Time Management Techniques

Do you struggle to find time for all the things you want to do? Are you struggling to cope with the demands of your job? If you could really choose how to spend your time, how would you spend it?

Most likely you answered yes to one or more of these questions and feel like you are not really where you want to be in life. Perhaps you are spending extra hours each evening at the weekend trying to get your work completed. Or you feel bad because you are missing out on important occasions with family and friends.

Don't worry, it may not be as bad as you think. There is a solution to this problem and it is far easier than you might think. Simply by changing the way you approach the use of your time you can find the hours to do all the things you want to, and even have some time left over. As well as finding more time for the things you want to do, you will also be more fulfilled in your life.

Time Management Techniques - Manage yourself

There are 24 hours in the day. This is something that you have to accept because it will not change. While you may not be able to control this, you can manage yourself. This is where the answer to effective time management lies. You have to identify the things in life that truly matter to you - this is where you should spend your time. Everything else should be eliminated from your life.

Making the changes necessary to manage your time effectively can be rewarding and fun, but some of these changes will take a leap of faith on your part. However, there is no need to rush, you can make the necessary changes at your own pace. If you bite off more than you can chew at the beginning there is a chance you may fail.

Time Management Techniques - Know yourself

Knowing yourself is the essential first step on the road to effective time management. In modern society there are so many distractions we can easily lose our focus on what we really want in our lives. It is difficult to identify where and when this happens, but it inevitably does.

So this is the first step in effective time management - finding out what you really want from life. When you discover this you have discovered your vision. Cast yourself back to when you were an adolescent or a young adult, a time when anything seemed possible. How did your dream life look then, what did you really want in your heart? What you wanted then may really be what you want now, it may just be that you have lost sight of your true vision. It is likely that some of your priorities will have changed since then, but many will have remained the same.

You should also think about how you would like your life to be both in terms of your professional life and your personal life. Also consider your potential and what you think you can really achieve in life. When this becomes clear to you, you have found your vision.

Where are you now?

At this stage you probably have a fairly clear picture of what your ideal life would be like. The next step is tricky. You need to look at your life now and compare it to your vision, to how you would really like your life to be like. For most people, the difference between the two can be quite daunting.

Don't worry if this is the case as bridging the gap between your ideal reality and your life now is much easier than you would expect. There is a widely held belief that effective time management is about good time-keeping. Not so. Effective time management goes much deeper than that and can make major changes to the way you live your life.

Living your life and spending your time the way you want to will involve a few changes - some big, some small. A small change would be something like taking a walk every evening. Quitting your job and starting a business, that is a big change. However, if you put your mind to it you could achieve either of these. You need to examine how you spend your time each day and make the necessary changes to achieve your goals.

Planning your day.

To get started you should choose two goals that are important to you, one big and one small. Once you have chosen, you should decide on one small step you can take towards achieving each of these tomorrow. If you can complete the one step towards achieving each goal then you have made an excellent start.

This is just one very small step on the way to effective time management but should show you that if you go at your own pace that it is far from impossible. However, you must be much more meticulous in planning your days so that you complete everything you need to do while only spending time on the things that really matter to you.

This is why you need a clear time plan for every day. Each day, you will need to have a clear idea of what needs doing and find a suitable place for it on your schedule. To help you in this it is useful to keep a time log for a week or two before beginning to plan your time in detail. With a time log you write down in detail how you spend your time. Do this for a few days and you will get a clear idea of how you spend your days and how long various tasks take you. When you know how long each task will take, you can plan your day much more accurately.

The 4 Ds of time management

To truly manage your time effectively you have to look at the tasks that need doing and decide how to handle them. For this you will need the four Ds of self-management. These are:

* Do it - This needs to be done immediately. * Delegate it - Not the best use of your time. Pass it on to someone else. * Dump it - Not important. Forget about it. * Defer it - This needs to be done, but it can wait until later.

When you plan your day, and even during the day, you should be able to file all the things that need doing under one of the four Ds.

Time wasters

And finally a quick word on time wasters. Time wasters eat into our time and can make it very difficult to manage our time effectively. The biggest problem is that they are often very hard to identify because they can be very trivial.

Here are just a few time wasters:

* Lack of planning or bad planning - Develop a good filing system and know how you are going to spend your days. Being neat in your habits will help you manage your time more effectively.

* Procrastination - Some things need to be done now. Don't get into the habit of putting things off unnecessarily.

* Not delegating - You can't do it all yourself. Do the things that you are good at and enjoy. Someone else can do the rest.

* Interruptions - Set up your workspace so that there are no distractions that will disrupt your workflow.

