subject: Time Is MONEY - Stop Wasting It! Use Effective Time and Project Management [print this page] Time Is MONEY - Stop Wasting It! Use Effective Time and Project Management
Is your Time Management a JOKE?
This article will, I hope - show you how to stop WASTING your time.... yes you heard me WASTING it...
For some of us, we have a SLAP Happy attitude to OUR time management, and like a tap that is left to DRIP, our Time is RUNNING OUT.... Period.
Wasn't it Cher who sang "If I could turn back time, If I could find a way I'd take back those words that hurt you and you'd stay".
If only we could turn back time.... of course, it's not possible - but we CAN make more of the time we have... a LOT more.
Time, apart from Oxygen is probably our most valuable commodity.
The trouble is with time is, well - we tend to waste it. And some of us seem to waste an awful lot of it too, lets take a look at what we do as business people every day that WASTES our time.
1) Email. I personally find this the most time wasting exercise of all. I must get at least a 100 emails a day on a good (bad) day and I would estimate that 80% of these are either SPAM or things I've signed up to, and no longer wish to receive information on. I'm still getting them because I just haven't unsubscribed from them.
2) Social Networking sites. I love Facebook, my friends on there. The banter, the jokes the jolly ups... The positivity, the quotes. BUT, it does use up a lot of my time during the day.
3) Not having a CLEAR PATH to work on, i.e not having a clear agenda for the day, being unorganised, switching from subject to subject, starting work on one thing, being distracted and moving on to another thing etc,etc.
I think you get the idea, do you do any of the above, maybe a little bit perhaps?
OK... my tip today is how to get more time from your day, become a lot more organised and you WILL get MORE done.... I promise you.
My first tip - get yourself a FREE online STOPWATCH... because from now on you are going to time yourself on EVERYTHING..... well, not quite everything LOL...
This is a very valuable tool. I will set myself certain tasks throughout the day. I will allocate myself a certain time to do each task and when the bell rings on the Stopwatch, time is up and that's it. No more time spent on that project.
What happens is that we tend to take forever doing things because we have no actual DEADLINE... having NO deadline is a bit like not having a goal, we could just wander around aimlessly, giving much more time than is necessary to the tasks of the day, hence we could end up spending an hour writing an article that could have been written in only 30 minutes, if we had given it a deadline.
How many tasks throughout the day are we giving too much time to? well, probably several. I know I was.
I would jump from task to task, answer emails in between, get distracted - forget where I was, then I would start something else... My day was a MISH MASH of time wasting strategies designed with one thing in mind only........ TIME WASTING....
Look, no matter who you are, you only get 24 hours in a day, the same as everyone else. Lets say you sleep 7 hours a day, take 3 half hour breaks for food a day, you take half an hour a day for washing etc... that gives you 9 hours a day for sleep, eating and personal hygiene... It leaves most of us with 15 hours of time to be productive in.
Ok, lets knock off another 1 hour a day for doing other stuff like Petting the dog, playing with the kids etc... that still leaves us a whole 14 hours a day.
Now, be honest. How much of this 14 hours a day, do you really use wisely?..
Let's say you have a JOB.... you work hard? of course you do, do you travel back and forth to work? yes you probably do....
OK, if you have a JOB, if you work 10 hours a day and it took you an hour each way to get to and from work, you could still have up to 2 hours a day to work on moving your LIFE forward...
Whatever you do. My point is, we can always make our time more EFFICIENT.... here's how!
1) The number 1 thing that you NEED to do today, which you think will REALLY move your life FORWARD, should be written down the night before you go to bed. You will give an ALLOCATED amount of time to complete this task the next day... I personally will now allocate up to 3 hours per morning to just this one task. I work from home so this is easier for me to do in the morning. If you have a JOB, it may be better for you to do this in the evening.
Now it can be a series of things to do, to move you toward this GOAL of yours. But once you have allocated this time, you ABSOLUTELY must complete it in this time and here is what you will do.
A) Move away from all distractions
B) Commit 100% to this task only. no answering emails, no sneaking on to Facebook etc,etc, or answering that pesky phone. Switch off your cellphone, and just do the task in hand
C) Set that online timer, complete the task in the time you have allocated to it.
Believe me, I'm no Time Management expert. Far from it - I used to waste time, like anyone else, but I've learnt to give my time the value it deserves, and that value is HIGH...
Here are some further tips to make your day more productive
Tip 1# Only answer email at allocated times. I answer my email first thing in the morning, lunch time, early evening and last thing at night. Only 4 times a day. Before I got TIME smart, I used to be answering email on and off all day... WHY?
Tip 2# Allocate a specific time of the day for Telephone/Cell Phone/Skype use... try to get this done through one period of the day only, i'.e allocate 1 hour of Special Time for this task and SET the STOPWATCH....I NEVER answer any form of telephone during my 3 Hour SPECIAL period in the morning
Tip 3# Social Networking, Facebook etc. Allocate 1 hour per evening to complete this task. Your largest target audience on Facebook would probably be on there after 7pm, (their time).
There you have it. Break up your productive day into bite size chunks... Allocate a task and a time limit to each chunk..
This way your productivity WILL go up., I can guarantee it. Once you make it a habit, allocating time to tasks will be both FUN & REWARDING...
For more information on DOUBLING you productivity, Click Here
Have a GREAT, productive day.
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