Time Management Information |
|
Time Management InformationIt?s Not The Same Old RoutineWe are constantly inundated with routine (often boring!) tasks around the house. This can cause major frustration because many of us don?t do them efficiently, and most of us fail to complete our entire list of chores! You may take comfort in comment from a commiserating colleague: ?A creative mind always has more ideas than the physical body is able to carry out. The only people who finish their ?to do? list are dead.? So, relax, there is only so much time in the day, and ask yourself, ?What?s the most important thing to do today?? Taking Time Off For Your BusinessAs a business owner, wouldn't it be great if you could take time off whenever you needed to? Unfortunately, most small business owners worry that the business will fall apart if they're not there to mind the store. Too often, they simply lack the appropriate resources for their business to keep going in their absence. The Kaizen of Goal SettingThere is an old way of goal setting and a new way of goal setting! The old way of goal-setting involved setting yor goals, preparing a list of sub-goals, and then carefully checking them off one after another (as and when they were being accomplished). Am I trying o pour cold water on the goal setting method many of us grw up on? Not necessarily Time Management: Setting up your Schedule for SuccessWould you describe yourself as extremely busy? Do you often feel tired and stressed out? Sometimes our ambition is our worst enemy. Many of us with big goals try to do way too much. We spread ourselves a mile wide and an inch deep. We are involved in many different things, but aren't excelling at any one thing. Beware of mediocrity. Most of us want greatness. If that describes you, then you must prioritize your endeavors and adjust your schedule accordingly. Assess your current schedule. Make a list of everything in your life that takes time. This includes school, work, extracurricular activities, sleeping, eating, studying, exercising, talking on the phone, hanging out with friends, chores, bathing, etc. List EVERYTHING. Then note how many hours per week you need for each item to do it well. Add up the hours. While there are only 168 hours in a week, many of us need two or three times that to accommodate our schedule. This is where stress and mediocrity come from. Make your list again, but this time, find a way to limit yourself to 168 hours. There are only two ways to do this: reduce the number of weekly hours per item, or reduce the number of items. I recommend the latter. Cutting activities you enjoy out of your life can be painful, but it's necessary. What Would Save You Time?We all get overwhelmed from time to time, and sometimes it seems as if 24 hours a day is just not enough to get everything accomplished that we would like. Let's consider this a brainstorming session. Start creating a list of everyday tasks that, if you didn't have to do them, would allow you to have more time in your day. For example, most of us have to do laundry on a regular basis. That takes time. What about making dinner? Commuting? The list goes on. These types of tasks are usually necessary and unavoidable. It would be fantastic if we could hire a housekeeper, a personal chef or a chauffeur to handle these things for us. More often than not however, we end up doing ourselves the things that need to be taken care of each day. Perfekt!Are you obsessed with getting everything just right? Do you do everything yourself because no one else can do it as well as you can? Do you believe that everything you do has to be absolutely perfect? Although striving for excellence is a good thing to do, demanding perfection in everything you do is not. Procrastination. Id love to but...When a good friend asked me to contribute a little something for her newsletter it seemed like a great idea. When I cleared the decks and sat down to write it seemed a great time to color-code my closet or whip up a crab casserole. As an enthusiastic writer, who has nevertheless had writing blocks which have lasted longer than some World Wars, this business of avoiding doing something that I really want to do has always mystified me. How to Find More Time in Your Day-Balancing Career and FamilyGoal Planning-Achieving balance in a person's life requires assessment of one's goals and priorities. This translates into sitting down in a quiet atmosphere and taking just a few minutes to think about "What are my priorities in life? What could I never live without?" When one is clear about the things that are important to them in life, it is easier to determine which errands, assignments, and projects to take time out to complete or to dump or delegate. You will then be able to do the things you love to do. Thinking about goals is a crucial step in striking balance for our busy lives. Avoid 7 Time and Life-Robbing Mistakes and See Your Productivity Soar41 practical and quick ways to get on top of that mountain of work and free up time for the important things that really matter Time Management: How To Get More DoneIf you can regularly ask yourself "Am I regularly and consistently working on those items that will move me towards my clearly defined goals?" and honestly answer "Yes" then you are probably doing ok. Beyond Time Management ? Seven Ways to Leverage Your Time for Greater ResultsMost of us have a to-do list ? some of us have a very long one! While a to-do list is a valuable tool to help us stay on track for the urgent tasks of the day (and while there are many ways to improve your production and use of this list), that isn?t the focus of this article. The Myth of What We ManagePerhaps it is merely semantics, but an underlying problem I find that people have as it relates to the success in their life lies in a proper understanding of what exactly it is that we manage. Think about it. We have time management (In fact I have a seminar on this very topic, some of which is excerpted below), and financial management, and relational management, weight management, career management, and many, many more. Six Foundational Reasons for Managing Your TimeMost of us know how to manage our time. It is pretty simple really. What most of us miss are compelling reasons to manage our time. We know the "how" but miss the "why." Here are six foundational reasons I have that motivate me to manage my time and myself properly. Spend Less Time at Work and Get More DoneSounds too good to be true? Time Management MasteryFrom Potential to Performance
More Articles from Time Management Information: |
RELATED ARTICLES
