SOME TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS!!

Do you sometimes feel that you dont have enough TIME in the day. Are you getting WORKED UP trying to fit everything in that you know you NEED to do! Are you STRUGGLING to meet deadlines and pulling your hair out as you realise you can only push yourself to finnish a job spec if you know you have an extremely TIGHT deadline to meet!!

Is it possible that you have “poor time management skills”? Or do you think that this is "just the person you are"!! Are you JEALOUS of your colleagues who always seem to be "cruising"!!

Well the truth is, MANAGING YOUR TIME is a SKILL, and one which you can PRACTICE.

SOOOO.....true to form, I am going to give you some TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS!!

The tips are SIMPLE yet HUGELY effective!! ...

1...Make a TO DO LIST

Your TO DO list takes a lot of PRESSURE off yourself. Instead of WORRYING around lunchtime about what you re to do NEXT, you ll IMMEDIATELY know what it is you ve to achieve and complete during the day!!It takes less than five minutes to make a to-do list first thing each day or at the end of the day – but it can save you HOURS of wasted time during a day. Don’t get STUCK on making your to-do list PERFECT. Just jot down, in a few words, any tasks which you want to get done. You can WRITE out your to-do list on PAPER, in an ONLINE CALENDER, or in a specific piece of SOFTWARE – whatever works for you.

Soo...go on.. TRY IT!!: What s on your mind for today and tomorrow? Get them onto paper.

2: Pick One to Three IMPORTANT Tasks

Having at to-do list is a great BEGINNING. But if you’re like MOST people, your list probably contains more items than you can get done in ONE day – lets face it...we always get interrupted and distracted!! Most people tend to PRIORITISE by URGENCY AND PANIC: we make a start on whatever’s flashing at us loud enough.. probably something that s due today or tomorrow. It might not be a very big task and it might not even be TRULY urgent. (Can’t that email wait a few hours? Do you have to answer ALL your calls as they come in?) In the morning, decide which item is the most important. Then, pick another ONE or TWO tasks. Get these out of the way first, and you’ll find that all the urgent stuff still gets done.

Soo..go on... TRY IT!!: Pick ONE important task to get done today – something which will give you a sense of SATISFACTION when you complete it.

3: REDUCE PROCRASTINATION

A LITTLE bit of procrastination is probably inevitable – and ALLOWED. Often, when you’re idling, your SUBCONSCIOUS is still trying to solve a problem. Too MUCH procrastination, though, can be a BIG problem. If you PUT OFF lots of tasks in the day and therefore waste CHUNKS of the day because you can’t force yourself to tackle certain items on your list, you may well end up working very long hours in order to get through everything. Procrastination is also STRESSFUL: you KNOW that you’re supposed to be working, so you really CAN T just switch off. If you find yourself wasting a lot of time, look for ways to MINIMISE the distractions that lead to procrastination.

BLOCK websites which eat into your time.
Turn off your internet connection while you’re writing.
Don’t start reading a trade magazine or long article kidding yourself that you’ll only read for ten minutes, when you ve an assignment to get finnished.

Sooo....go on...TRY IT!!: Ask YOURSELF what you’re wasting time on. Which METHOD are you going to use to avoid putting off what you know you should be doing!!

4: Work in SHORT BURSTS!!

When you try to work solidly for hours on end, you inevitably end up getting tired and distracted. HOWEVER if you work in short, FOCUSSED bursts, you can get a huge amount done.

Some highly successful people will write, non-stop, for only ten minute bursts at a time. It doesn’t sound like much – but their word count soon adds up. You’ll probably want to work in longer bursts (maybe 30 minutes or an hour).

It s a well-known adage that work EXPANDS to fill the time available . When you know you’ve only got half an hour to clear your inbox, you work faster. You’ve almost certainly experienced this before: perhaps when you had a deadline coming up, or when you were trying to get something finished off before 5pm on a Friday.

SOO..go on.. TRY IT: With your next task, set a TIMER for 30 minutes and see how far you can get!

5: LOG YOUR DAY

This is a slightly more involved technique, so I’ve saved it for last!

If you’ve tried out the other tips on this list and you want to improve your time management even further, then try keeping a time log.
A TIME LOG is simply a RECORD of what you’re doing and when.

8am – Started on emails
8.30am – Finished emails. Read online news site.
8.40am – Started big report

Write down your log on paper, or keep a spreadsheet. Alternatively, if you work mainly on a computer, you can track your time using a software application like Rescue Time. This won’t be foolproof, but can give you a good starting point for seeing where your time is going. Tracking your time can seem tedious – but it’s a great way to become more CONSCIOUS of how you spend the day.

LOGGING ITSELF often helps people to avoid procrastinating, just like keeping a food log often helps dieters lose weight without even trying.

Sooo..go on..TRY IT: For ONE day, write down everything you do. Are there any surprises?

If you’ve never tried time management before, what is it that you find difficult? Or if you are an expert, do you have any tips you willing to share? You can always leave me a comment!