Tool for success - time management!

Have you ever met people who are always late? Or do you have a colleague who always violates all the important deadlines? Or, maybe, you yourself are this kind of person? In any case, this is an annoying trait, isn’t it?

So what do we need to do to complete all our daily tasks on time? We should learn more about “time management”.

What is time management?

Time management is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities. Good time management enables you to work smarter - not harder - so that you get more done in less time, even when time is tight and pressures are high.

Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and I can continue this list. What is the similarity between these great persons and us? We all have 24 hours a day! What enabled them to lead such significant lives? They managed their time very well.

Dr. Mallary Tytel, president of Healthy Workplaces in Bolton, Connecticut categorizes barriers to effective time management as either internal or external factors. Internal barriers include factors like discipline and procrastination; external barriers include factors like workload, job and workplace constraints and available corporate resources.

As we can understand from the above words, external barriers do not depend on us, but we can eliminate internal barriers. For example, nowadays many people, especially youth have such a bad habit as procrastination.

So what is procrastination? According to psychologists, procrastination is something that most people have at least a little experience with. No matter how well-organized and committed you are, chances are that you have found yourself frittering away hours on watching TV, updating your Facebook status, shopping online and so on, when you should have been spending that time on work or school-related projects.

Well-organized time management helps us to avoid procrastination, increase the efficiency of our work, and achieve success in many fields of our lives. And now I would like to give a few tips to effective time management that I usually use in my daily life.

First of all, I would recommend making a “to-do list”. Making a ‘to-do list’ every morning and then following it throughout the day would certainly prove out to be one of those things that would make you feel satisfied at the end of the day. Why is this list so useful and important? Because it always reminds you of what you have already planned to do, and helps you focus more deeply on your tasks.

During planning a new day and making a “to-do list” you should always prioritize properly. The Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule) says that 80% of results will come from just 20% of the action. Based on this rule, you should start your day with doing the most complicated work. The other tasks which are easier can be done in a much shorter time. This will allow you to spend your time more effectively and not to procrastinate the main tasks.

And the last but not the least it is self-control. If you are tired and feel the need to take a break, you should definitely do it. Sitting in front of a laptop or keeping your books opened, while your mind is in a different place, would make no sense. When you rush from one task to another without taking any break, it is difficult to appreciate your efforts. But it is better not to take a break for surfing the Internet, watching a movie or chatting with friends - this can be one of the biggest drains on productivity.

In conclusion, I would like to note that time management is really a good tool for success. We just should follow some simple rules that can help make our lives more productive and fruitful.

Links:

https://www.managementstudyguide.com/time-management.htm

https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/time-management

http://www.managementskillsadvisor.com/definition-of-time-management.html