Time Management - Making Your Time Count!

Nothing in history can be changed. The most we can do about anything that has already been done is to take counter measures to prevent the damage from spreading.

However, there is one more effective way to stop the damage and that is to prevent it.

"Prevention is better than cure."

This quote is most often used in terms of disease and illness; however, this can also be done for future mistakes.

Time management is a form of prevention, specifically cramming, low quality work, even fatigue prevention. Some say that the one thing that a busy person needs to manage is time.

Why is time management so important? Time is the most important commodity. Time never comes back. It never rewinds like videotape.

Here are the most common reasons why time is so important:

1. Time cannot be stored
Everyone no matter how rich or poor spends time the same way, it doesn't speed up for the rich and slow down for the poor. Time management is equal to wise usage of time. This may be the difference between fame and failure.

2. Time is rare
Yes, everybody has the same number of hours, but haven't you noticed that people are complaining that they don't have enough of it?

There is just "so little time and so much to do" that people go out of focus. Time management means giving importance to priorities and nearer deadlines and these give you enough for the crucial activities in life.

3. Time is needed for everything
Everything takes time; everything needs time to materialize. With time management, each task is given enough time to be finished. By giving a sliver of time for each of your goals and accounting for it wisely, you will be able to achieve them, plus make time for rest.

Truth is, even little time produces work. If distributed wisely throughout the day or week, you would be surprised to how much you can accomplish.

4. Time management helps you finish more jobs with less effort
By allotting a certain amount of time for each activity, you don't have to worry about the next thing that you will do. With time management, you become more organized and the things you do become more habitual than panic-driven.

By making it a habit, you become more productive.

As Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

In modern times, each product, place, or gadget has minute differences that make it very hard for you to choose. There are so many opportunities to choose from as to what to do with your time.

By having a plan, you will be able to make intelligent choices. By becoming more conscious of the available time and the choices you've made so far, you focus more on your priorities rather than useless work.

Time management is indeed a gem. Once it becomes a habit, it will be more beneficial than time-consuming.

The Pareto Principle also known as the '80:20 Rule' states that 80% of efforts that are not time managed or unfocused generates only 20% of the desired output.

However, 80% of the desired output can be generated using only 20% of a well time managed effort. Although the ratio '80:20' is only arbitrary, it is used to put emphasis on how much is lost or how much can be gained with time management.

Some people view time management as a list of rules that involves scheduling of appointments, goal settings, thorough planning, creating things to do lists and prioritizing.

These are the core basics of time management that should be understood to develop an efficient personal time management skill. These basic skills can be fine tuned further to include the finer points of each skill that can give you that extra reserve to make the results you desire.

But there is more skills involved in time management than the core basics. Skills such as decision making, inherent abilities such as emotional intelligence and critical thinking are also essential to your personal growth.

Personal time management involves everything you do. No matter how big and no matter how small, everything counts. Each new bits of knowledge you acquire, each new advice you consider, each new skill you develop should be taken into consideration.

Having a balanced life-style should be the key result in having personal time management. This is the main aspect that many practitioners of personal time management fail to grasp.

Time management is about getting results, not about being busy.

The six areas that personal time management seeks to improve in anyone's life are physical, intellectual, social, career, emotional and spiritual

1 ) The physical aspect involves having a healthy body, less stress and fatigue.

2 ) The intellectual aspect involves learning and other mental growth activities.

3 ) The social aspect involves developing personal or intimate relations and being an active contributor to society.

4 ) The career aspect involves school and work.

5 ) The emotional aspect involves appropriate feelings and desires and manifesting them.

6 ) The spiritual aspect involves a personal quest for meaning.

Each area creates the whole you, if you are ignoring one area then you are ignoring an important part of yourself.

Personal time management should not be so daunting a task. It is a very sensible and reasonable approach in solving problems big or small.

A great way of learning time management and improving your personal life is to follow several basic activities.

One of them is to review your goals whether they are immediate or long-term goals often.

A way to do this is to keep a list that is always accessible to you.

Always determine which task is necessary or not necessary in achieving your goals and which activities are helping you maintain a balanced life style.

Each and everyone of us has a peak time and a time when we slow down, these are our natural cycles. We should be able to tell when to do the difficult tasks when we are the sharpest.

Learning to say "No". You actually see this advice often. Heed it even if it involves saying the word to family or friends.

Pat yourself at the back or just reward yourself in any manner for an effective time management result.

Try and get the cooperation from people around you who are actually benefiting from your efforts of time management.

Don't procrastinate. Attend to necessary things immediately.

Have a positive attitude and set yourself up for success. But be realistic in your approach in achieving your goals.

Have a record or journal of all your activities. This will help you get things in their proper perspective.

These are the few steps you initially take in becoming a well rounded individual.

As the say personal time management is the art and science of building a better life.

From the moment you integrate into your life time management skills, you have opened several options that can provide a broad spectrum of solutions to your personal growth.

It also creates more doors for opportunities to knock on.

How can you adapt these processes to the unique needs of family time management?

