Are You Throwing Away Time? 5 Tips for Successful Time Management
If you find yourself daydreaming on your job, you probably simply want to come home and enjoy life's pleasures without having to work for them. Unfortunately, that's not realistic for most of us, and we have to work. And when we have to work, we have to do a good job and be thorough, so we have to remain focused on what were doing. That's not so easy, however.
There are only 168 hours in a week, which isn't very much time to get everything done we need to. Most of us don't get everything done we want to, and we end up putting off tomorrow what we should have done today. However, this problem can be at least mitigated somewhat with effective time management.
Given below are 5 tips that will help you to utilize your time much better:
1. Schedule a time for the things that you need to have done during each day. For example, make a time for work, and a time for play. Follow that schedule each day and stick to it. Look at your schedule as a list of priorities. If you are aiming to spend some time at the gym, then pave out a time just for that, and make it a routine.
2. Write out a list of things to do either each night before heading to bed, or first thing in the morning. Stick to your to-do list each day. Once you have completed one task, mark it off until you have moved down the list. Write out your list starting with the first thing that needs to get done, all the way down to the very last task of the day. If you follow this method, you will never be behind.
3. DON'T make television, your cell phone, social websites, etc., part of your day. In other words, these things should not go on your schedule. If you get everything else done and want to play a little bit, then you can do some surfing or watch a little television. However, wait until you've gotten everything else complete to do this.
4. Take care of your required tasks first, and leave the ones that can wait until another day. We are not superhuman, and no one says that you can take on a mountain of projects in one day. Try to remain realistic of what you can handle and cannot for that particular day.
5. Mix harder and easier tasks on your list. It's easy to get overwhelmed if you're continually putting hard tasks before easy tasks, but it's just as easy to get distracted if you try to do all the easy ones first before the hard ones. By "changing out" what you're doing and switching back and forth from easy to hard, you keep your energy up so that you get more things done. You can also spread more difficult tasks out over the course of a week, and pick certain days to do particular projects if you need to break them up specifically.
Remember that it's all about planning ahead. Of course, complications can occur, too, so be prepared to sometimes skip absolute completion of your schedule on any given day. Still, you're going to get a lot more done if you plan ahead, and your time will be more productive, too, if you have a schedule -- and you keep that schedule largely intact.
There are only 168 hours in a week, which isn't very much time to get everything done we need to. Most of us don't get everything done we want to, and we end up putting off tomorrow what we should have done today. However, this problem can be at least mitigated somewhat with effective time management.
Given below are 5 tips that will help you to utilize your time much better:
1. Schedule a time for the things that you need to have done during each day. For example, make a time for work, and a time for play. Follow that schedule each day and stick to it. Look at your schedule as a list of priorities. If you are aiming to spend some time at the gym, then pave out a time just for that, and make it a routine.
2. Write out a list of things to do either each night before heading to bed, or first thing in the morning. Stick to your to-do list each day. Once you have completed one task, mark it off until you have moved down the list. Write out your list starting with the first thing that needs to get done, all the way down to the very last task of the day. If you follow this method, you will never be behind.
3. DON'T make television, your cell phone, social websites, etc., part of your day. In other words, these things should not go on your schedule. If you get everything else done and want to play a little bit, then you can do some surfing or watch a little television. However, wait until you've gotten everything else complete to do this.
4. Take care of your required tasks first, and leave the ones that can wait until another day. We are not superhuman, and no one says that you can take on a mountain of projects in one day. Try to remain realistic of what you can handle and cannot for that particular day.
5. Mix harder and easier tasks on your list. It's easy to get overwhelmed if you're continually putting hard tasks before easy tasks, but it's just as easy to get distracted if you try to do all the easy ones first before the hard ones. By "changing out" what you're doing and switching back and forth from easy to hard, you keep your energy up so that you get more things done. You can also spread more difficult tasks out over the course of a week, and pick certain days to do particular projects if you need to break them up specifically.
Remember that it's all about planning ahead. Of course, complications can occur, too, so be prepared to sometimes skip absolute completion of your schedule on any given day. Still, you're going to get a lot more done if you plan ahead, and your time will be more productive, too, if you have a schedule -- and you keep that schedule largely intact.
About the Author:
Author Details: Alison K. Mitchelson introduces business motivation and professional facilitation via her company website Inspired Reality for business owners such as employee motivation and Executive Coaching. Inspire your staff!
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