Before I start writing big things about how managing your time can make you a king and vice-versa, I must confess that I have myself been very poor at it, until recently. Partly on account of laziness but mostly out of ignorance, I never seriously appreciated the usefulness of a powerful success tool that all of us have – Time- management. When used smartly, it can make our lives whole lot efficient and productive.
I have been following some of the proven and documented techniques on how we can achieve our goals by simply organizing our daily activities and have seen my daily routine getting amazingly transformed. Try these and see if they make a difference.
Manage your time instead of time managing you: If you leave it to the latter, there are chances that you are always late at the office, anniversary parties, meetings etc. But how do you manage time? Keep an organizer. It can be the MS Outlook program or even a simple diary. These days, there are organizers in cell phones too.
Eliminate the culprits: It is always difficult to let go of habits. However, in order to be successful at managing you time, you must eliminate activities from your schedule that lead to nothing. Gossiping, unnecessary phone calls, surfing the web unnecessarily, spending too much time checking personal mail or browsing social networking sites are absolute crimes in the Bible of Time-Management.
Set goals: Set goals for every activity. For example, if you wake up early, schedule a session for a quick jog or meditation. That is your goal behind rising early.
Divide your time: Reading and answering your mail can eat your entire day if you let it. Spare an hour or half-hour as you see fit in the morning to define your day’s schedule. Allocate the time to activities that occur during the day. How many hours you will spend in the office (you can further divide this into office activities), spend time with the family, or simply pamper yourself (yes, stress-busters are important).
Delegate work: This is true for individuals who manage teams or run businesses. Often, managing large number of activities leads to slippage of time we allotted to our tasks. So delegate tasks to others and keep only the important ones to yourself. Don’t get paranoid about the fact that someone else will not be able to do the task as well as you do.
Stay connected: Some irritations during the day are unavoidable and have the potential to ruin your schedules. Waiting for the train or a client, unimaginable traffic, rework on an assignment, are just a few of them. When stuck in such situations, try to make the best use of time. Make important calls, read the office report, or go through the official mails.
