Element E-Zine

     Top 10 Time Management tips

Welcome to Element E-Zine! I have for you this week 10 tips on how to effectively time manage.

Here are my 10 favorite tips for better time management:

1. Track your time: Find out where you are wasting your time.
For 1 or 2 weeks or even a month, record in your planner every task that you do every day including things like ‘shower’, ‘get dressed’, ‘make phone calls’, and write next to it your estimation of how long the task will take you to do. Then, record how long it actually took you. This will help you to develop strong skills in accurately estimating the time it will take for you to get things done.

2. Use time management tools: Find the best planner for you:
This will depend on personal priority. You will need to decide based on your needs which planner is best for you, whether that be electronic or written, portable or stationary, and what features you require. The most important point is that you make your planner the ONLY place to record your to-dos, phone calls, events, appointments and tasks, because with all this in one place it will be much easier for you to keep track of your schedule and make it more likely that you will stick with it. Take the time to master the features of your planner and make it your own.

3. Prioritise your tasks:
In any given day, you might have so many ‘to-dos’ that you will not have gotten through all of them by the end of the day, leaving you feeling guilty and de-motivated. Everyday, pick the three most important and crucial things that you absolutely have to do that day, and make sure you get them done. For the other tasks, you can do them if you have time, you can choose to delay them until a better time for you, you could delegate them to someone else, or you could break them up into smaller, more workable sizes to make it easier for you to complete. The main point is to prioritise your to-dos, and complete what is most important and vital, and organize your other to-dos, in order to feel a sense of achievement.

4. Delegate:
Realise that there are some tasks that would be more suited for someone else, and that it will be more effective to let someone else do the task and get it done in a shorter amount of time than it would take you to do it. It makes your life easier and more effective when you can ask someone else to help out. Perhaps you can work a trade-off, for example if your friend enjoys gardening and you don’t, but you enjoy fixing computers and he is computer illiterate, then you can work out some arrangement between yourselves.

5. Learn to say no:
There is only so much time in your schedule. Use it wisely. Don’t feel that you have to do everything everyone asks you to do, or accept every invitation you’re given.

6. Set time limits:
Without realistic time limits, it is easy to spend too much time on one thing that could have been done in much less time. Doing this once or twice during the day is enough to put your schedule out of line. Set a realistic time limit for the task at hand, and most importantly, stick to it!

7. Spend 15 minutes in the morning or the night before to plan your day:
This time spent is invaluable. It gives you the opportunity to set realistic time estimates, and to see the broader picture of the day ahead, your priorities and what needs to be done when. Then, when the day comes you feel better prepared and sure of what you will be doing for that day.

8. Balance your work, family, self and social life:
Everyone needs time to relax and spend quality time with family and friends. This time should be built into your schedule, in a balanced ratio as appropriate for your work or study schedule.

9. Realise that time management is individualized: Take the time to find out which time management plan works best for you, and then implement it:
Some people prefer structure, others prefer flexibility. It is important to evaluate yourself and determine whether you prefer to have a strict timetable, a more flexible time map, or an alternative, more creative form of schedule which doesn’t restrict you. Research the different options, and implement your chosen type of time-management tool.

10. Get rid of your paper clutter:
Paper clutter can be stressful and cause you to spend more time searching for a bit of paper you need. It becomes easier to misplace documents if you have no paper organization. Invest in a few hours or a necessary amount of time to organize your paper clutter into workable sections. You’ll feel a lot of relief the next time you need to find a document and you know straight away where it is!

For more info about how personal or group life coaching can help you to improve your time management skills, visit Element Coaching at http://www.elementcoaching.com

Have a great week!

Regards from Marryam