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How To Master Time Management
Time cannot be managed. It is always the same, the same amount of seconds, minutes, hours per day.
You have to manage yourself and your projects to make better use of time. Do you waste time on things with no meaning or purpose?
Do you waste time on things important to others? Are you doing things that have no meaning?
Do you value your time? Would you like more time?
If you want more time, you have to put a price on your time. If you were paid $500.00 per hour, would you be more productive?
Would you cut out the activities that distract you? Try this experiment for one week at work. Behave like you are paid $500.00 for every productive hour you work. And for each hour you are not productive, you are not paid anything. See how that makes you feel.
Minimizing Distractions. Distractions are a destroyer of your time. What are distractions? They are things like unproductive time spent on the phone, gossip in the office, reading the paper for enjoyment, planning social events, and so on. How many distractions do you have during the day?
The next time you go to work, make a list of EVERYTHING (and I mean everything) you do and the time it takes to do it. At the end of the day, note how many distractions you had. You will probably be surprised. After completing this exercise, you will have a good idea of what distractions you want to minimize and eliminate.
Check your online resources for the "Minimize Distractions Worksheet."
Unfinished Jobs Hurt The feeling of being exhausted is accelerated because of many unfinished tasks. Do you ever come home after work and feel you have had a long day and accomplished nothing?
If you worked twice as hard and completed your work, you wouldn't feel as tired. Leaving your work undone gives you the sense of being incompetent. You feel you have a million things to do. The next day when you go to complete your unfinished tasks, it's even harder to get back in the swing of things. This results in more and more unaccomplished tasks.
Finishing Any Job Slow down, and focus on what needs to be done. Don't make a long list. Start with one task and finish it. Don't start another, until it is done and out of the way. Then go on to the next task.
Don't stop, until it is done. Keep doing this, and you will get into the habit of getting things done. If you have projects that can't be completed in one step, then just cut the project into steps that can be completed. Use the same technique as above.
Don't go to the next step, unless you have completed the current step. Your project may take months or years to complete. Finishing it, step by step, will get it done. Check your online resources for the worksheet, "Finishing Any Job".
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