Effective Time Management Methods
by Nowshade Kabir
Published on this site: May 17th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
In today's hectic life style it is becoming increasingly difficult
to manage time effectively. There are so many things to do, and
so little time! Internet is supposed to be the ultimate means for
bringing efficiency to your life. The information that you need,
the business tool you use, everything is now at your finger tip
thanks to ubiquitous access to the Internet. But did it make your
life easier? Most of us will tell probably not. On the contrary!
Easy access to virtually any information lures us to spend way too
much time on the Internet. How to regain total control of our precious
time?
Time is a relative concept
In the physical world time indeed is a relative matter. In Einstein's
Special Theory of Relativity time's relative value was exemplified
in the paradox often referred to as "Paradox of Twin".
Consider that in a not so far future time there lived a pair of
twins - Rob and Mary - somewhere on the Earth. Mary decided to visit
a star eight light years away, stop there for a while and come back.
The technology at that time allows her to travel at a speed of 80
percent of the speed of light on a fast spaceship. She made her
trip and came back to the Earth. What will she see? While by Earth's
time 20 years has passed since she left, she has aged only 12 years
and definitely looks younger than her twin.
Maybe we don't see this relative physical characteristic of time
in real life, one thing we all know is when we are busy with things
that interest us, we feel that time passes faster and when we are
engaged in a boring or dull job, we feel that the time is passing
slowly.
Before we try to manage our time effectively we should have a better
perception of our own time and how we spend it.
The following exercise will help you get a better picture of
your own time:
For three consecutive days write down everything you do from the
moment you woke up and till you go to bed. Keep your pen and paper
always handy. If necessary set alarm every two hours to remind you
if so that you don't forget to log. The idea is to get a thorough
picture of your daily activities. After three days take a look at
your logged data and on a separate list write down how much time
you spent in an average day on each activity like sleeping, commuting, reading, working, socializing, etc.
Spending time on important things only
Now take a look on all your activities from a different approach.
Assign each of the activity to one of the following groups:
- Urgent and important,
- Not urgent but important,
- Urgent but not important,
- Not urgent and not important.
- Urgent and important: These are the priority number one
tasks. Making your sales call, preparing for tomorrow's exam and
paying bills due today - these are some examples of urgent and
important works.
- Not Urgent but important: There are works that are not
so pressing, but you understand by procrastinating them you are
impairing your growth. These are the tasks on which you should
emphasize your efforts most. Setting goals, planning your activities,
and writing your business plan are examples from this group.
- Urgent but not important: We spend a substantial amount
of time on works that are pressing but does not have any real
impact on achieving specific objectives. You have to chair a meeting
that your colleague has requested as he is sick is an example
of this type of activities. Often tasks from this group are requests
from others or workloads you have willingly taken but deep in
your mind you know that these tasks really don't carry any personal
value for you.
- Not urgent and not important: These are the real time
wasters. Reading junk mails, browsing through the Internet aimlessly,
making unnecessary calls to friends are some of the common activities
that should be avoided.
Since in the core of effective time management lays the idea of
doing things that are important to you, you have to figure out
how to select those tasks.
Goal setting
Goal setting is an absolute necessary method for personal planning.
The process of goal setting gives you the real picture of your life
- what you are now and what you are planning to be in the future.
To understand which tasks are really important to you and will help
you achieve success you have to set long term goals and then subdivide
them to short terms goals. Once you did this, write all the things
you have to do to reach these goals, steps you have to take and time span necessary to act upon them.
Use a planner
Move all these necessary activities to a planner. Identify the
milestones. These should be your sub-goals. Specify how much time
you will need to reach those milestones. Insert the tasks from the
list you have created to the planner. Make weekly to do list based
on your planner. Choose no more than three to four tasks for each
of your goals in a week.
Develop daily to do lists
Your daily to do list should incorporate one or two most important
activities from your planner. Your daily to do list should be scheduled
loosely. Make sure that you don't spend too much time on work related
tasks. Over working will burn your enthusiasm quickly and bring
you back to your previous life style.
In the beginning you might feel overwhelmed with the quantity of
tasks you plan to do. To build your self confidence and manage time
efficiently choose five not so difficult tasks each day and promise
yourself that no matter what happens you will finish these five
tasks. If you continue this for three weeks, it will become a part
of your daily habit and build your self trust.
Every time during the course of the day if you have to do a task
which is not from your list, ask yourself this question, "Is
this really important to my goals?" If the answer is "Yes!"
then go for it, if not get back to your list.
Time Management strategies help us to stay motivated and create
a balanced lifestyle. The above mentioned methods are effective
when followed scrupulously.
Nowshade Kabir is the CEO of Rusbiz.com, a global B2B Portal,
which helps companies build web store, buy and sell products and
services using eMarketplace, eCatalog and other features. Rusbiz
also offers website development packages: http://www.rusbiz.com/design_package.html
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