Creating A Not-To-Do List When I sit down with a client to work on prioritizing and delegating, the biggest challenge we face is deciding what kinds of activities and responsibilities to give up. Quite often, we get so entrenched in what we think we SHOULD be doing, that we forget to pay attention to what we ENJOY doing. So when it comes time to let go of the boring, tedious, and time-consuming tasks that eat up our day, we have a struggle trying to identify them. Time Management: Set Yourself Up For Success Any habit of mind or body that interferes with taking decisive action contributes to your tendency to procrastinate. Think about your good habits and the environment that leads you to be most productive. Consider your preferred working hours, your optimum concentration periods, and the ways you have been successful in the past. You can begin to build on your good points first by recognizing them and giving yourself credit for them. Then, enhance the skills and techniques you already have with those presented here and beat the specter of procrastination once and for all. 5 Result-Getting Time Management Tips How often have you tried to manage your time in more productive ways, and found the process to be difficult and confusing? Perhaps you simply gave up on the idea. As one friend said, "Time management takes too much time!" Time Management Does it ever feel like there is never enough time in the day? Are you always rushing? Do you feel stressed at the end of the day? Do you believe that you are not accomplishing what you hoped? Better time management may be the answer. Perfekt! Are you obsessed with getting everything just right? Do you do everything yourself because no one else can do it as well as you can? Do you believe that everything you do has to be absolutely perfect? Although striving for excellence is a good thing to do, demanding perfection in everything you do is not. Procrastination: Why We Do It and How to Change PROCRASTINATION: You've known about it since high school or college, when everybody boasted about it. Everyone put off papers for a basketball game or a night on the town. It was OK-you only go through college once, right? You left college, but did you leave procrastination? You are now accountable for procedures and personnel responsibilities more complicated and more consequential than any you shouldered in college. Have your habits and attitudes evolved to handle them? Are You Watching Too Much TV? Many folks tell me that they just don't have time to be organized. As old saying goes-one will always find time to do what they want to do. I am a firm believer that we can find an extra hour, at least, each day to carve out time to make our lives more sane. Six Foundational Reasons for Managing Your Time Most of us know how to manage our time. It is pretty simple really. What most of us miss are compelling reasons to manage our time. We know the "how" but miss the "why." Here are six foundational reasons I have that motivate me to manage my time and myself properly. Managing Worry: Productivity Tips for High Achievers Who Worry Are you a worrier? Do you frequently spend time and energy worrying about your finances, your children, your career, world politics? Worry can be a highly useful, brilliantly engineered cue to action or a useless and destructive energy drain. The challenge is to decide which it is, on a case-by-case basis, and manage yourself accordingly. Time Management Lessons from a 3 Year Old Zak is my three-year old godson. He is the apple of my eye along with his sisters Carley and Brenna. I was watching him the other day as he was preparing to assume a self-proclaimed role of 'Master of the Universe' while playing a game with some of his friends. I marveled at how prepared he was and how his plan included alternatives if there were any 'problems' in the scheme of things. He was, in fact, more focused on achieving his goal than just about anyone I've ever seen. Quick Tips On Time Management Want to improve your time management? Delegate or Drown Why waste your precious time working on tasks, which are definitely not your forte when you can delegate or invest your money on a product or service which will free up your time? You can then focus on the more important areas in your work and your life. How to Find More Time in Your Day-Balancing Career and Family Goal Planning-Achieving balance in a person's life requires assessment of one's goals and priorities. This translates into sitting down in a quiet atmosphere and taking just a few minutes to think about "What are my priorities in life? What could I never live without?" When one is clear about the things that are important to them in life, it is easier to determine which errands, assignments, and projects to take time out to complete or to dump or delegate. You will then be able to do the things you love to do. Thinking about goals is a crucial step in striking balance for our busy lives. Time Management -- Urgent vs. Important "It's just been one of those days?I can't seem to get anything done! I've got way too many things on my "To-Do List". Oh the list started out innocently enough as a single handwritten column on one sheet of lined paper; but now it's grown to a three-column table in a spreadsheet software program! I get no satisfaction from checking off each item as I finish it. For each task I complete, at least two more are added. I began my work day at 6:30 AM with grandiose plans of completing a special project before Noon. Now it's 16 hours later (10:30 PM) and I still have not finished the project. My anxiety and frustration are mounting. Tomorrow's list has already been written and it does not include the things left undone from today's list! I don't know if I'm going to make it through the week with all of the demands upon my time and energy. I need help?quickly! Boost Your Productivity with 10 Minutes at the End of Your Day Once you have completed your day you can boost your efforts for tomorrow with an investment of only 10 minutes. Apply these strategies at the end of your work day and you will definitely increase your productivity. Tips to Manage Incoming E-mail Friends, colleagues, and clients are all telling me that one of their biggest challenges is trying to manage e-mail overload. They say everyone wants something from them and consequently, they're buried in e-mail. Is this a struggle for you? If so, here are a few tips that will save you some time in reading and receiving e-mail. Measure Your Time Against Active Inactivity We don't realize many things we do until we draw our attention to them. Effective Email and Verses Voicemail Time management consultant Stephen Young claims that the average time consumed by an unplanned telephone call is 12 minutes, verses 7 minutes for a planned call. This represents five-minute savings every time you jot down some notes before dialing a number. What Would Save You Time? We all get overwhelmed from time to time, and sometimes it seems as if 24 hours a day is just not enough to get everything accomplished that we would like. Let's consider this a brainstorming session. Start creating a list of everyday tasks that, if you didn't have to do them, would allow you to have more time in your day. For example, most of us have to do laundry on a regular basis. That takes time. What about making dinner? Commuting? The list goes on. These types of tasks are usually necessary and unavoidable. It would be fantastic if we could hire a housekeeper, a personal chef or a chauffeur to handle these things for us. More often than not however, we end up doing ourselves the things that need to be taken care of each day. Avoid 7 Time and Life-Robbing Mistakes and See Your Productivity Soar 41 practical and quick ways to get on top of that mountain of work and free up time for the important things that really matter |
home | site map |
© 2005 |