Time management is a most common subject on which plenty of books have been written about. Yet, it is one main aspect that eludes a great many of us. Many people struggle to keep time and maintain balance amongst their personal, business and social needs and responsibilities. This imbalance has been one of the primary factor for causing stress, tension and anxiety and leading to severe health problems..

At the heart of any effective time management is the need for focusing on the core elements for achieving the desired results. As a rule, we tend to spend a great amount of our time on non-essential giving 80% of our time for achieving 20% results, and straining to achieve the remaining 80% of the results with just 20% of our time. This is one major factor for many of our stress syndromes.

So the first step for enhancing efficiency is separating the vital from the unimportant and devoting time and attention to the main issues and effectively delegating or outsourcing those activities of lesser importance. One way to keep tab on the way you spend time is to maintain an activity logbook for noting the time spent on different activities in a day, including making coffee, talking over the phone, etc. If you examine your logbook at the end of the day, you will find those areas where spending time is disproportionate to its value. You need to allocate more padding time for achieving your main goals.

‘Action Plan’ and ‘To Do List’ are enduring methods for achieving your goals. By breaking them into simple tasks, Action Plan focuses only on those basic steps for achieving your immediate goals. . ‘To Do List’ is of immense help to list out all the sundry tasks for the day or week or whatever.

Apart from these, what is of significance is that Mind Mapping can be a useful tool to help manage time at every step in the process. Be it Action Plan, or To Do List, or Activity Log book or even Goal setting. Mind Maps serve as excellent tool for efficient handling of your time as well as for attaining your larger goals. As Mind Mapping triggers a free flow of ideas and associations, you will discover new creative ways to overcome the difficulty of managing time efficiently.

Mindmapping is an ideal tool for time management. Apart from maintaining ‘Action Plan’ and ‘To do list’, mindmapping can incorporate other range of activities as well. You can form ‘Short-term goals’, ‘Medium-term goals’ and ‘Long-term goals’ into mindmapping. In one piece of mindmapping sheet, you can have all these activities included. This will help in keeping track on where you stand. With the goals constantly in the picture, your activity gains greater meaning and purpose. This will lend further momentum to your activities.

It is with actual application of mindmapping that you will realize its true power. It is a simple and handy device that can be explored in various ways. Try it to know its potent value.