Lots of people mistake time management for tracking time. They faithfully follow and track all the things they carry out every day, in a week or even in a month. And then they immediately stop the moment they realize progress does not materialize.
But constantly checking the clock or tracking down how you spend your time in a day is properly managing time. It is really is about maximizing time, making changes, and fully using time t maximum. For effective time management, a system should be present and should be applied.
Make no mistake about it. Keeping track of your daily routine is not effective time management, and it's not going to do you any good either. To utilize your time more effectively, the following are some effective time management suggestions.
Time Management Category:
The secret to properly managing time is to put it in different categories. By categorizing your daily routines, you can easily identify and track down your negative and positive accomplishments in a day.
1. Dealing with critical situations. Critical situations can consume many hours of time. It is a negative category, and the only way to avoid it is by spending more time on it in advance. Tasks that usually fall under critical situations are very important, so investing time on these tasks would prove to be beneficial in the long run.
An example of this category is a report that's been over due, or unexpected phone calls for an important presentation.
2. Interruptions. Small office talks and unrelated phone calls will probably top the list in this category. Write down all things you consider as interruptions to clearly define your priorities.
3. Uninterrupted Work. List down all your daily uninterrupted tasks and include your uninterrupted works. You may not be working on a job you had in mind, but by doing and accomplishing something else, this becomes more productive and positive in work.
4. Assigning Tasks. Planning tasks is the most positive thing you that you can do with your time. Planning your tasks in advance gives you better control, and better grip in accomplishing goals.
Assigning tasks can include phone calls, answering mails, or conference with staff - as longs as these tasks benefit your intended goal.
On Becoming Organized:
To effectively manage time, you should learn how to be more organize.
1. Creating Daily Record
Creating daily record should be your first step in time management. List down tasks that require priority and leave unnecessary tasks behind, the theme for your daily record should be like this.
To clearly define value of a task, you can classify it as:
a. Priority
b. Priority but not that urgent
c. Not that urgent or important.
2. Use your free time or small periods of time to get the job started.
This method is also called as 'Swiss Cheese' method where you try to use small amounts of your time to drill holes in bulk tasks. It is also one of the most common time management techniques.
