Simple 4 Steps To Good Time Management
Your time management skill plays a big part on your success or failure. If you are a frequent procrastinator then it is now time to change your habit. Everyone procrastinates at times, but it can be good for you and bad for you. Let me explain this in detail. Your everyday tasks can be broken down to 4 categories: Meaningless tasks, normal tasks, important tasks, and urgent tasks.
Meaningless Tasks: things that you do at a regular basis but contribute nothing to your goal or success. When you need to do some research on the web, you may stumble upon some websites that interested you but have nothing to do with your research. You end up spending endless hours to complete the research but it would only take 15 minutes if you were focused. Another example of a very meaningless task is chatting on MSN or other IMs while doing your work. Try to eliminate most if not all your meaningless tasks. You will be amazed how much work you can accomplish with the same amount of time.
Normal Tasks: these are things you do everyday and you rarely pay attention to. For example, socializing with your co-workers and friends, reading newspaper, watching TV, and buying coffee. Generally these are tasks that do no harm to you and at the same time do no much good to you. Most normal tasks are associated with your lifestyle, so you don’t have to stop doing them. However, try doing them last, and work on more important things first. If you can, try outsourcing those tasks that involve buying coffee, etc… You know what I mean.
Important Tasks: tasks that are somewhat important to your life and your success. These tasks can be improved for more efficient time management. If you are a messy person, you can spend hours per day searching for documents and files on your desk or in your computer. Try making things more organized so you can find your important files quicker. Spending time with your family is important but you can arrange to meet time during your downtime.
Urgent Tasks: things that you know you must finish or you will face failure. Don’t procrastinate on those tasks because one day you have procrastinated, that is one more day of work you have to catch up.
There are 4 simple steps to follow for improving your time management skill. Follow it daily and you will see amazing results in a short period of time.
Step 1: Write down what you have to do on paper. If you don’t write them down you will forget. Our brains tend to put the things we have written down into long term memory. Also, with a list of what you have to complete each day, you will most likely finish them on time.
Step 2: Organize your list from urgent tasks down to normal tasks. Our list should contain around 10 items and the top 3 should be the things you must complete that day. Things that are less important and can be left over for the next day are usually on the bottom of the list.
Step 3: Plan how you would approach each task. Think of the ways and steps you need to complete each item on your list. You can’t possibly get to your destination without knowing how to get there. Time management takes a lot of planning. Actually working on your tasks is just a small part.
Step 4: The last and final step is “Just do it!” Most people do very good job on organizing and planning, but they just can’t seem to complete anything. There are 2 problems I’ve noticed. Some people think they are very good at multitasking and work on 3 or 4 things at the same time. It is better for you to work at a single task single-mindedly. You will complete it faster and generally it is better quality. The second problem is that some people dream up the world’s best plan but they don’t realize it is impossible to complete within deadline. You must know your time limit. It is better to complete an adequate work than to have the best work but not completed.
This is one of best posts I’ve written. The information comes from my own experience and observation and also from some reading. I hope this can help you become a better and a more efficient time manager.
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Tags: just do it, multitasking, organizer, tasks, time management, time manager
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