Time Management World

Almost all of us have, at some point, wished the day had more than 24 hours. But believe me, even if a day had 48 hours instead of 24, those who don’t schedule their activities properly will still fall short of time. In order to learn the knack of scheduling, here are certain tips and rules that you can use and become more efficient. Following are some guidelines that can be used while scheduling to help to get things done.

Specify your goals. You must know what has to be done and the deadlines that must be stuck to. By knowing not just what has to get done for today, but also for some days to follow, you can prioritize your time as well as your commitments. While you are setting your goals, ensure that you allot a certain amount of time to each goal. This will give you some sort of a schedule. Once you start setting your goals, it is a good idea to keep track of what you’ve finished and what you haven’t completed. Make mental notes on how long it took you to complete a task. As time passes, this will make your scheduling commitments easier to handle.

One of the most important as well as the most difficult things to do is say ‘no’. It may bring on angry reactions but you have to learn how to say no when you must refuse something. It is quite common for people to take on more work than they can handle simply because they couldn’t refuse when the boss asked them. Not refusing extra tasks will only cause you stress and thus bring down your productivity. Avoid over-commitment by employing these five strategies to say no.

One of the best ways to say no is to keep your mind on the goals at hand. Ensuring that you are not short of time to achieve your goals and enjoy your family is essential to saying no. Convince yourself that your goals are equally important as the task you are being asked to do, and then simply say no. You will understand that your tasks require your attention, and the other task is utterly unimportant. It is perfectly alright to be selfish at times. Finding enough time to meet your personal goals is very essential to good mental health. Your personal time for your goals is just like any other task on your calendar, and taking time to complete any task is always a great idea. It may even be a good idea to block that time out on your calendar to serve as a visual reminder that your personal goals are as important as anything else on the schedule.

The basic meaning of ‘effective’ time management is to get rid of all those habits that take away time. The most commonly found time-killer is procrastination. It is the most readily accepted self-inflicted time thief. Some people experience procrastination as a rare bother, while others experience procrastination like a never ending headache that just seems to follow them day in and day out.

There are basically two types of procrastination:
Conscious Procrastination: Conscious procrastination is certainly the easiest to identify in people as well as the simplest form to cure. This is procrastinating while we are “awake” and completely aware of what we are doing.

Making exhaustive lists of goals is not the key to effective time management. Prioritizing these goals and values will however help you achieve them one by one. If we do not rank them accordingly then we will not know which of our goals and daily activities are most important.

Here is an example: One of my values is to maintain a healthy and nutritious diet and follow a vigorous exercise regimen. Another value listed on the same sheet is that I am a devoted husband and a loving father. I also have some personal values like reading something educational for an hour each day. Yet another is to spend some time with my children every day. All of the above values of mine can actually be accomplished without overlapping , but what if it did? What if I was forced to choose between spending time with my kids or reading a very important career educational material? Which should I choose? Well, if I did not have my priorities set then I would probably choose the one that would be more fun, which is reading my books. But being a loving father is my top priority, and hence I wouldn't have to think twice about it.

Most people procrastinate. Some do it deliberately while some don’t even realize it. Many procrastinators may not even be able to tell you why they put things off so often. Procrastination is defined as something that is put off needlessly. It is not procrastination if you haven’t done something just because you have had other things to do. However, if you are postponing your task and looking for other things to do instead, you are definitely procrastinating. This behavior can be very destructive and is certainly not very healthy. Therefore, if you are conscious of your procrastinating behavior, you must work on eliminating it forever.

Ever wondered how some people with important and busy jobs manage to stop and ‘smell the roses’? They probably do less work than you right? Wrong! They probably get more work done than you. That’s because they plan for the fun time and actually include it as a part of their effective time management.

Planning fun time is very important, especially because it does not “just” happen. We plan for travel in the morning, we set a time for the meeting at noon, and we schedule our lunch break, yet we do forget to schedule any time for snuggling on the sofa with our little princess, or reading a book to the baby. Stop to think why. The simplest answer clearly is that “fun” time is expected to happen spontaneously, and at rare times this may be the case. Yet, unless some time is set aside for it to happen, it is rather unlikely that it will become a constant part of our daily lives.

The first secret to success is good time management. This is one single factor that has helped millions of people rise to the top in the chosen careers. In this article we will talk about the uses of voice mail and how it can help to increase your productivity at work.

The days when secretaries took all of our calls and wrote down all of our messages are over. They have been replaced by direct lines of communication that can come right into our world literally at any minute of the day. One example is voice mail. But these handy machines can be used to greatly improve your productivity.

Though most people don’t realize it, shifting priorities makes their efficiency drop to all time lows. These sometimes take place so swiftly that you don’t know what hit you but still end up wondering why you aren’t finishing your work

Your immediate goal should be to break this habit so that you can increase your levels of time management and get more work done. But what to do if you have a job where your priorities are constantly being shifted without your opinion? How can you adapt to the negative effects of having your priorities shifted at work by the boss or managers?

This type of environment can definitely be very exciting for some personality types, but only if the “shifts and starts” are meaningful and purposeful. Without knowing or seeing a reason behind such an action, most people end up feeling that they are being jerked around and their talents are not taken seriously.

The next step towards managing your time perfectly is to create something called “files in advance”. This seemingly useless technique is actually recommended by most professionals. The idea is to create files before the time that you will actually need them. But then what is the point wasting time creating folders that you don’t need today? It’ll keep you organized! For example, if you are planning to go on a long vacation. You will obviously want to collect as much information and data as possible regarding the area of your choice, hotel prices, travel plans, etc. These are all things that you will need to file, so rather than creating clutter and piles of papers all over your home or office, simply collect everything and slide it into your “travel” folder. Whenever you download and print some information from the computer, or maybe cut something out of the paper related to your future travel plans, you can simply store in inside your advanced folder. Below are some examples of the types of advance files you can create:

You’ve semi-organized your mess into small piles of paperwork. What’s next? The task that you have to do next is organizing each mini-pile into more precise groups. You’ll have to label them as bills, receipts, warranties etc. This is still a broad grouping but it takes you one step closer to finishing your task of sorting all the paperwork. You will realize the importance of doing this when you have to look for something.

Date stamping
Date stamping helps to remind you of when you have stored a particular item. Though stamping each and every document may seem like a lot of work, remember that your goal is to put all your effort in the task of time management so that your productivity shoots higher up from this day forward. Hence it is safe to say that all the extra energy you put into date stamping will be of great benefit. Even though most efficiency experts recommend that putting a date on every thing you file, date stamping is not compulsory. Do it only if it suits you.