Time Management Techniques

Are you finding it difficult to fit all of the things you want to do into each day? Do you wish you could spend less time working and more time with your family? If you could really choose how to spend your time, how would you spend it?



Most likely you answered yes to one or more of these questions and feel like you are not really where you want to be in life. You may be under stress because you are not achieving enough in your professional life. Or you just do not have enough leisure time to pursue your hobbies and do the things you enjoy.

Do not fret, your worries could soon be over. These time worries are fixable, and it is not as difficult to your think. It only takes a few small adjustments in the way you use your time to change your life forever. This is not only about managing your time effectively, it can change your life fundamentally and for the better.

Time management techniques include managing yourself

There are 24 hours in the day. That is not going to change so we are going to have to accept it. While you may not be able to control this, you can manage yourself. This is the secret of effective time management. You must look at the things that are important to you in life and devote your time to these. Forget about everything else.


 Managing your time effectively will bring about some dramatic improvements in your life, but you must be prepared to make some fundamental changes. However, there is no need to rush, you can make the necessary changes at your own pace. Trying to make big changes at the beginning might be too much for you, so start with small steps.

Time management techniques - Know yourself well

 To really manage your time effectively you must first learn to know yourself. As we grow older it is easy to lose track of the things that really matter to us in life. For most people, this is an unfortunate fact of life.

 So this is the first step in effective time management - finding out what you really want from life. This is where you find your vision. Cast yourself back to when you were an adolescent or a young adult, a time when anything seemed possible. How did your dream life look then, what did you really want in your heart? What you wanted then may really be what you want now, it may just be that you have lost sight of your true 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. You should also think about your capabilities and what is possible for you in life. This is 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 must take your vision and compare it to your life at present. If you are writing all of this down, the difference between the two probably will not make for very pleasant reading.

 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. For example, watching less television, that is a little change. A big change might be starting up your own business. There is a big difference between the two, but both goals are attainable. You need to examine how you spend your time each day and make the necessary changes to achieve your goals.

 So for every day you need a clear plan, a time plan. You need to have a very clear idea of what needs to be done, how long it will take, and when it is going to be done. At the beginning it can be difficult to know how long each task will take so it may be a good idea to keep a time log for a week before starting to keep a time plan. In your time log you need to write down what you do every day and how long it takes. Do this for a few days and you will get a clear idea of how you spend your days and how long various tasks take you. When you know how long each task will take, you can plan your day much more accurately.

 The 4 Ds of time management

 Now you can move onto looking more closely at the things you need to do each day and deciding how to handle them. For this you will need the four Ds of self-management. These are:

 *  Do it - Get it done, the sooner the better. * Delegate it - Not the best use of your time. Pass it on to someone else. * Dump it - Anything that is unimportant now and in the future. Bin it. * Defer it - Something for the 'to do' pile. Come back to it later.

 Most, if not all, of the tasks and activities day can be put into these categories.

 Time wasters

 And finally a quick word on 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.

 These are some time wasters to watch out for:

 * Lack of planning or bad planning - Develop a good filing system and know how you are going to spend your days. Being neat in your habits will help you manage your time more effectively.

 * Procrastination - Some things need to be done now. Don't get into the habit of putting things off unnecessarily.

 * Not delegating - No one person can be good at everything. You need to delegate tasks that eat into your time unnecessarily to other people.

 * Interruptions - Don't let clutter and noise eat into your productive time. Make sure there are no interruptions when you want to work.

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

 This was a crash course in time management but should get you started. Breaking old habits isn't easy so take the changes you need to make one step at a time. As you continue on the journey to effective time management you will find yourself more fulfilled and with more time on your hands for the things that matter to you.