What Is Time Management?

Do you find that there are just not enough hours in the day? Is your leisure and family time taking a back seat to your professional life? If you could really choose how to spend your time, how would you spend it?



 If you do it is okay as most of us feel like this on a regular basis. You may be under stress because you are not achieving enough in your professional life. Or you could be feeling guilty because you are not spending enough time at home with your family.

 However, don't worry just yet. There is a solution to your problems. Simply by changing the way you approach the use of your time you can find the hours to do all the things you want to, and even have some time left over. As well as finding more time for the things you want to do, you will also be more fulfilled in your life.

 What is time management:  Its managing yourself

 Each day has only 24 hours. This is something that you have to accept because it will not change. While you may not be able to control this, you can manage yourself. This is the secret of effective time management. You have to identify the things in life that truly matter to you - this is where you should spend your time. Everything else should be eliminated from your life.

 Managing your time effectively will bring about some dramatic improvements in your life, but you must be prepared to make some fundamental changes. Because of this, you need to take one step at a time. If you bite off more than you can chew at the beginning there is a chance you may fail.

 What is time management:  Its knowing yourself

 Knowing yourself is the essential first step on the road to effective time management. In modern society there are so many distractions we can easily lose our focus on what we really want in our lives. For most people, this is an unfortunate fact of life.

 Therefore, the first thing you need to do before you even begin to manage your time is to get in touch with what you really want from life. When you discover this you have discovered your vision. Try to remember yourself as a child or as a young adult when you felt you could achieve anything. How did your dream life look then, what did you really want in your heart? Your dreams and goals at this time may help you get in touch with your 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. And think about what is possible for you and what you can really achieve. We will call this your vision.

 Where are you now?

 By now, you should have a reasonable idea of what you would like your life to be like. Now comes the scary part. I want you to compare this vision of your ideal life to your life as it really is now. If you are writing all of this down, the difference between the two probably will not make for very pleasant reading.

 Don't worry if this is the case as bridging the gap between your ideal reality and your life now is much easier than you would expect. There is a widely held belief that effective time management is about good time-keeping. This is not the case. Effective time management is much more about you and how you choose to spend your time.

 Achieving your ideal reality will involve little changes and big changes in your life. A small change would be something like taking a walk every evening. A major change could be quitting your job to travel the world. 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.

 Planning your day.

 So have a think about your goals and as an experiment pick two that you want to achieve, one small and one big. Now, you want to think of one small step you can take towards achieving these that you can incorporate into one day. If you can do this, and complete those steps then you are on the way.

 In truth, this is just a first step on a long journey but the point is to show that effective time management and achieving your ideal life can be achieved and the process can be rewarding. However, doing this effectively requires a lot of planning so that you complete all of the tasks you need to do each day while ensuring that all of these tasks are in line with your vision.

 So for every day you need a clear plan, a time plan. Each day, you will need to have a clear idea of what needs doing and find a suitable place for it on your schedule. 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. A time log is a detailed record of how you spend your time each day. Keeping a time log for a week should give you a clear picture of how long the various tasks you need to do take. Then you can really plan your days accurately.

Time wasters

 And let's not forget time wasters. Time wasters can destroy any attempt at effective time management if they are not identified and eliminated. They can be the most trivial of things, and are therefore very hard to spot.

 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 - You can't do it all yourself. Do the things that you are good at and enjoy. Someone else can do the rest.

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

 These and other time wasters are probably eating into your time, so try to identify them and get rid of them.

 The 4 Ds of time management

 Now, as you make your time plan for each day you need to decide how to handle the various tasks that need doing, and how to deal with any new tasks that may arise. So let me introduce you to the four Ds of self-management. Which are:

 *  Do it - This can not wait and needs to be taken care of now. * Delegate it - This task doesn't suit you, get someone else to do it. * Dump it - Not important. Forget about 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.

  These pointers should help you in your first steps towards effective time management. There is no need to hurry, take the changes you need to make at your own pace. Each of these small steps will bring you closer to your vision and leave you with time to do all of the things you want each day.