Time Management Strategies
Many people think that simply keeping track of time is a good example of time management. However, being able to track the amount of time you spend doing things is only one part of time management.
Many people spend large amounts of energy tracking their time only to find that they have not successfully developed good time management skills. Unfortunately, many people who are in this situation give up because they have not achieved the results they were striving for. The thing they fail to understand is that tracking your time is not enough to enhance your time management skills.
To enhance the way you manage your time, you must first begin changing your own behaviors. You can track time all you want, but it isn’t going to change. The only thing that can change is you. To do this, you will need to set up an effective system that can allow you to change things that are causing you to waste time. While you will want to keep track of how much time you spend doing things, this should only be the first step. Once you’ve done this, you will need to take the information you’ve gathered and use it to help you make the necessary changes. Because many people fail to do this, they fail to enhance their time management.
The secret to properly managing time is the use of categories. Take a look at your day planner for tomorrow. If you are like most people, you have filled it with a number of important things that you need to get done. However, you may not be able to finish these things because of factors that waste your time. There are five things that you will want to place in your time management category, and these are dealing with unexpected situations, interruptions, planned projects, uninterrupted time, and uninterrupted downtime. If you are the owner of a business, you will often find that there are things you will have to deal that will slow you down.
This could be phone calls, missing files, and problems with clients or employees. Interruptions can include unexpected visits, phone calls, or other issues. This is the primary killer of time management. The use of the planned projects is important because it allows you to get work done, and when you are working uninterrupted, you are usually the most productive. Uninterrupted downtime is when you can take a moment to stop and review work that has been completed. You can brainstorm alone or with your employees. These are the five categories of time management, and you will want to decide how you perform in each area.
If you are spending a lot of time dealing with interruptions or unexpected situations, you are wasting time and your productivity will not be where it should be. You should list these categories and write down how much time you are spending with them each day. Of course, you will want to do this at the end of the day because it will waste time if you do it while you are trying to work. It has been said that time is money, and this is very true. The most successful business people are those that know how to properly manage their time. They work hard to get rid of time management killers such as interruptions. They understand the importance of being able to spend most of their time working, and so must you if you wish to become proficient in effectively managing your time.
While running out of money is the primary reason that many businesses fail, another reason is a lack of good time management. Many business owners spend too much time dealing with issues that are not relevant or important. That five minutes that you spend dealing with an issue that is not important will never come back, and it cannot be purchased. While spending money is optional, time is not. While this may sound like common sense, many people fail because they don’t understand, or they don’t take the time to apply it. You will want to write down the five categories I have mentioned here and spend time reviewing them to see how well you are doing. If you are not managing your time well, find the root of the problem and get rid of it.
