There is nothing difficult in understanding time. It can be seen and felt - compare how you look today with a 10 year old photograph of yourself. You can even place a value on it - how much do you earn in a month?
The only thing that we cannot do is change, alter or modify it in any way. All that we can do is try to use the time we have with us to do as much as we can. In other words we need to understand how we can manage time.
1. First of all you need to understand that time cannot be controlled and the most effective time management skill you can develop is to manage yourself and how you use time. You have about 14 active hours in a day. If you devote 10 of these to your work, your main time management skill is to organize and optimize what you are able to do during these hours.
2. Begin by taking time to understand how you use time. Spend a week noting down every activity you do during the day – when you do it, how often you do it and how long it takes each time you do it. Examine your record after a week and you will find that you can divide your activities into three categories:
Urgent – the work you need to do immediately;
Important – the work that is vital to your business but can wait for a while, and Routine – work that you should be doing only when you have the time to spare or which you should off load to an assistant.
The essence of time management tips is to prioritize your work according to these criteria.
3. You will also see that there are things you do too often and waste time on – checking your email every 15 minutes is a good example. Learn to limit your email checking to only once every 90 minutes and answer only those that need to be answered.
4. The reverse can also be true. When you are stuck on a problem, instead of sitting and staring at the wall, put it aside for a while, and work on something else before returning to it. Focusing on doing something creative rather than on how you are stuck will usually allow you to relax and attack the problem more effectively when you return to it.
5. Do not make the mistake of fixing your working hours and then fitting in all your work into it. It is far better to note down all your work and total the time you will need to complete all of it. If the time is too much, you have the specifics in front of you and finding ways to cut the time or share the work with others becomes easier.
6. Be ruthless in allocating time to tasks and do not fall into the trap of leaving large margins for the "unexpected.” Setting tight schedules means that initially you will fail at keeping them but as time passes and you keep exceeding your scheduled time you will begin to see what is slowing you down and find ways to deal with it. Knowing where time is being wasted is a fundamental time management skill.
7. It does sound boring but one of the best time management tips you can follow is to set routines. Routines help you to get organized and save time.
8. Do not let others eat into you time. Being a good friend is fine but when office friendship means that you lose precious time listening to others talk about their personal matters, something is going wrong. Be polite but firm in making it clear that there is a time and place for everything.
9. Make sure that you have time to relax. Without that your efficiency will go down and no time management tips can help those who cannot work efficiently.
10. And finally, learn to delegate work to others so that you can produce the best result from the work you retain for yourself.
Everybody has their own time management tools. Start with these and you will be able to develop your own.
