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It grows stronger and more capable with use. With practice, you can learn any behavior or develop any habit that you consider either desirable or necessary. Learn more time management tips from my free Kickstart Your Productivity Webinar. In order to make more money, you must learn how to manage time effectively. There are two major sources of value in the world of work today. The first is time and the second is knowledge. Today, time is the currency of modern business. By using these 5 techniques to manage your time, you will put yourself on the fast track to success.
The most important measure of time is speed. A sense of urgency is the habit of moving fast when opportunity presents itself to you. Develop a bias for action. Fast tempo is essential to success. All successful people not only work hard, hard, hard, but they work fast, fast, fast! Procrastination is not only the thief of time; it is the thief of life.
One way to make sure your focused work sessions run smoothly is to automate all the hassle around getting started. In this role, you are to act the part of a person who is extremely well organized in every respect. All successful people not only work hard, hard, hard, but they work fast, fast, fast! Working to a schedule rather than to a deadline ensures we get a little bit closer to our goal every single day. Waiting rooms, lines at the store, time on the subway, on the elliptical at the gym, etc.
You must develop the time management habit of moving quickly when something needs to be done. You must develop a reputation for speed and dependability.
As a general rule, small tasks should be done immediately, as soon as they appear. This habit of taking action quickly will enable you to get through an enormous amount of work in a day. It will earn you a reputation for being the kind of person to give jobs to when someone needs them done quickly. Stay focused and do it now. It is amazing how much time you can waste by picking up a task and looking at it or starting it, and then putting it down and coming back to it again and again. The preparation that you make in the evening for the day ahead will have an enormous effect on how successful you are.
Here are some general time management skills that anyone can do that will help you get more done. Take a piece of paper and write down everything you intend to do. Include everything, even your plans to eat a healthy lunch and workout, prepare dinner for you and your family, every detail.
Then organize the piece of paper by asking yourself: And if I could only do two things which would be the second and the third? Then move on to number two. Checking your email in the morning makes getting off track entirely too easy. The final way for you to make sure you have a productive next day is to make this list of goals and tasks the night before. Your ability to make good plans before you act is a measure of your overall competence. The better plan you have, the easier it is for you to overcome procrastination, to get started and then to keep going.
By writing down your goals before you go to sleep, you will think about the things you need to do and mentally prepare yourself to do them before you even wake up the next morning. When you plan each day in advance, organize your list by priority, and stick to your plan, the work will go faster and smoother than ever before. You will feel more powerful and competent.
You will get more done, faster than you thought possible. Eventually, you will become unstoppable. When you consider how helpful planning can be in increasing your productivity and performance, it is amazing how few people practice it every single day. And planning is really quite simple to do. All you need is a piece of paper and a pen. The most sophisticated technology, time management apps are based on the same principle. Making a list is one of the best time management tools you can develop.
Always work from a list. When something new comes up, add it to the list before you do it. Make out your list the night before, at the end of the workday. Move everything that you have not yet accomplished onto your list for the coming day and then add everything that you have to do the next day. When you make out your list the evening or the night before, your subconscious mind works on your list all night long while you sleep. Often you will wake up with great ideas and insights that you can use to get your job done faster and better than you had initially thought.
The more time you take to make written lists of everything you have to do, in advance, the more effective and efficient you will be. There are different lists that you need for different purposes. First, you should create a master list on which you write down everything you can think of that you want to do sometime in the future.
This is the place where you capture every idea that comes to or every new task or responsibility that comes up. You can then sort out the items later. Second, you should have a monthly list that you make up at the end of the month for the month ahead.
This may contain items transferred from your master list. Third, you should have a weekly list where you plan your entire week in advance. This is a list that is under construction as you go through the current week. Finally, you transfer items from your monthly and weekly lists onto your daily list. These are the specific activities that you are going to accomplish that day. As you work through the day, tick off the items on your list as you complete them.
This activity gives you a visual picture of accomplishment. It generates a feeling of success and forward motion. Seeing yourself working progressively through your list motivates and energizes you. It raises your self-esteem and self-respect. Steady, visible progress propels you forward and helps you to overcome procrastination. One of the great time management tips is to work from a clean desk, and in an organized workspace.
Just as an excellent chef cleans up the entire kitchen before and after cooking, you should organize your workspace completely before you begin your work. Put all of your documents away in the appropriate files, both physical and online. Keep your computer desktop clean. If you cannot see your screensaver, there is too much on your screen. Many people believe that they work more effectively in a messy work environment with a cluttered desk.
However, every study that has been done with these people shows that when they are forced to clean up their work environment so that they have only one task in front of them, their productivity doubles and triples, usually overnight. Get organized and stay organized. Make sure your office supplies and materials are fully stocked and available at hand.
You will find that nothing is more destructive to efficiency and effectiveness than having to start a job and then stop, and then start again, for lack of proper preparation or supplies. People who work with cluttered desks, are found to spend an enormous amount of each working day looking for the materials they need among the clutter around them. Psychologically, the sight of a cluttered desk or office provides visual subconscious feedback that reinforces your perception that you are disorganized.
