Do you often feel as if time is slipping away from you? If you answered yes, you’re part of many people who don’t have a grip on time. Today, this will change as you read this article and learn about time management.
Purchase a digital timer with an alarm. Set it for how much time you have to work. For instance, think about setting the timer for increments of time in between which you will take small breaks.
If managing your time is difficult, pay attention to each task. Multi-tasking is very difficult for most people. The quality of your work can suffer if you’re trying to do too many tasks at once. Take a breath, stay calm, and remain focused on a single task through to completion, and then tackle the next one.
Schedule your day the evening before. Pre-planning can reduce your stress and help you feel more organized. This will help you feel better when you wake up in the morning, and you will be able to jump right into work.
No can be a very important word to learn how to say. Someone who lacks the ability to say “no” is more likely to experience undue stress. Check your schedule if you’re overbooked. Which tasks, if any, could be passed along to someone else? If so, ask for help from friends and family.
Every morning after waking up, take time for planning the day. Get a pen and a piece of paper and write down what you will do during the day and how much time you plan on doing it for. This daily schedule can help you manage time better.
Don’t be afraid to close your office door if you want to work more efficiently. When you have your door open, people tend to assume that interruptions aren’t a big deal. Shutting your door changes matters considerably and gives you the privacy you need to concentrate. People won’t bother you as you work.
When you are working on a task, do not answer your technological messages. It will be hard for you to get back to what you were doing when you are interrupted. After you are finished with your task, then you can return text messages and phone calls.
Know that you’re not ever going to be able to finish everything. You’ll never meet this goal. A small percentage of what you talk about, think about and do is what translates into the majority of the results that you see. Try to complete everything you can; however, be realistic when setting your goals.
Make a list of all your tasks that must get done. Number them, starting at number “1” with the most important project. Work your way through your list, combining tasks when possible. Keep the list with you all day. Bring your list with you when you go somewhere to make sure you remember the tasks that are on it.
Try taking a time management class locally. A class such as this provides you with the information you need to better manage your time. Does your company offer you classes like these? If your employer is not willing to offer them, look at nearby community colleges and universities.
A diary can help better tune your time managing skills. This will allow you to see what you are doing on paper. At the end of the week, look over your daily journal for patterns that will spell out how to manage your time better.
Try to assess the effort level of each task on your list. Don’t waste precious time on perfectly doing unimportant tasks. Devote your time to those goals that need to be completed immediately. When you leave your best work for the really important stuff, it’s a much more efficient use of your energy and time.
Keep your work space organized. When you spend a few minutes looking for things over and over throughout the day, you may well be losing a few productive hours in your week. Make sure that you keep everything in the same area. Organization is key to having more time and less stress!
Group your errands and save time and money. During your trip to a grocery store, also go to the post office. If you have a daily task, such as picking up your child from school, schedule your errands around that task.
Divide your to-do list in four sections. Each list should be labeled as important to not important. The rows should break those columns up into urgent tasks and those which don’t have a due date. Spend as little time as possible on the not-urgent, not important tasks. This will help keep your day focused on what is important. Just be sure to have some time for an important or not important quadrant so you can avoid emergencies in the future if you’re able to.
Make sure to distinguish the vital tasks in your life. Then prioritize those things in your mind from most important to least. Decide on what you really desire to do, then eliminate other activities from your schedule. Focusing time towards your goals daily will increase your level of happiness.
The information presented in the above article was written as a guide to better time management skills. You do not have to be a person that can’t handle time. The above tips show that not only is time management possible, it is really quite simple.