So some of you people seem to have trouble managing time, therefore we've prepared some ideas about time management for you (if you do have these problems). And here they go:
1. Take responsibility for your time.
2. Decide wisely what you read.
3. Write down your goal.
4. Write what you want to change.
5. Decide what is important and what is urgent.
6. Use timetable.
7. Use last 15 minutes to evaluate and plan.
8. Read your e-mails only once (a day).
9. Do it for 15 minutes every day instead of doing it for 2 hours once a week.
10. Do it for 2 hours once a week instead of doing it for 15 minutes every day.
11. Plan your breaks.
12. Plan the unpredictable.
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1. Take responsibility for your time.
This is the first idea you get and the most important one. Take responsibility for your time.
If you sometimes say "I have no time for it", stop. You have as much time for it as you want. What you really mean is that you just don't want to do it - you decide to do something else instead. That something else may be more important for you or more urgent, it may concern other people, etc. Whatever the reason is that you think you don't have time, it is not true. You have time (at least for now). Take responsibility for this and decide more consciously about your doings.
This can also be a good exercise for you - to check why "you don't have time". It may help you to understand what is more important for you or maybe what consumes your time.
To better control your time, you may write down all the things you did today/yesterday and see if everything was necessary. And after that you can decide if there is anything you can skip tomorrow and do something else instead - maybe more important for you.
So, once again - take responsibility for your time. If you want to sleep - sleep, if you want to work - work. If you think you should work - work. And always remember that you are responsible for your actions and for every single second of your life... So it's up to you whether you spend it working or playing another video game with your friend, whether you spend it day dreaming during work or working hard during dream... Take responsibility for all of that.
That should help. And you should feel more in power, in charge of your own life. Or maybe, more stressed?
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2. Decide wisely what you read.
I should have probably had given you this idea at the beginning, but I didn't, my bad... Nevertheless, I'm giving you this idea right now, so you still can use it wisely...
Firstly - reading takes time, so if you want to better manage your time you should become better in deciding how much time you can invest in reading, and after that decide what is most important to read and what can wait.
Secondly - reading creates you. If you read something funny, you may feel happy after this kind of reading. If you read something sad, if you read something about business, if you read something about holiday, etc. Everything you read affects you somehow. You may think back about your reading and try to figure out what and how affects you. After that you can decide what to read next. In the morning you may try something funny to wake up and something about time management to better organize your day... or you can read whatever helps you to be more creative and diligent in your job. And during lunch you may read, and after lunch... And in the evening you may read... well, you know what you can read in the evening, don't you?
Meanwhile, you can continue reading these ideas, because it may create a much better version of you... or it can change you in a terrible way, the one in which you will stop believing in, I don't know, something, ups... Anyway, it's your choice whether you still want to read it or not... (read it, read it, read it - the author wrote not quite subliminal suggestion that will make you read this whole text).
So decide wisely what you read.
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3. Write down your goal.
Ok, now you should read carefully, because it's something difficult... But I believe in you...
Write down your goal or goals... You may use the SMART ideology to write it down. So do it...
And now that difficult time - spelling practice: SMART... Make your goal: (S) Specific (Simple), (M) Meaningful, (A) Attainable (Achievable), (R) Relevant (Realistic), (T) Timely (Time limited). (Oh, and I hope you know that I didn't create that abbreviation (you may read about it in Wikipedia or in plenty other places in the web))
And after that you can divide your first goal to couple smaller ones, so finally you can have your final goal written down and precise goal for today.
Here is an example:
- first - big goal: write a series of books about time management;
- smaller goal: write a book;
- even smaller one: write one chapter of a book;
- and then: write one new page;
- at least start writing;
- one word maybe?
- ok, just turn on your computer (now, that's what I'm talking about).
And tomorrow you may check if you managed to complete your goal. If so, you can go to the next step. If not, you may rewrite goal for the current day. And so on.
In other words - keep turning on this computer and finally you will have your book done... Pure magic, isn't it? And how efficient...
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4. Write what you want to change.
This one I like... I do it all the time...
Think about one thing you want to change in your time management. Write it down and try to change it today. Tomorrow you can check what you had written yesterday and write a new thing (or the same) and again - try to change it.
After a week or a month of this kind of actions you will have nice piece of information about what you were trying to do and what really happened. With this information you may prepare better plans for future changes.
Believe me, it works... I already wrote a couple of books about what I want to change. I'll let you read it next time you'll have some free time in your schedule... or maybe some other time.
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5. Decide what is important and what is urgent.
This idea is usually presented in coaching books. It's typically drawn as a square "important/urgent". So draw your square right now.
Do you have it?
Now you should write everything you have to do in 4 parts of this square:
1) "important / urgent" (e.g. eat something),
2) "important / not urgent" (e.g. drink something),
3) "not important / urgent" (e.g. take a nap),
4) "not important / not urgent" (e.g. talk to your coach about it).
Well, you should probably find your own examples, but I think you get the idea. Some things are important and others are not. Some are urgent and others are not. You just have to decide what is what in your situation.
And after you finish your magnificent square, you should do things from the first square (me, I get up and get some food), after you do things from the first quarter, you should go to the second one (nice tea maybe), and try to stay in this quarter (at least until you start feeling you need to use the loo). Things from third part - well, if you can, better avoid doing them (but sometimes it's unavoidable). And 4th quarter - I think you know.
I hope I got it all right, so you wouldn't get into trouble because of that square and my instructions. If you still are not sure what to write where, check the internet - there are some more explanations.
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6. Use timetable.
