Time Management Tips

Set goals and get organized

Do you need some time management tips to get the most out of your waking hours? Time management is a tool that can be implemented in nearly every aspect of daily life – from work, to housekeeping, to cooking, to studying, to volunteering.

There are only so many hours in every day, and if you don’t properly manage your time, you could miss out on having time for fun and relaxation, simply because you don’t have a spare minute to spend on yourself. These tips can help you create extra time in your day by being more organized.

  • Block out time for planning. Spending fifteen minutes before you start your work day to make a quick hourly schedule could save you several more fifteen minutes here and there throughout your day, making you a more productive worker.
  • Set three goals every day. This is your short to-do list. Anyone can achieve three things if they make those three things a priority, which brings us to the next tip:
  • Prioritize! Take five minutes to create a to-do list, then another five to rewrite it in order of importance. Then start at the top and work down.
  • Use a calendar. When you know you have something coming up, put it in writing on your calendar. This keeps you from forgetting and being rushed at the last minute.
  • Learn to be flexible. The best way to do this is to allow an extra ten to fifteen minutes for every hour a task is expected to take. Then if you run over a little, you aren’t harried – and if you get done early, you can slot an extra task into the empty space.
  • Do the hard stuff when you are at your best. If you aren’t a morning person, start the day with the easy stuff – scheduling more focused activities to begin after that third cup of coffee. If you are full of energy right out of the box but flag come mid-afternoon, do your high priority and stressful work early, so you can simply round up loose ends as the day draws to an end.
  • Get rid of unneeded ‘clutter’ in your day to day activities. Do you REALLY need to a membership on SVEN online forums? Trim your ‘must do/check on/chime in’ activities down to a realistic level.
  • Only gods are perfect. Learn when good enough is good enough – folding laundry can be done neatly without being obsessive!
  • Stop procrastinating. If a job is too big, break it down into steps, and do one step at a time, spread out through your day. Suddenly you’ll turn around and the job will be done!
  • Just say no. Overachievers tend to help everyone with everything. This leads to you being the ‘go-to’ guy or gal, and it’s easy to get loaded down with other people’s business.

Don’t forget to reward yourself on those days when you get everything done and have time left over. That’s what time management tips are designed to do – not only make you able to get more done, but to get it done in less time so you can enjoy your leisure hours.

Time management exercises

Be organized and stop procrastination!

Time management exercises can help you learn to control your day and get more out of your most productive times. You can learn to pinpoint the things that wear you out and derail you, and figure out what motivates you and keeps you going.

The main thing to remember when starting to analyze your wasted time is how much of it is due to other people and how much is due to sheer disorganization – and how much is due to procrastination. Most people have a problem in all three areas.

Do you say ‘YES’ to any request from a coworker or team member – or anyone else for that matter – the PTA, the basketball coach, the church, your friends?

If you commit to too much, you won’t be productive – you’ll just be a chicken running around without a head, trying to keep up and failing miserably.

Exercise your right to say “NO!” instead!

You can’t be everything and do everything and fix everything for everyone. There has to be a line you draw in the sand when you reach maximum capacity where you say “I’m sorry I’m already fully committed and simply can’t take on any more right now.”

Do you waste precious minutes searching for misplaced things, trying to find notes for a meeting, redoing work because you got off track, or shuffling through mail and papers for an important document?

Being disorganized can keep you from productivity as well, and frustrate you at the same time. Exercise control over your workspace! Have a place for everything, and take a two minute break at the top of every hour to make sure anything that needs to be filed away is put where it belongs. You’ll save way more than 2 minutes per hour, I guarantee it!

Do you get lost on online forums, chatting via IM, or playing senseless online games?

With the internet everywhere, it’s easy to yield to temptation and play just one more farming game, check in with a friend, drop in on your favorite social network, or spend way too much time surfing funny blogs or interesting websites.

Exercise will-power and reward yourself with online fun time AFTER your work is done.

You’ll be amazed at how much faster you get through your workload when you devote yourself to work instead of play. Get a quick fix at lunch, and you can relax at the end of the day knowing you got everything important done – and your downtime will be much more enjoyable.

Finally, keep a log for a week of every single thing you do. Wear a watch that will beep every hour or two, and take five to list your actions.

You’ll be amazed at how much you learn about yourself and where your time goes! Once you’ve identified areas of ‘time suck’, you can work on improving. Taking it a day at a time and isolating those times when you are most productive can help you maintain that level of effort for more of your day. These time management tips and exercises can help!

Recommended pages and other time management tips

time management tips
time management tips
“No one is busy in this world. It’s all about priorities.”

You can find lots of time management tips, techniques, methods, exercises, games on this page and through our links on the site. Please choose the one that best suits you and stick with it. Consistency rules. Walk your path toward self fullfilling and never GIVE UP!

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