Improve Your Time Management
Today
Do you want to manage your time better at work or in your personal life?
This site will help you develop personal skills to help you strike a better balance between work, rest and play; to do more of what matters.
Time is the most precious commodity we have.
Improve the way you manage yours.
What is 'Time Management'?
Time management is about managing and executing choices - making decisions about what to do and then doing those things.
We've all got the same amount of time.
All we have to do is choose how to use it.
Each day consists of 1440 minutes which can be broken down into four distinct elements that make up your life:
The Essentials
These are the absolute basics necessary for you to exist -- eating, sleeping, exercise, rest and bodily functions.
Everything else is a choice. Even the time you spend on these essential activities is largely your decision.
Your Work
This consists of anything you’re prepared to do to maintain or achieve your desired standard of living.
It includes every type of work, from paid employment to domestic chores and personal care.
Good time management streamlines this.
Your Free Time
Anything you do, whether it’s planned or not, that you would consider to be time that you get to choose how to use.
Hopefully some of it will be time spent enjoying the fruits of your efforts.
Good time management increases this.
Wasted Time
This is all the time that ends up being wasted on distractions or low value activities that, on reflection, you could have stopped, rejected, ignored or outsourced.
It won't ever be entirely eliminated, but it can be significantly reduced.
So, (yep, you guessed it...)
Good time management reduces this.
Whether it’s a day, month, year or a lifetime, the same principle applies:
The time that you spend doing each one dictates how much time is left for the others.
Too much time spent working, for example, means too little time for rest, recreation or anything else you want to do.
It’s also important to bear in mind that all four are linked...
An example...
A planned meal out in a restaurant is generally intended to be an enjoyable occasion, which also happens to feed a need (literally).
If the food arrives 90 minutes late, it could turn into a time waster (although that depends on the company!).
If you can achieve a consistently healthy work-life balance whilst reducing the amount of time wasted, your time management will have improved.
The result?
You’ll feel a greater sense of accomplishment and enjoyment about what you’re doing and where you’re going.
The purpose of effective time management - and this site - is to help you:
- Identify what matters to you
- Spend more time doing that
So how do you do that?
Read on...
For Each Element, it Helps to Know ‘How to’
You can get better at managing all four - the essentials, work, free time, even wasted time... all of them can be addressed.
First, though, start with the essentials - ultimately they dictate everything else.
A balanced diet and adequate hydration underpinned by decent amounts of rest and sleep are the foundations on which you build the rest of your day.
Educating yourself to improve the quality of the essentials of your life is time well spent if you want to have enough energy to function well throughout the day.
* * *
The next step is to define and process the work you have to do as effectively and efficiently as possible. Clarify your roles. What, exactly, is expected of you? What do you have to achieve? What do you want to achieve?
Whatever it is, learn how to get organized, plan your work and systematically work your plan to ensure you do what’s important.
Apply Parkinson's Law continually to ensure you focus on the high pay-off 80-20 activities that get you the absolute best results.
Improving your time management at work is all well and good, but what will you fill the gained time with? More work, rest or play? Here’s where you really feel the benefit in terms of having more time to do what you want.
Clearly defined goals will ensure you gravitate towards doing what you want at both macro and micro levels.
* * *
For all of the above, their nemesis is time wasting activities...
Problems with procrastination, not managing interruptions, distractions at work and home, not knowing how to delegate work tasks effectively or how to work to limits -- all prevent productivity and limit the time available for guilt free fun.
Time is Finite
Appreciate the importance of time management and stay aware of the fact that you’ve only got so many months in a lifetime and minutes in a day. (Thinking in terms of years and hours makes it too easy to take it easy with regard to making the most of your time.)
Use this site and it's resources to help you clarify what you want and then apply some of the most essential time management activities to do what you must as effectively and as efficiently as possible.
Once you do, make the most of every minute you have.
“Okay, Where Should I Start?”
Anywhere, although your may want to check out these 10 Top Tips.
The bulk my time articles and downloadable resources are free to read (but not to copy without permission). You can read and apply each one independently (I use the term 'apply' because that is the key: action speaks louder than words.)
Whether you're overworked, overwhelmed, procrastinating or lacking motivation you can do something about it!
Click on one of the topics up above to get started.