Experts tips on Time Management
As you grow older, you?ll probably realize how precious your time is and how you shouldn?t waste a minute of it. Consolidate your activities so that they take up less of your time, and eliminate activities you don?t need.
Do you have a process or system for prioritizing your daily to do list? Or do you just go with the flow of the week?s events and wonder at the end of the week where your time went?
Usually to get results, start the week by planning, part of which includes prioritizing tasks.
One big way to save time is through TV (Television). First, eliminate TV you watch just because it?s there. If you don?t really enjoy a program, you should stop watching it and replace that time slot with something more productive, rewarding, or enjoying.
An obvious example would be if you go to renew your driver?s license and there?s a 2 hour wait. Just standing or sitting for the entire duration is completely unnecessary or a waste of time. Instead bring a school book you need to study or a self improvement book that you want to finish.
Additionally, by consolidating your activities such as shopping into one larger time block, you can save time on travel. For example, if you know you need to buy groceries and a new shirt for a job interview, don?t buy groceries and then come home to unpack. Instead, get your shirt and then head to the grocery store afterward. This eliminates an entire trip and nets you gas, money, and time. Again, over the larger course of time you?ll be much more efficient.
These are only a few means to save time. Each of us has our own schedule, but you should begin to see a clearer picture on areas in your life where you can clean up the waste.
There is a famous story about the use of Time & Time Management
In America in the 1930?s, Charles Schwab, the head of Bethlehem Steel, the Country?s largest independent steel producer, asked a well-known management Consultant, Ivy Lee, for his advice on increasing the company?s efficiency.
The advice for Time Management was this:
Write down all the tasks you want to do tomorrow, and identify the five most important, listing them in order of priority. First thing tomorrow morning, start working on the first item and don?t leave it until it is complete or you have gone as far as you can.
Then start on the second item in the same way. If things come up during the day, only deal with them if they are more important than the task you are already working on. If not, add them to your list.
When the top five items have been dealt with, or taken as far as you can, repeat the prioritizing process. Don?t worry if you don?t manage to do everything on the list ? at least the more important tasks will be completed.
Schwab agreed to ask his managers to put this advice into practice for a month and then pay Lee whatever he felt it was worth.
A month later, Lee received a cheque for $25,000, almost $300,000 in today?s money. Schwab later said that it was the single most useful piece of information he had ever received and he believed it was immensely significant in the success of the company.
Effective time management involves patience and practical thinking. It?s really difficult to manage time. But once you know the secret it will be much easier. When you decide and get right down to it, it becomes much easier. Time management is really about managing your actions. We all want to maintain the process of time management to allow us to perform more actions in the day, getting everything done that needs to be done and giving us time to do the things we enjoy doing. But time management may be called a magical remedy for getting the actions done that you need to do.
Time cannot be managed automatically but one needs to manage time. So really time management is self-management, so start by identifying your time wasters.
Always remember that with proper time management skills you are in control of your schedule and your life, and reduce your stress and energy levels. You make progress at work. You are able to maintain balance between your work, personal, and family lives. You have enough flexibility to respond to surprises or new opportunities.
I don?t always practice what I preach, but I have tried this and it works!