Time Management Is Key to a Better Life

I want to share with you my thoughts on time management. I achieve many things in any given day and it really is straightforward to adopt time management as a part of your daily routine.

Time management is all about focus. Many of you will be familiar with the Pareto Principle or the ‘80:20 Rule’. When related to time management, it means that 80% of your efforts that are not focused will lead to you achieving only 20% of what you want to achieve. On the other hand, 80% of what you want to achieve can be accomplished using only 20% of a well time managed effort. This rightly demonstrates how much is lost or how much can be gained with time management.

So what is time management? Well it’s really just adopting a set of rules that involves activities like scheduling of appointments, goal setting, thorough planning, creating daily “to do” lists and prioritizing. These are the core basics of time management that should be understood to develop an efficient personal time management skill. These basic skills can be fine tuned further to include the finer points of each skill that can give you that extra reserve to achieve the results you desire.

But there are more skills involved in time management than these core basics. Skills such as making decisions, and critical thinking are also essential to your personal growth. If you decide to adopt time management as part of your skill set, and I strongly recommend that you do, then the first thing to accept is that it should embrace everything that you do. This means business and fun things and the practical aspects of day to day life.

Your aim should be to create a balanced lifestyle - all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and all that. Time management really isn’t about being busy all the time, anybody can make themselves busy but what do they actually achieve? It’s about getting results. If you can get all your business tasks for the day achieved in less time than you originally planned then great - use the extra time to do something fun!

So how can you make time management work for you? Although I am a great believer in planning and maintaining action through daily task lists, this is not necessary to apply in all areas of your life. What is important is to look at what areas of your life you are not giving enough attention to. This can be your health and fitness, your personal development, your family and friends and other social aspects and so on. When was the last time you visited you grandma? Don’t believe that time management is a difficult task or make it something to fear. Approach it as a very reasonable approach in solving problems big or small.

Here are some simple things you can do to apply time management and improve your personal life:

• Review your goals regularly. Are they driving you towards becoming a well rounded person?

• Know when your best time of the day is and tackle the most demanding tasks at this time. I hate mornings so I will do the things I can do standing on my head before lunch.

• Master the art of saying “No”. This is sometimes painful but if you let this get out of control it can really sabotage all of your time management efforts.

• When you have achieved a good time management result, reward yourself for this. After a while it will all become automatic and you won’t need the rewards (by all means continue if you want).

• Enlist the support and cooperation from those around you who will benefit from your time management efforts.

• Stop procrastination. Make sure you achieve the important things. If you need help with this go here.

• Adopt a positive attitude and set yourself up for success.

• Record all your major activities. This will give you good perspective and it’s great to look back at what you have achieved.

Adopting time management skills will provide you with a well balanced life and will do wonders for your self development. You will be amazed at how many new doors will open for you so as usual my advice is to get started now.

Look out for further posts on this important topic…….

Posted on September 18th, 2007 by Sledge
Filed under: Time Management