phases of time management, you would easily follow these tips and see significant improvements in your work and attitude.
Plan your schedule
Having a plan on what you’re going to do for a day is important to help you will be aware of your progress. For best results, you can utilize a planner. The night before the succeeding day, you can list all your upcoming activities. Here, you can begin analyzing which to prioritize. In effect, you would be able to formulate a sound plan to stick to for the next day. In creating a specific time for a certain activity, you would be more organized with work and avoid having to worry about other activities. Hence, you would reduce the urge to multitask or cram activities.
To enable you to remember your schedule, it is best for you to always keep your planner with you. If possible, you can also place your schedule at your work station or study table. Furthermore, having a clock within your room would give you a sense of awareness if you are following your schedule or not. For best results, just set an alarm on your clock so you don’t get distracted.
Calendars
For long term goals, you can opt to have a calendar. This provides a general overview of everything you have to do for the succeeding weeks or months. Here, you can take note of holidays, examinations, deadlines and othe
r important reminders. While your planner tells you what to do for a certain day, your calendar would tell you what you should achieve by a certain date. Do not underestimate the calendar as this can serve as constant reminders on why you are doing a certain task. For best results, the calendar should be placed near your work station for you to be constantly reminded of important dates. You shouldn’t fear the incoming deadlines; you should feel secure and confident especially if you are following your daily schedule.
Start as soon as possible
Once a task has been given to you, immediately start planning it. Don’t wait for a week to pass for you to consider working on the task. If you know you are free and ready to do it, do it. Getting the task done as soon as possible is the key for you to avoid cramming because of work piling up. If you start early, you would be able to spread out your tasks and allot less time for it each day.
Finish important tasks first
Although harder tasks may be daunting, getting them done as soon as possible may boost your confidence to complete other tasks faster. In doing a difficult task first, you would still be fresh and energized to work on it. On the contrary, if you work on easier tasks first, you may build confidence for the final hard task. However, you may have spent a lot of energy to complete the previous tasks. By the time you reach the hard task, you may just feel lazy and postpone it to the following day.
Break times
Your schedules don’t have to be all about work. Just as you place time for your requirements, you need to place time for rest. Breaks are essential for you to remain sane despite the stress that you experience. Take time to watch a movie, hang out with friends, or go to the park. These would help you lighten up from the pressures of work. When you return to work, you’d be surprised at how fast you would perform because your body is rested. In fact, it’s possible for you to even finish activities ahead of time once you are more calm and focused.
The only risk with breaks is that you may exceed the allotted time for this. Hence, you can try to set an alarm to remind you if your break is already finished. If you do exceed your break, you will just have to adapt with your schedule and find a way to still make it work. Of course, another tip to avoid this is to create buffer times between your activities. As you add a safe zone for extra work, you wouldn’t have to sacrifice time for your succeeding task. Reasonable buffer times can range from five to ten minutes.
4: What to Avoid
Creating strategies to manage your time isn’t enough. There will be factors that may attempt to hinder you from carrying on with your plans. In fact, they may test your focus. If you do fall prey to these temptations, you may end up wasting a lot of time. Hence, you need to familiarize yourself with these tips to avoid such possibilities.
Work in an area without distractions
If you’re in a room full of people who are watching television, the possibility of you stopping work to watch with them is high. Distractions are your ultimate enemies when it comes to focusing on your work. Because your tasks can sometimes become boring and dull, you might want to do something else for a while. Although taking a break isn’t discouraged, being distracted for hours can produce negative results. Knowing this, you should consider creating a work-friendly area for your activities.
As much as possible, you should try to stay in an area with limited distractions. In fact, try to get a quiet room that is properly lit. Staying in a noisy area may cause your head to hurt because everyone’s talking simultaneously and you may want to eavesdrop or even join in their conversations. On the other hand, if you stay in a dark room, you may become less alert. Hence, you might accidentally doze off while working. By the time you wake up, you might be surprised at how many hours you’ve lost.
There will also be times when your friends will invite you to hang out. They may want you to go out with them for dinner, parties, or other fun events. While these can be socially fulfilling, you have to realize that you have to set your priorities. Don’t be afraid to say no to them. Politely explain why you can’t go and just tell them that you’ll join them when you’re done with your tasks. Although they may be dismayed at your response, true friends would respect your decision and support you for whatever you do.
