Time Management at its Best

Time Management at its Best Does your typical day goes something like this: Get the kids ready for school. Supervise the maid. Rush to work for a debriefing by your manager. Rush through the grocery store. Pick up your children. Reach home and start planning on dinner. Help the kids with their homework. Put them to bed. And finally have time for yourself.

Sound exhausting? Sound familiar? If this sounds like you, there is probably a lot of unnecessary stress in your life. Therefore, managing time is very important. The following tips for time management should be of help:

Tip 1: Prioritize Your Tasks

The key here is to remain focused on important tasks and small jobs that must get done to prevent overlooking anything. One of the best ways to prioritize is create a "to-do list. First, list all the tasks that need to be accomplished, and to be most efficient, rank them in order of importance. Keep the list realistic. If the list is too long it will become discouraging at the start of the day itself.

Tip 2: Get the Job Done Right the First Time

The key to avoiding mistakes is acknowledging the problems that cause the mistakes and then correcting the problems and determining what “to do” or “not to do” to prevent them from reoccurring. You should be able to detect a pattern of mistakes and find a simple solution to the problem. Doing a task in hurry in a quality less way will any way result in you working on the task all over again, so why not do it right in the first time itself?

Tip 3: Do Not Waste Time

When you do not fully understand the purpose of your role, a lot of time is spent questioning. This can result in tasks being done incorrectly, which wastes time. You will work more efficiently if you understand the importance of the task and your role in it.

Tip 4: Delegate Tasks

Because effective time management is the goal, delegating should be a tool in your time management tool kit. While delegating tasks may not actually save time, its real purpose is to give tasks to the appropriate people. When the need arises, it is also useful to "swap" or assign certain tasks to specific people who would be in a better position than you to carry out the task. For eg: If you like driving the car then maybe your husband can do the dishes at home.

Tip 5: Reward Yourself

The first thing you need to do is decide upon your goal. Let's say that it's to reach your work place on time. Now, you'll simply need to put yourself on a reward/punishment program and stick to it! If you accomplish the goal, take yourself out for pizza, or give yourself some other treat. But, if you don't, you should take away something of importance-like that extra cup of coffee in the morning, or that dessert at lunch to feel the consequences of not following through. If you truly want to stop shunning work and learn to manage your time better, you should seriously consider doing something about it, because if you don't, the behavior will only continue.

Focusing on these common areas of managing time should reduce the amount of time spent on each task. The problem of time management has worsened with corporate down-sizing. Employers are running leaner and meaner organizations in which three people are being asked to do what six used to do. Given the huge numbers of employees caring for children or aging parents, the idea of time management has expanded beyond managing just workplace tasks. As a result, more individuals require time management training in hopes that time management skills can help keep fast-paced, multi-taskers on track, and even improve the quality of their lives and work. You will be surprised how "values" trump "excuses" and how knowing yours will help you take back the driver's wheel of your life .

"Good time management skills focus as much on achieving quality as they do on the time saved".