Time Management - How to Get More Done in Less Time

Tick Tock may not be a sound heard very often in our ears anymore but it certainly a sound we all hear in our head. There never seems to be enough time in any day to get everything done that we need to do. Time management is more important then ever before to maximize productivity both at work and at home. Understanding a bit about ourselves and how we use our time can help.

When developing a time management plan you need to begin by identifying your common time wasters. Things like spending time talking to friends and family during business hours, getting sidetracked and surfing the web instead of getting the information you need, checking e-mail every 2 minutes and not planning what needs to be done are all time wasters and should be eliminated. Some other time wasters include a cluttered messy work space and old broken down tools and resources such as that rickety copier down the hall.

A good time management plan includes ways to help you identify these as well as other habits you may have developed that eat away at your day. Other things you should take into consideration when making a time management plan include setting priorities, planning your time, reviewing what remains to be done and most important taking time out.

Setting priorities is a very important step with any time management program. Knowing the difference between what must be done and what should be done as well as what someone else can do will help you to plan your time for maximum efficiency. Make a list and label it urgent, very important and important and list all the tasks to be completed. This will not only help you prioritize and plan but will also help you to trim the excess by giving some of it away. At home perhaps your child can set the table while you finish cooking.

Time management to be effective is a plan. Setting a time to do each task can help you to stay focused on that task until it is complete. If you need to do research on the computer setting 15 minutes aside to do it may help to keep you from surfing the net and wasting time.

Stopping to to take time out may feel like a time management no no but it is actually needed. A break can actually help you to be more productive by clearing your mind for a few minutes throughout the day. And if you know that at 2 pm you will take 5 minutes to call your friend chances are you will not take 20 minute when you should be doing something else.

Time management is not really difficult but does require us to break habits we may have formed and develop new ones in their place.


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