Time Management (Determining your essential daily activities and identify priority work areas)

Time Management

Time management is Life Management. Time is the most precious asset. It is one thing you cannot preserve. When you properly manage your time, you can achieve more in one day than what a disorganized person can achieve in one week.

Time management involves action- the ability to be in charge of the affairs of your life or work. Time management also involves the control of the sequence of events affecting you, that is the ability to be organized. Great achievers in history and contemporary times had high degree of control of their time. You too can make a decision to become an organized person and a good time manager.

To be a good time manager, the following principles will help you: 

1. Change your language: Say to yourself i am well organized. Visualize yourself as being well organized. Create a good mental picture of yourself as being a well organized person. Being to act as if you are well organized. If you begin to think positively that you are a good manager, you will become one . Begin to see yourself as a great achiever, who will not allow an idle time.

2. Change your values: Ask yourself, why am doing what I am doing? Am I creating values for life, for my company and for the society. Am I doing things that are meaningful, commendable, purposeful and desirable? What outcomes, achievement and accomplishment would be gained by my actions and time.

3. Take time each day to review: What you did at close of work or day and plan for a new day. Take time to think about, and appraise your life and time.

4. Determine your goals and objectives: Set goals and give specific deadline for achieving such goals.

5. Make detailed plans: All successful people plan and plan over again. They are always thinking on papers. Make a checklist of all you want to accomplish for the new day. Thick through as you get them done, observing reasons for inability to accomplish some items. Make a new plans for the unaccomplished items. Make time table of all you do daily or set time targets. Review your plans from time to time. Action without planning is the cause of every failure.

6. Set priorities of things to do: Grade them this way:

A - Things you MUST do.

B - Things you SHOULD do.

C - Things NICE to do.

D - DELEGATE things to subordinates (junior)

E - ELIMINATE things not necessary.

7. Concentration: Concentration entails focussing all your energy and inner powers to make the most of a given opportunity. If you cannot concentration on one given thing as a time, you cannot be successful. This is the key to great accomplishment in life.

8. Overcome procrastination: Break the jobs in bits and pieces. Cultivate the attitude of DO IT NOW. Develop a sense of urgency. Do things fast and with speed. Try to do it well the first time (total quality) and always. This way, you will avoid unnecessary repetitions and time wastages.

NB: if you properly manage your time, you will be able to do the right things at the right time and not doing the right things at the wrong time. You can begin today, to plan effective use if your time. Determine your essential daily activities and identify priority work areas.