Tips for Time Management
Do you often find yourself wondering why there are only 24 hours in a day, hoping that miraculously three extra hours would be added? You are definitely not alone. Many of us face the dilemma of sufficiently completing our work before it is due. More importantly, we struggle to balance work with play, where we either get the work done and sacrifice pleasure, indulge in leisure, or drown in a sea of stress. However, a better option exists for those of us living in this chaotic world. It’s a little thing known as time management.
Many of us shudder when we hear the words “time management”. I know what you are thinking, “Great. One more thing I have to do. Don’t I already have enough on my plate?” Truthfully, it does take some time shifting through your syllabi and writing down important assignments, but don’t count it out just yet. For the amount of time it takes to schedule your day, you save the minutes you would have wasted wondering about all the things that need to be done and which ones are most important. Of course, while you were figuring out what needed to be completed, you would probably overwhelm yourself and then waste more time wishing you didn’t tack on that last 4 credit hour science class. However, if you already know what to expect, by scheduling your days, you would waste less time. Nonetheless, this leads to a little thing called “procrastination”.
We have all heard it before, time and time again, “If you do it now, you will not have to worry about it later. However, we all know that it is much more fun (i.e. stressful) to complete assignments the night before they are due. Each day we are faced with procrastination, where we falsely say to ourselves, “Oh, I have plenty of time to do it later.” But when later comes, it seems a bit too late. An important part of scheduling is to remember to follow the plan you design. If you know that you are one prone to procrastinate, then schedule your procrastination. Leave room in your schedule to take a break, because we all know how easy it is to become overloaded and overwhelmed. The difference is if you plan ahead, you would have already accounted for “wasting” time and would not fall behind schedule. Ah, now doesn’t that sound like music to your ears?
Below you will find several tips to help you plan your days. Also, included are things you should avoid when trying to make your life a little less hectic.
Twenty Steps to Successful Time Management
1. Clarify your objectives. Put them in writing. Then set your priorities. Make sure you’re getting what you really want out of life.
2. Focus on objectives, not on activities. Your most important activities are those that help you accomplish your objectives.
3. Set at least one major objective each day and achieve it.
4. Record a time log periodically to analyze how you use your time, and keep bad time habits out of your life.
5. Analyze everything you do in terms of your objectives. Find out what you do, when you do it, why you do it. Ask yourself what would happen if you didn’t do it. If the answer is nothing, then stop doing it.
6. Eliminate at least one time-waster from your life each week.
7. Plan your time. Write out a plan for each week. Ask yourself what you hope to accomplish by the end of the week and what you will need to do to achieve those results.
8. Make a to-do list every day. Be sure it includes your daily objectives, priorities, and time estimates, not just random activities.
9. Schedule your time every day to make sure you accomplish the most important things first. Be sure to leave room for the unexpected and for interruptions. But remember that things that are scheduled have a better chance of working out than things that are unscheduled.
10. Make sure that the first hour of your workday is productive.
11. Set time limits for every task you undertake.
12. Take the time to do it right the first time. You won’t have to waste time doing it over.
13. Eliminate recurring crises from your life. Find out why things keep going wrong. Learn to proact instead of react.
14. Institute a quiet hour in your day – a block of uninterrupted time for your most important tasks.
15. Develop the habit of finishing what you start. Don’t jump from one thing to another, leaving a string of unfinished tasks behind you.
16. Conquer procrastination. Learn to do it now.
17. Make better time management a daily habit. Set your objectives, clarify your priorities, plan and schedule your time. Do first things first. Resist your impulses to do unscheduled tasks. Review your activities.
18. Never spend time on less important things when you could be spending it on more important things.
19. Take time for yourself—time to dream, time to relax, time to live.
20. Develop a personal philosophy of time – what time means to you and how time relates to your life.
Adapted from Cornell Univerity’s website:
http://www.clt.cornell.edu/campus/learn/LSC%20Resources/20stepstotimemgmt.pdf