Tips for Time Management

TIME MANAGEMENT:

It is the main aspect in our life which has to be done by everyone in their day to day routines as well as in their work situations. It is the way of planning to use and control the time in an efficient way to increase the productivity. It is about getting more done in less time. It is the process of controlling the time to spend on specific activities.

Benefits of Time Management:

·       Stress is reduced

·       Quality of work is better.

·       Productivity is higher.

·       More time is got for strategic and creative works.

·       Procrastination is eliminated.

·       Self-confidence is boosted.

·       Goals are realised with more ability.

Poor Time Management Consequences:

·       Work flow is reduced.

·       Deadline is missed.

·       Time is wasted.

·       Control is lost.

·       Quality of work is reduced.

·       Reputation is decreased.

Great achievers are not productive by birth rather they have the learning and practicing techinques in order to perform skills to get more done in less time.Productivity should be referred as a skill than as a talent.

Here We Go For Some Techniques To Handle Time Management:

·       Set the goals correctly.

·       Wise Prioritization.

·       Group similar tasks.

·       Avoid the urge to multitasking.

·       Do the most difficult work first.

·       Keep things organised.

·       Learn how to say ‘NO’.

·       Say NO to almost everything.

·       Have the time limits.

·       Leave time for rest, play and fun.

·       Do with tolerance (+/-%) neither 0 or 100.

·       Prioritize the schedule and schedule the prioritization.

·       Know your deadlines.

·       Leave buffer time in between the tasks.

·       Focus one thing at a time.

·       Track the time spent.

·       The thing important is seldom urgent and vice versa.

·       Develop routines.

·       Use a to-do list and do later list.

·       Divide the tasks into sub-tasks.

·       Have a clock or a calendar or an organiser.

·       Target to be early.

·       Set the remainder 15 mins before.

Set the goals correctly:

Try to find the goals you have to perform in a routine say daily. Make a habit of knowing the goals to be done in a early morning daily. Try to use the method while setting the goals SMART. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relavant and Timely.

Wise Prioritization:

Prioritization forms the main part of the time management process. It is the allocation of tasks to be performed for a stipulated period to time in an order. The order should be based on importance and urgency of the tasks.

The famous Eisenhower matrix below shows the technique used to prioritize.

 

	URGENT	NON-URGENT
IMPORTANT	DO                     1	DECIDE                           2
NOT IMPORTANT	DELEGATE                     3	DELETE                           4

 

Some examples of the above quotation are as follows:

1. Crying baby, cooking, some important calls etc,
2. Exercise, shopping, planning works etc,
3. Interruptions and distractions etc,
4. Busy work, Trivia, Time wastes etc,

·       Routine tasks-Delegate.

·       Further tasks-Decide.

·       Unnecessary tasks-Delete.

·       Procedural and Confidential tasks- Do.

Minor Time Wastes:

·       Interruptions we face during the day.

·       Becoming a slave in the phone.

·       Unexpected or Unwanted visitors.

·       Junk mails and reports not needed.

·       Agenda less meetings.

Major Time Wasters:

·       Procrastination (Hesitation to do work).

·       Afraid for delegation.

·       Do not want to say ‘NO’.

·       Low self-esteem.

·       Problems relating to objectives and priorities.

 

Rock and Sand in a Jar method:

 

Consider that you have given a jar with few rocks and some amount of sand. And you are asked to fill the jar with those things. You can do it in a two different methods:

1.Filling the jar with sand first and then the rock. Doing like this you cannot fill all the given rocks because already the jar is filled with sand and no space for rocks.

2.Filling the jar with the rocks first and then the sand. By doing like this both the rocks as well as the sand could be filled in to jar. After filling the jar with rocks there will be space among the rocks will be occupied by the sand.

In the above example the rocks can be compared to big tasks and sand to small tasks. So Big tasks needed to be completed first and then the smaller tasks. 

Use the Pareto’s Principle (80-20):

80% of the results comes from 20% of the action or efforts. So try to perform 20% action and you will be able to get the 80% results in turn. For eg; charging the mobile phone-It takes less time to get charged and delivers the charge for more time.

Create a time audit:

Start finding the area where you have to spend your time. There develops a discrepancy in between what you find that takes time and what actually is. That is due to bad knowing of humans of how long the tasks take time.

·       Plan your week on Sunday.

·       Plan the day in the morning.

·       Plan for five minutes in the morning.

·       Take five minutes in the evening for the survey of the tasks done during the day.

 Take an approach of trial and basis to the time management strategies because every people work in a different way. So select the method which works for you.

Some tips to perform time management at last:

While working with full throttle right out of the gate you’ll become exhaust yourself. Do good work and then stop. Overthinking and overediting wastes your valuable time and also not necessary.

If you find difficult in managing time no problem take a deep breath, and do a single task, complete it, start another task and do not get stressed over.

In everyday life everyone have to wait for something, sometime for eg; in queue, airport terminal, waiting room, etc., Plan well in that time utilizing it.

·       Make better initial decisions.

·       Do the most important tasks in the morning.

·       Do not wait for inspiration.

·       Don’t strive for perfection. Done is better than perfect.

·       Sleep well, schedule relaxation time.

·       Spend time in a comfort zone and increase your confidence.

·       Have hobbies like reading, cooking, gardening, language reading, meditation etc.,

Hope the above time management strategies could be realized and applied in your daily and work routines and get the benefits eliminating consequences. Thank you for visiting this blog raju's basics to mind and heart.