Time Management

A wise man said that once you spent your money you can always make more, but once you spent your time it’s gone forever. We all complain that we are not able to manage our time better.  The first thing we need to understand is that we can’t manage time.  Time is like a flow of energy, all we can do is manage ourselves better to harness that energy. Below are some tips on how to manage ourselves better to achieve more.

1.       Set personally motivating goals

Most of us know what we need to do to be successful but we procrastinate doing them for one reason or another.  Because we are not focused on a motivating goal, we will put off an important task for the next shiny item that looks interesting.  Having written, motivating, goals will help us align our task to our goals.

2.       Don’t finish today until you plan tomorrow

If you wait for the morning to figure out what you need to do, you are losing valuable time.  If at the end of each day you review your goals and write out your action items making sure they are moving you closer to your goals, you will find that you will increase your productivity by 15-20%.

3.       Eat a Frog for Breakfast EVERY day

This comes from Brian Tracey’s book of the same name.  The idea is simple.  Each day pick the biggest task you need to do and schedule to do it first.  If not you will push it off and you find that it keeps moving to the next day on your to do list.  Once accomplished your day will be filled with items you enjoy doing and you will feel more fulfilled and motivated at the end of the day.

4.       Don’t Major in Minor things

If you focus on accomplishing the major items on your list you will find you will have room for the smaller items.  But, if you fill your day with the smaller items there will never be room for the big major items.

5.       Create a default Diary / Stick to it

Most of us don’t get important tasks done because we don’t schedule a specific time to do them.  Create a calendar where you schedule default times to work on the major activities you need to get done on a weekly basis.

6.       Invest time don’t spend it

Our biggest time waster is spending our time on doing busy work instead of important work.  We invest our time, by working on items that will affect our profits.

7.       Have agendas for all meetings

In addition to the agenda, we should also have a goal to be achieved out of the meeting.  Focus agenda items based on the goals of the meeting.  Don’t mix strategic meetings with tactical meetings.  When we do, we don’t accomplish much.

8.       Have conference calls to save time

Team communication is important but sometimes it’s inefficient to call in team members from the field to have a meeting.  Instead, conference in team members for tactical meetings.  This will help you keep your team focused and aligned to the overall goals of the company.

9.       Learn to delegate to your team

The busy work you spend time on needs to be delegated to junior employees so that you can invest your time on more profitable tasks.

Time is more than money

Self Management

We are responsible for everything that happens in our lives. Learn to accept total responsibility for ourselves. We all can learn to be more self-governing through disciplining ourselves. If we do not manage ourselves, then we are letting others to control our lives.

There is a saying; Any business, where everyone lives and works by self managing, the business is destined for greatness Here is a list of things that can help us in self management which in turn would lead us to the path of success:

1.       Look at every new opportunity as an exciting and new-life experience.

2.       Be a professional who exhibits self-confidence and self-assurance in your potential to complete any task.

3.       Agree with yourself in advance that you will have a good attitude towards the upcoming task.

4.       Frequently ask, is what I am doing right now moving me towards my goals?

5.       Do it right the first time and you will not have to take time later to fix it.

6.       Accept responsibility for your successes and failures. Do not look for a scapegoat.

7.       Do not view things you do as a "job." View all activities as a challenge.

8.       Use your subconscious mind by telling it to do what you want. Instead of telling yourself, "I can't do that very well," say, "I can do this very well.

9.       Give yourself points for completing tasks on your "to-do" list in priority order. When you reach 10 points, reward yourself.

10.   Practice your personal beliefs.

11.   Make a commitment to show someone a specific accomplishment on a certain date. The added urgency will help you feel motivated.

12.   Practice self-determination, wanting to do it for yourself.

13.   Believe that you can be what you want to be.

14.   Never criticize yourself as having a weakness. There is no such thing. You are only talking about a present undeveloped skill. You do not have any weakness, only untapped potential.

15.   Be pleasant all the time-no matter what the situation is.

16.   Challenge yourself to do things differently than you have done in the past. It provides new ideas and keeps you interested.

17.   Talk to yourself. A self-talk using positive affirmation is something that is common among all great achievers. They convince themselves that they can accomplish their goals.

18.   Create your own "motivation board" by putting up notes of things you need to do on a bulletin board or special wall space. It is an easily visible way to see what you need to work on. Also keep your goals listed and pictured on your board.

19.   Stay interested in what you are doing. Keep looking for what is interesting in your work.

20.   Establish personal incentives and rewards to help maintain your own high enthusiasm and performance level.

Let us learn to manage ourselves.