10 Great Suggestions For Mastering Time Management

Learn as much as you can about time management and put it into practice. Each and every one of us can benefit from being more efficient and effective in this respect and we can lead fuller and more productive, more enjoyable lives.

1. While this is on your mind, look at everything that you do during the course of the day and for the rest of the week. Get a large piece of paper and write each task down that you complete within a 15 minute period. Put it all down, walking the dog, watching TV, even taking a break to go to the bathroom; it has to be comprehensive. This will give you a good idea of where you start.

2. Don't rely on your memory. We can all relate to forgetting about something as it has slipped our minds and know how much stress it puts on our daily grind. Keep a note of what you need to do by making a list and checking it twice!

3. With very few exceptions, anything that lands on your lap and appears to be urgent is rarely vital. You do not have to do everything right now, at the expense of what you may have been doing before and you should be careful to tell people, subtly at first, that you can not do so.

4. Schedule what you have to do well and make sure that you are scheduling your priorities and not the other way around. This means that you're focusing on tasks according to a hierarchy of importance and while they say that you should never put off what you can do today, be wary of trying to rush to complete jobs before they necessarily have to be completed, as this can become a bad habit.

5. Delegate effectively. Once you find the right person for the job, you must trust them and once you have given them clear instructions, walk away. They will prioritise it according to their individual schedules.

6. Micromanaging is a bad move. This is a major failing of some management individuals, but we can all be guilty of it at home, work or play. Once you have entrusted somebody to do a job for you, you must let them carry on.

7. Why do you procrastinate? There can be many different reasons – fear, the need for perfectionism, uncertainty or simply becoming overwhelmed. Once you have discovered the source of the problem, take appropriate steps to overcome.

8. Understand how important time management is. If you look at this from a financial point of view, you can work out how each minute of each hour is worth a certain amount of money and this will help you to focus, without wasting those valuable moments.

9. Be prepared to say no. This can be a difficult suggestion, as we feel that we cannot afford to turn down anything to do with an income, most especially due to the recession. Understand that in the long run, if you take on too much for what may only be short-term gain; it could end up costing you more in so many different ways.

10. Find out everything you can about online time management, and keep in mind that time tracking software and time management software tools can be a fantastic investment in your future.