Get Everyone on the Same Page

You won't be able to manage the family's time if you have one or two members who won't cooperate.

Sit down with everyone and explain that everybody is busy but we will all be happier and get more of what we want if everybody can work together.

Make sure that everybody sees the benefit - meals won't be so late and appointments won't be missed if everyone does their best to keep to a schedule.

That means that school appointments and extracurricular activities MUST be put on the schedule as soon as they know about them.

Respecting each other's time will mean that everyone gets a fair chance. If schedules overlap it is time to reorganize or eliminate activities.

Make it Fun

Planning is easier when it's fun. Get a large wall calendar or a laminated blank calendar and put the dates in. Get everyone together and assign a colored marker to each individual.

Have everyone write their activities and times on the calendar (or have them tell you while you fill it in).

Every time a new appointment is made the family is required to mark it down or tell you so you can fill it in. This will prevent double booking the car or a parent's time and the colored markers will identify if one person is demanding more of the family's time and resources than the others.

If you are a parent and you see that your children's schedules are packed with extra curricular activities it might be wise to limit them to once or twice a week.

This is especially true if homework and projects are interfering with sleep, meals and other family time.

Teaching your kids to keep a balanced schedule not only promotes good time management habits they will need in college and work life, but it impresses on them that taking care of responsibilities and spending unstructured time together is part of a balanced life.

If everyone is dashing off in different directions all the time put mealtimes into the schedule as well as a family night. Both children and adults can then plan their activities in advance so that most nights the family can be together for at least a part of the evening.

Lists so you don't forget!

If you have the room, make a note on the calendar of the items needed for each activity or appointment. If there's no room you can list the activities elsewhere along with the needed items.

Keep it next to the calendar and you can quickly see what needs to go with whom.

Remind each person the night before to have the necessary items ready - sports equipment, musical instruments, documents, etc.

Lists like this can also be used to make weekly meals run on time and with less stress.

Have each person tell you a meal that they enjoy. Put it on a Master list Meal Planner. Leave the list on the fridge or somewhere that the family can add on to it when they think of something.

Later, take the list and create a shopping list for the meals. Each week you can choose the meals you will make for the week and will already have a list of all the ingredients you need to make them.

Take the list with you when you go grocery shopping and not only will you know what you're making each night but you'll be sure to have all the necessary ingredients to make it.

Spending a little time preparing will help you keep organized and prevent you or other family from forgetting items and appointments - a real time waster.

Just like work the home has many tasks vying for your attention: dishes, laundry, meal preparation, vacuuming etc. Use the same prioritizing process as outlined. Make a 'to-do' list.

Prioritize the list (laundry needs doing every week, daily bed making can sometimes go undone). Schedule the tasks on your calendar so small tasks don't become overwhelming ones.

On your 'to-do' list put the top priorities for the week. Daily jobs should also be listed according to priority. While you may let one or two daily tasks slip if it becomes a regular habit you'll need to determine: delegate or remove?

If you delegate you should decide if a family member will do it or you'll hire the job out. If it's remove perhaps the job can be done less frequently (maybe the carpets don't need vacuuming EVERY day).

An undone task will drain you mentally. Decide if and how it's to be done and move on.

If your children are old enough to help out use the colored marker system to 'book' them for meal making, dish washing, garbage collecting etc. Plan a reward at the end of the week for those who accomplished all of the tasks.

While your children must learn that helping the family is not a favor, they respond as we do to rewarding tedious work with small bonuses.

Using the Goal system, choose a family goal - perhaps it's a new DVD player or a trip to the zoo. Put the reward on the schedule with a big sticker or other eye-catching marking.

Your children are sure to see it every time they look at the calendar. If they complete all their tasks without nagging for four weeks in a row - the trip to the zoo. Three months - new DVD player.

Don't forget smaller goals. Each week can mean that if the kids do all their chores THEY pick the movie, if they don't than YOU do.

Everyone still benefits but they get more of what they want when they stick to the schedule.

Organizing Makes it Easier

If the clothes don't fit in the dresser do you expect them to stay off the floor? The same is true for toys, shoes, dishes, videos and other items.

If you are spending time moving piles from one place to another, stacking items or manipulating them to fit into their storage area, you are wasting time.

Can't keep the kids coats off the floor? How have you arranged for them to put them away? Hangers in tall closets may not be enough, providing hooks at their level can make it easy and fun for your children to hang up backpacks, coats and other items like the dog leash.

Art materials, mail, toys and shoes do better in bins. Lining up items or arranging them in piles is time consuming and usually doesn't get done regularly. Stop frustrating yourself by providing 'homes' for these items.

A bin for each person's shoes lined up under a bench makes it easy for everyone to find what they need (and put it back).

A small basket for mail gives it a 'home' so that school notices and bills don't mysteriously disappear. Art supplies and small toys can be put in labeled bins making them easy to find and a snap to clean up.

Think about areas in your home that cause the most frustration and determine if you are spending too much time maintaining them.

Is there a way to make household maintenance less stressful and time consuming for everyone?

Spend the money and take the time to organize it - it will be well worth it.