10 Best Ways to Improve Your Time Management Skills
Today, time management is one of the few major factors which decide the success of any individual. In our busy lives, it's very difficult to manage our time efficiently; however, it is not impossible to master the art of effective time management. Here are ten tips that will help fill your time profitably, and thus prevent you from dwelling on morbid topics.
1. Use an Activity Log
It really helps when you’re organized. You might begin every day by planning the day’s activities. This militates against floundering in uncertainty.
2. Get up Early
Don’t be a lazy Lucy. Be a spunky Simon. While all the aesthetes and life-losers are still asleep, the successful are already up and about. We do not get that much time in life, and we ought not to waste it lounging on the bed; we can sleep when we’re dead.
3. Record a List of the Daily Time-wasting Culprits
Things such as forgetting where one put one’s car keys, forgetting where one put one’s phone, smoking cigarettes—all of these kill your precious time; time that could be spent getting the edge over one’s competitors. On day one of the time-management program, you should take a notebook with you, in which you record all enemies of efficiency, you should make a record of every such occurrence.
4. Imprison the Culprits
Once you have recorded these thieves of time, you must find ways of countering their crimes. If your stray car-keys are losing you time, imprison them on a peg. If you find that you are wasting time eating, eat on the go instead.
5. Make time for Me-time
Studies show that leisure time is crucial to efficient work. Those who work best and make the most of their time, are those who get refreshed and re-energised. You might feel bad about taking a break, but rest assured: breaks are conducive to productivity in the long run.
6. Do it Now, Not Tomorrow
All successful people are successful for a reason: they have inured themselves to discomfort. The marathon runner has gotten used to throwing up. The professor has gotten used to dealing with difficult ideas. They do not shy away from the difficult tasks—they do not defer their completion of these tasks; but, rather, they get them done as soon as possible. Do not procrastinate.
7. Delegate Tasks
You cannot do it all on your own. Successful people are those who not only manage their own time but manage also to incentivise those around them, to complete the tasks integral to the completion of their own tasks.
8. Prioritise
In life, we all have to prioritize. An effective businessman will give more time to the important activities, those which might yield him more money, than the unimportant activities. He will evaluate the situation and act accordingly; for example, he will not waste time grooming himself, making sure he looks snappy before a meeting with an unimportant client; if he is seeing an important client, however, he will take pains to prepare himself, lest the client should associate his business with carelessness.
9. Drink Coffee
The benefits of coffee are widely known: caffeine binds to the adenosine receptors, and thus prevents the activation of fatigue chemicals. Those who spend their time profitably are almost invariably coffee-drinkers.
10. Make Sure You Stay Motivated
The key to the effective maintenance of energy and concentration levels is motivation. Those who use their time profitably, who keep themselves busy, are those who find ways to stay motivated. Perhaps they have a poster in their office that says, IT’S GO-TIME. Perhaps they have a picture of a former, less successful version of themselves, and use this as a provocation to the continued effort (lest they should end up like that guy again).