Ok, so finally you can learn something useful. Right now you should already be responsible for your time, read wisely, have your goal written down, and the things you want to change, and you should have it all divided into four categories. Now, you can prepare your timetable to know what to do when exactly.
And I can tell you - it helps. When you have all your things written down in one place you may better decide if you have time for that fifth coffee today or this really pleasant chat with your colleague (and sometimes you may even find out that you do have time for this).
I, for instance, found out that between 7.30 and 8.00 am I have 30 minutes of free time between turning from my left side to my right one. And I decided to get some sleep during that time. And I decided to have lunch at 3.30 pm and the dessert at 2.00 pm, 2.30 pm, and 4.00pm. But you should write your own timetable, and stick to it.
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7. Use last 15 minutes to evaluate and plan.
Use last 15 minutes of your working time to evaluate what you have done that day and to plan next day.
It helps if you don't do too many things during the day. For example if you spent whole day in bed, evaluation will be simple (or... well... it might)... but if you had couple of meetings and some paper work, etc. it may be a bit more difficult. But don't worry. If, for some reason, you did all that today, you may evaluate your actions, so to prepare better for tomorrow and plan the following day accordingly: stay in bed.
This also might help you to check if your work is as effective as it should be and to be ready for your next day. Thanks to this planning you might also have more free time at home (yes, I know that you wonder now - so in whose bed I've spent all this day... good thinking).
But if you decide that you still want to go to the office, next day after this kind of evaluation and planning you will be able to start your job at the moment you will enter the office (whatever it looks like), because you already have a plan for all activities. If that's what you like, you can do it.
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8. Read your e-mails only once (a day).
If you are one of those people who use e-mails during work time, try to figure out how much time you spend reading e-mails.
If you think it is too much, you can start with counting how many times you opened your e-mail box yesterday. And after that try to check your e-mail account one time less next day, and one time less the following day. And maybe the time will come, when you'll be able to check your e-mail account only once a day. Or maybe even quit this emailing and start actually talking to people face to face. That would be a change, don't you think?
Also, wise man once said - try to answer your e-mail immediately after reading one. I don't think it's always possible (especially when your boss is looking at you and you can't pretend that this email is about work). If it's not possible you may flag it as unread, but try to avoid going back to this e-mail, unless you will be ready to answer it (your boss will be somewhere else for example).
Oh, and if you think it will mess too much with your work or your habits, rearrange this idea into the way applicable to your situation. I won't tell you how, but I believe in your abilities.
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9. Do it for 15 minutes every day instead of doing it for 2 hours once a week.
Ok. I know what you think, but it's not about that ("having a nap", "having a snack", etc.). If you want to think about that other thing that this is not about - you should do it as often and as long as it's possible till you still can..., but enough about that.
The other "it" I'm talking about is actually everything else. Because sometimes it's better to use only 15 minutes, but systemically than to use 2 hours from time to time. It's especially important when you learn new things. In learning this 4x15 minutes training time is not equal to 1x1 hour training. In four 15-minutes sessions you can learn more, because you won't forget what you have learned yesterday and learning new things will be easier. If you learn 1 hour once a week you may forget more things and need to spend more time to remember what you already knew.
But remember, that it's not always best to work 15 minutes every day instead of 2 hours once a week. So...
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10. Do it for 2 hours once a week instead of doing it for 15 minutes every day.
Sometimes it's better to use 2 hours once a week for work than 15 minutes every day. It applies to situations when you have to prepare your work station - find proper pencil, prepare place for photographic session, etc.
But still, remember, that it's not always better to work 2 hours once a week instead of 15 minutes every day.
And now, when I think about those two ideas, I wonder which one is better in "that" situation and I think that it depends... If you know what I mean, good, if not - check it when you have time (and remember that time is what you always have... (or was it - is all you have - hope not - good luck)).
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11. Plan your breaks.
This piece of advice is really pleasant and also very important (as all of them).
To better manage your time you should plan some breaks in your work. I would say - make as many breaks as it's possible, just remember about your boss. (S)he might not get how important it is, or might get it even too much and give you plenty of free time, all of it, actually.
But still, if you have a job, you need some breaks, so better plan when you think they should start and how long they should be. Try to think what makes you most tired (beside of working itself) and what makes you happy (in your work, not after work). And, for example, place a break between those two activities. Thanks to this you can rest after doing some tiring things (if you absolutely have to) and after a break you can come back to something pleasant.
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12. Plan the unpredictable.
Ok, this is the last piece of advice about time management, so listen carefully. I know that previous ideas were very comprehensive, but there is one more thing you should know about working.
Sometimes it does not go as it is planned. Yes. I know it sounds strange and you may be unfamiliar with this kind of situation, but still - it happens.
So, when you plan your work always remember that you won't be able to predict everything. Therefore, do it for me and plan some free time during your working day for things that are unpredictable. It'll make me feel more comfortable if I know that you will have time to "extinguish fires" (wherever they'll be situated: bedroom, bathroom, elevator, front desk, backend...) that will inevitably appear one day.
Thanks to this you will have time to react if something like this happens. And if nothing unpredictable happens you will have some time to use (to use wisely of course, not like that).
And it will also help you not to get stressed if something comes up (your boss will decide to check what you have done for last six months (s)he was giving/paying you (not enough) money)...
So be prepared...
And these are all the ideas that should be enough for you for starters. Of course, there is a lot of other things you should know about time management, but I believe that you can figure it out yourself. You are smart people after all...
Oh, and I almost forgot. It's not that important..., but still..., some say it's necessary (I don't get it, but maybe you will).
Ready?
