What Is Time Management?

Do you ever find yourself wishing there were more hours in the day? 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?

If you do it is okay as most of us feel like this on a regular basis. There is a big chance that your work is consuming much more of your time than you want it to. Or you could be feeling guilty because you are not spending enough time at home with your family.

Do not fret, your worries could soon be over. 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. This is not only about managing your time effectively, it can change your life fundamentally and for the better.

What Is Time Management? - Manage yourself

There are 24 hours in the day. This is something that you have to accept because it will not change. Time can not be changed, but the way you approach it can. Once you realize this you have taken the first step towards effective time management. 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.

It is important to point out at this stage that making the changes necessary to manage your time effectively can mean making some fundamental changes in your lifestyle. Because of this, you need to take one step at a time. If you bite off more than you can chew at the beginning there is a chance you may fail.

What Is Time Management? - Know yourself

To really manage your time effectively you must first learn to know yourself. With the pressures of modern life it is easy to lose sight of what we really want in our lives. It is difficult to identify where and when this happens, but it inevitably does.

Therefore, the first thing you need to do before you even begin to manage your time is to get in touch with what you really want from life. This is where you find your vision. Try to remember yourself as a child or as a young adult when you felt you could achieve anything. What were your dreams and aims when you were that age? Your dreams and goals at this time may help you get in touch with your vision. No doubt, some priorities will have changed, 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. And think about what is possible for you and what you can really achieve. When this becomes clear to you, you have found your vision.

Where are you now?

If you followed the steps above you should be able to picture your ideal life accurately. 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.

However, do not let this phase you as it is always possible to bridge the gap between the two if you believe in yourself. Many people think effective time management is all about calendars and diaries. Not true. Effective time management goes much deeper than that and can make major changes to the way you live your life.

If you really want to manage your time effectively you will have to make some major changes and minor changes in your life. An example of a minor change would be eating healthier. A big change might be starting up your own business. However, if you put your mind to it you could achieve either of these. You need to look at how you spend your days and plan your time with a view to achieving these goals.

Planning your day.

To get started you should choose two goals that are important to you, one big and one small. Now you need to think of one thing you can do towards achieving these goals that you can fit into tomorrow's schedule. If you can do this, and complete those steps then you are on the way.

In truth, this is just a first step on a long journey but the point is to show that effective time management and achieving your ideal life can be achieved and the process can be rewarding. Now you need to make sure that everything you do each day is taking you towards your goals, and that you plan in such a way that you complete all of the tasks you need to do each day.

So for every day you need a clear plan, a time plan. 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. A time log is a detailed record of how you spend your time each day. Keeping a time log for a week should give you a clear picture of how long the various tasks you need to do take. 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 - This task doesn't suit you, get someone else to do it. * Dump it - Not important. Forget about it. * Defer it - Something for the 'to do' pile. Come back to it 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 let's not forget time wasters. Time wasters eat into our time and can make it very difficult to manage our time effectively. This is mainly because they can be very hard to spot and are often the most trivial things.

Here are just a few time wasters:

* Lack of or poor planning - File things properly, write down appointments, that kind of thing. Basically, you need to be organized to use your time 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 - Chatty colleagues, needless phonecalls, noisy surroundings. These can all distract you from the task at hand and should be removed.

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

Hopefully, this will help you get started in managing your time more effectively. Breaking old habits isn't easy so take the changes you need to make one step at a time. As you continue to take more steps you will move closer and closer to your goals and find yourself with all the time you need for the things you want to do.

Many people struggle to find the time to do the things they want to. There are only 24 hours in a day and that is never going to change. However, we can change how we look at time and how we use it to help us lead a fuller and more productive life.

If you have a to do list that is longer than your arm and only limited time available you are probably wondering how you can get it all done. Most likely you are feeling stressed out and helpless. However, with a little commitment and effort you can learn how to manage your time more effectively.

The first thing you need to do is to take a step back from your life and try to look at it objectively. Take some time to consider what in life means the most to you and what you really want to achieve. Once you decide what is most important to you, you can begin to move towards more effective time management.

Write down what is important to you and compare it to how you plan to spend the coming days. There will most likely be many things that are not important to you and that are not essential to get done. First remove these from your list and you will find that your schedule now looks much more manageable.

There will, of course, remain some things on the list that are not important to you that simply have to be done. At the beginning, at least, this will be a fact of life. However, effective time management can lead to some life-changing choices and help you achieve what you really want in your life.

The mismatches between how you currently spend your time and how you would like to spend your time can be very revealing as they help you identify where you need to make changes. Some of these changes may be very small while others may be life changing.

You can start on the small changes right away. These could include simple things like getting fit or learning a new hobby so all you will need to do is schedule a little time to devote to these each day.

Bigger changes will require a lot more thought and commitment, but are achievable. Perhaps you want to move house or change profession. You cannot do things like this at the drop of a hat so you need to identify the steps you need to take to achieve them.

I encourage you to break these steps into small, manageable tasks that can be easily scheduled. Using the changing profession example, a first task might be to research courses available to train you in the skills you need for your chosen new profession. This small task can easily be scheduled into one of your days. Once you begin to take action to move you in the right direction you will feel more satisfied with your life.

As strange as it may sound, being busy doesn't necessarily mean being productive. While we all want to get the most of our day, both at work and at home, trying to pack too many things in can be counter-productive. Taking a few minutes time out each day to consider how we can better spend our time can vastly improve the quality and quantity of what we achieve.

Sometimes we get so busy that we miss opportunities to make things easier for ourselves. For example, it is a common mistake when using a new piece of computer software to dive in and start using it, even though you know you are not getting the most out of it. The fact that you are not using it well could be costing you valuable time each day which soon adds up. However, if you took a little time at the outset to learn how to use the software well, this time will be saved.

This is a perfect example of effective time management. Having learned how to use the software well you will be achieving the same results, or possibly better results, but you will not be so busy.

When the clock is ticking and work is piling up it can be hard to take the time out to consider how you can better use your time, but it is essential for effective time management. Look at all the tasks you do and the actions you take in any given day and ask yourself if these are the right actions?

We all have our vices. Perhaps you spend hours in front of the TV each evening or aimlessly surfing the internet. This is not effective use of your time.

However, it can be hard to break these habits even though we know deep down that there are many better ways to use this time. It requires motivation to break these habits. The good news is that you can find this motivation within yourself quite easily.

You need to consider what you really want from your life and how you really want to use your time. This will take some thought and consideration but should reveal what is really important to you in your professional and personal life. These are the goals you will work towards.

Now, consider how you are really spending your time and the actions you take every day. Ask yourself how what your doing now is helping you achieve your goals. You will probably find that there are major gaps.

For example, if one of your goals is to get fit, those hours in front of the TV are clearly not effective use of your time. You can still watch TV, but maybe for an hour less each day so you can achieve your goal of getting fit.

There is certainly no need to sacrifice the things you enjoy, indeed they are to be encouraged if they fit in with your overall plan to spend your time effectively towards achieving your goals.

However you will have to make changes, and some of them may be quite difficult. However, start out small and only choose goals that you think are attainable. Taking on too much too soon will only dent your confidence. However, if you take it step by step you can weed out the needless tasks and spend your time more effectively. The secret is to spend your time on the things that are important to you. If you do this you will find yourself less busy while achieving more.