Discipline is key to proper time management, so always find ways to help yourself. Never make up excuses for you to drift off from work. After all, you aim to reap the rewards of your tasks by doing them well. In avoiding distractions, it is important to place your full attention to the work to be done.
Never procrastinate
Although some people claim that procrastinating helps them produce quality work at a limited time, this usually isn’t the case for most. If you wasted the past days by playing games, going out with friends, or doing other unimportant tasks, you would have to have to pour everything just to finish your work. You would probably have to endure high stress levels because the deadline nears. Even if you submit work, you may have probably forgotten to check it for errors or missing pieces. In the end, you might get mediocre results.
Procrastination is a serious enemy to your time management goals. Although a task may seem to be easy to do, never underestimate the work. Always take your assignments seriously and try to finish them as soon as possible. You are unsure if other external work or events may happen. These can alter your schedule and readjust your activities. In effect, the assignment you took for granted might become a serious problem in the long run.
Avoid multitasking
Ever since technology boomed, multitasking has become common. This involves doing multiple activities at the same time. One may choose to chat with friends, listen to music, and do his homework simultaneously. At first, you may think that this is highly efficient. Since you’re doing everything at once, you feel that you’re saving time and energy. You’re not. Multitasking tends to split your attention to various activities. In effect, you would be distracted from your initial tasks. Instead of focusing on your project proposal, your mind would also be bombarded with song lyrics and chat messages. It isn’t surprising then that you may work slower. As the brain has difficulty to generate signals on what to focus on, you may also lose energy for succeeding tasks. You also put yourself at risk to doing other activities instead of focusing on more important requirements.
While multitasking can be a fun leisure activity, try to avoid it when you’re busy with tasks that need to be finished as soon as possible. You can also opt to include minor activities into your planned schedule just so you have time to relax. If you do intend to multitask, just limit your activities to a maximum of two or three. However, be aware of the possible risks for choosing to perform these simultaneously.
Stop looking at the clock every second
While being aware of the time is necessary, being too aware of every second can be detrimental to your work. If you place a clock right in front of you, you might end up being distracted by every minute that passes by. Hence, you would build unnecessary pressure, become anxious, and focus less on your work. For best results, you should just set an alarm to mark if a certain period in your schedule ends. You would worry less about beating your set schedule and focus more on producing quality work.
5: Additional Reminders
Time management is a skill that you should consider investing in. Since time cannot be retrieved, you have to make the most out of the time you have. Balancing your activities and time can lead you to your success or failure. In properly following the do’s and don’ts of time management, you would eventually integrate these steps into your life. For best results, you can consider these reminders along the way.
Be Patient
Even if you have the urge to finish everything in one sitting, you should realize that it’s best to be patient with your tasks. Time management isn’t perfected overnight. You will have to experiment and test which schedule would best suit your needs. What is important is that you do this process slowly but surely. After all, haste makes waste. If you still find your work pace t
o be too slow, you can adjust your schedule to make it fit to your needs.
Be Prepared to Make Adjustments
Sometimes, your schedule still wouldn’t get everything done. You may have failed to anticipate the true difficulty of a certain task. External emergencies may also surface. Since you didn’t expect these to happen, your schedule might become invalid. When this happens, don’t be disheartened. You have to realize that all these are normal. Hence, instead of sulking over your unfinished schedule, just pick up the remaining tasks and plan how to fit them to your succeeding schedules. You have to get used to making adjustments to events that you don’t anticipate. Eventually, these spontaneous instances would be a hindrance to your time management.
Learn from Mistakes
There can be instances when you fail to follow the schedule even if valid excuses aren’t present. You may have forgotten about the schedule or felt lazy to follow it. In times like these, you can feel disappointed. However, this shouldn’t give you the reason to condemn yourself for your faults. Just face whatever consequences await you and begin again. In experiencing these, you would realize how you can further improve your time management skills to prevent similar problems from arising again. Remember, you are creating healthy time strategies for your benefit. Hence, you should at least give yourself a break if you do mess up. Of course, this assumes that the mess ups only happen occasionally. If you often fail to follow your schedule, you would have to reassess your priorities and goals.
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