Try to identify the time wasters that are holding you back and eliminate them from your life.

This was a crash course in time management but should get you started. Keep any changes you make gradual and maintain them until they become second nature to you. As you take it step by step, you will gradually move closer to your ideal life, a life where there is plenty of time for the things you want to do.

With today's busy lifestyle you will often feel that there simply isn't enough time to do everything you want to do. Most of us have busy work schedules and have families to look after so every minute of leisure time seems like a valuable commodity. However, there are some simple steps you can take to get more out of your day.

Whether you work in an office or run your own business, managing your time effectively can make you more productive and free up more time for the activities you enjoy. However, you will have to make some changes before you can do this effectively.

The first thing you have to do is accept that there is only so much time available in any day. We all have days where we are extremely productive and even achieve more than we thought possible. However, this is rarely sustainable and sooner or later you will burn out if you try to pack too much into each day.

So when you are planning your time for a day, you need to think about what you can realistically achieve with the time you have. One option is to allocate certain amounts of time for certain things. For example, you might want to dedicate nine hours to work, two hours to chores, three hours to your family and two hours to doing something that you enjoy on your own.

There is only a certain amount of time available to you and you can not change that. However, you can learn to use this time in the most effective way possible. First, I invite you to take some time to consider what is most important to you and what you are good at. These are the things that you need to be spending your time on.

If for example, you develop websites you will have different tasks such as graphic design, programming and writing content. Perhaps you have a flair for graphic design and programming and you are very productive with these tasks, but you struggle when it comes to writing content. In this case you need to delegate the writing work and concentrate on what you are good at. This is effective time management as it will boost productivity and ensure that you are spending your time on something you are good at and enjoy.

It may take a few weeks, but if you actively try to identify what is important to you, you will quickly learn how you really need to be spending your time. This will allow you to plan out your day effectively and give you a satisfying sense of control.

However, you could even take it one step further by choosing the best time of the day to do certain tasks. If you look at your working day closely you will find that there are certain times when you are suited to certain tasks.

For example, we are usually most alert in the morning so you may want to use the early hours of your day for the work that takes the most brain power. In the afternoon you may find that your energy is more suited to meetings or making phone calls, while you might like to wind up your day with basic housekeeping tasks like filing emails or updating your contacts. This will vary from person to person so experiment with it and you will be able to see when you are most suited to certain tasks. Once you have an idea you can plan your day accordingly to boost productivity.

Effective time planning is a very personal thing because of the need to identify what is really important to you. However, it is worth working at as it will lead to a happier and fuller life for you.

One of the keys to getting the most out of your time is developing the ability to ask yourself the right questions at the right time. This need only take a few seconds before you begin any given task. More often than not, you will find these few seconds will present new and better ways of doing what needs to be done.

While it is important to manage your time with calendars, diaries and daily plans, effective time management also requires that you manage yourself.

Before you set about any task, big or small, stop and ask yourself whether this is the best use of your time. Perhaps there are other, better ways of achieving the same result. Or maybe it is a task that you are not particularly suited to that another person could do in half the time, in which case you might want to delegate.

If you do decide to take on the task yourself, ask yourself what is the best way to complete it quickly and easily. It only takes seconds to ask yourself these questions and listen to the answers that come.

As time goes on you will get better at this. One of the most important things to do is to learn how to ask the right questions. In general, your questions should begin with the word 'what'. This focuses your attention and evokes clarity. The remainder of the question needs to ensure that it opens up possibilities, is solution oriented, elicits information and moves you forward.

Here are some examples of powerful 'what' questions that would help you focus better on a particular task and make more effective use of your time:

"What is the most important thing for me to focus on at the moment?"

"What would enable me to use my time more effectively?"

"What isn't getting done that needs doing?" And added to that, "What will it take to get this done?"

"What is the next step for me in this moment?"

These questions can also be used when considering more long-term goals. For example, "What do I want my life to look like in five years?".

Once you have asked any question you need to take a little time, perhaps one minute, to listen to the response that comes to you. You may find that what comes up in your response is clear enough and you now know the best way forward.

However, you may find that your response lacks clarity. It may include all sorts of thoughts and ideas, but no clear way forward. In this case, it can be a good idea to take note of the thoughts that come to you and break the problem down into smaller parts to find the best way forward. You may find there are more specific questions you need to ask.

However, for the smaller tasks in our day-to-day professional and personal lives clear answers usually come quite easily and quickly. So, before you move on to your next task take a little time to consider whether it is the best use of your time and if so, how you can complete it in a time effective manner.