Tips on Time Management
If you’re like me, chances are good that, at some time in your life, you’ve taken a time management class, read about it in books, and tried to use an electronic or paper-based day planner to organize, prioritize and schedule your day. “Why, with this knowledge and today’s technology,” you may ask, “do I still feel like I can’t get everything done I need to? Why am I still looking for tips on time management?”
The answer is simple. Much of what you learned about managing time is a complete waste of time because it doesn’t work. If it did, you wouldn’t be looking for tips on time management. Worry not. These 10.5 tips on time management work like a charm.
There are only three ways to spend time: thoughts, conversations and actions. Regardless of the type of business you own, your work will be composed of those three items.
As an entrepreneur, you may be frequently interrupted or pulled in different directions. While you can’t totally eliminate interruptions, you do get a say on how much time you will spend on them and how much time you will spend on the thoughts, conversations and actions that will lead you to success. These time management strategies can allow you to greatly increase your productivity!
My 10.5 Tips on Time Management
- Tip #1 – Carry a schedule and record all your conversations and activities for 2-3 days. This will help you understand how much you can get done during the course of a day and where your precious moments are going. You’ll see how much time is actually spent producing results and how much time is wasted on unproductive conversations and actions.
- Tip #2 – Any activity or conversation that’s important to your success should have a time assigned to it. To-do lists get longer and longer to the point where they’re unworkable. Schedule appointments with yourself and create time blocks for high-priority conversations, and actions. Schedule when they will begin and end. Have the discipline to keep these appointments.
- Tip #3 – Plan to spend 50 percent or more of your time engaged in the activities and conversations that produce most of your results.
- Tip #4 – Schedule time for interruptions. Plan time to be pulled away from what you’re doing, especially if you have a home office. Don’t over-commit and under-deliver. Realize interruptions do happen and plan accordingly. This is one of the key tips on time management.
- Tip #5 – Take the first 30 minutes of every day to plan your day. Or if you’re not a morning person like me, do it right before bed. The most important time of your day is the time you schedule to schedule time.
- Tip #6 – Put up a “Do not disturb” sign when you absolutely have to get work done.
- Tip #7 – Get plenty of sleep, eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly. A healthy lifestyle can improve your focus and concentration, which will help improve your efficiency so that you can complete your work in less time. For more specific training on this, check out How to Get 6 Pack Abs.
- Tip #8 – Avoid email and Facebook addiction. We’ve all done it… “I’m just going to check ‘real quick’, and an hour later, you’re still responding to Facebook or email messages. Schedule a time to answer emails and to check social media.
- Tip #9 – Don’t stress about time. All you can do is all you can do. For most of us who are working towards some serious goals in life, it’s impossible to get everything done. Focus on getting the most important things done FIRST and you’ll continue moving forward towards your goals, even if some lesser important tasks fall by the wayside.
- Tip #10 – Delegate or stagnate! Take a look at your list and consider what you could pass on to someone else. This is one of the most powerful tips on time management. If your hourly rate is $20 an hour and you can pay someone else $10 an hour to do something, you actually LOSE money by doing it yourself.
And the last half tip is to repeat tip 1 again after you’ve put into practice all of the tips on time management in this list. You’ll get a real sense of progress on how you’re spending your time on results-oriented activity by journalling your actions and conversations again for 2-3 days.
Don’t get overwhelmed! To get started, choose two or three of these tips on time management, try it for two to four weeks and see how it helps. Then consider adding another one. The key is to figure out what works best for you. I’ve selected these 10.5 tips on time management because they are the ones I’ve used where I saw not only the fastest results but the ones that have lasted the longest, i.e., the ones with the sticky factor.
Let me know what you think of these time management tips and please let me know if you have any other suggestions.
Make life an adventure!