It leads to continuous distraction as your eyes and your attention dart from item to item, and back again. Keep your inbox clean and organized. Pick a couple times during the day to answer all of your emails at once. There are some people who are slaves to their email. They have a bell that goes off each time a new message comes in, whatever they are doing they turn immediately to their inbox to check it. You will be much more productive if you set out time to answer all of your emails at once than to answer them each as they come. When answering email, bundle them all together and do them at the same time.
Do all your similar tasks at the same time rather than doing a little bit now and a little bit later. Batching your tasks simply means doing similar things at the same time. When you complete a series of similar or identical tasks all in a row, the learning curve enables you to reduce the time required to complete each task by as much as 80 percent by the time you complete the fifth identical task.
You should make a decision not to allow your inbox to control your life, like the tail wagging the dog. Instead, discipline yourself to use your email as a business tool. Make your responses quick and to the point. If your responses are quick, it will free up more time to get through more emails and make all correspondence easier to read.
If you manage multiple email addresses on one account, create a filter and label for each account. This way you will know what emails are personal and which ones are business related. You can save personal messages for later without having to read through them. This will leave you with your more important tasks. Manage your email only twice a day or less. Even better, leave your email off on the weekends and spend more time with your family and friends, and in your personal activities.
Check it once in the morning after you have been at work for a few hours, answer any new emails you may have.
This will free up your morning for the most important things you have to do for the day. Check it once more in the late afternoon after lunch. After that, leave it alone until tomorrow and focus on all of the other work that you have to get done. Some of the most productive people I know have an automatic response to their email. If you have sent me an email, I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can. If this is an emergency, call this number and speak to this person. There are three cores in which people spend their time — conversations, thoughts, and actions.
How you are managing your time within each of those categories will determine how successful you are in life. No amount of money or resources can get back lost and wasted time. Start to evaluate how you are spending time by keeping a record of what is requiring the most time and attention in your day to day life. Determining which tasks require the most time is the first step in constructing a plan to be more productive.
Depending on what you are doing, time can fly by or it can crawl by. Although you may be busy throughout the day, that does not equate to productivity. By managing time more wisely, you will minimize the time you waste in a day and increase your productivity.
Create a list of the most important tasks and allot time for each task. Holding yourself to the allotted time will provide a foreseeable goal and maintain your energy and productivity. Structuring in occasional breaks is very necessary. Working past the point of your max will leave you unmotivated and less productive.
Eliminate tasks that are unnecessary and require you to invest a lot of time. Find shorter substitutes to the tasks that are essential to your day, but are not on the top list of tasks. Having a clear goal, organized time to work, and set time to decompress will make you happier and will help you manage your time more wisely. It is important that you never trust to luck when you plan a project. Hope is not a strategy. It has become quite natural and enjoyable.
Could you do something similar? Time spent browsing Twitter or gaming or watching TV and movies can be one of the biggest drains on productivity. I suggest becoming more aware of how much time you spend on these activities. The time constraint will push you to focus and be more efficient, even if you end up having to go back and add a bit more later. Allowing ourselves down-time between tasks can be a breath of fresh air for our brains. One of the fastest ways to overwhelm yourself is to think about your massive to-do list.
Realize that no amount of thought will make it any shorter. At this point in time, all you can do is focus on the one task before you. This one, single, solitary task. One step at a time. Numerous studies have linked a healthy lifestyle with work productivity. Similar to getting enough sleep, exercising and eating healthily boost energy levels, clear your mind, and allow you to focus more easily.
Basically, do less is another way of saying do the things that really matter. Slow down, notice what needs to be done, and concentrate on those things. Aim for hours per day. Create a filing system for documents. Make sure all items have a place to be stored in your dwelling. Waiting rooms, lines at the store, time on the subway, on the elliptical at the gym, etc. Find things to do during this time. I tend to have a lot of reading for classes, so I bring some of it almost everywhere I go and read during waiting time.
Managing my time isn't about squeezing as many tasks into my day as possible. It's about clearing away space in my life to make time for people, Remember: There are innumerable hacks and tricks to manage your time effectively. . Philosophy · Psychology · Business · Education · Activism · Create!. Time is precious, particularly when it comes to running a small business. Yet there are never more than 24 hours in a day. Some entrepreneurs.
No distractions, no excuses. A firm will to accomplish what you decide to accomplish will take you anywhere. Rather than approaching this work in whatever order you feel, group the like tasks and do them consecutively.
Action and inaction should both play key roles in our lives. Discovering time in your life for silence and non-motion reduces anxiety and shows you that there is no need to constantly rush. It also makes it easier to find your work pleasurable. Our lives are full of excess. If you remember one thing from this post, remember this:. Be open to opportunity. Best of luck implementing these tips, and let me know if I can do anything else to help you.
This article originally appeared at Refine The Mind. TheCreativityPost Quality content on creativity, innovation and imagination.