There are only 24 hours in a day, but some people are able to achieve more in life without working more. Time management is one reason among many, but it is an important one because it drastically reduces wastage of time.
Most of us try to work for more hours to increase our productivity, which damages our health and our personal life. Working more hours for a long period of time may help you to achieve more in the short-term, but it will have negative effects on your health and personal relationships in the long-term. Time management, on the other hand, teaches us to achieve more in the same time that we usually spend on completing tasks. It is the healthy way to increase productivity.
1. Prioritising
Setting the priorities right is the first step to accomplishing tasks that are the most important to you. Even though we all are aware of what we must need in life, when we begin to work, we get distracted by other tasks that also need completion. Listing your priorities brings our focus back on what we need to give time to.
2. Planning versus Procrastination
Planning and doing must be balanced. Some people spend more time in planning than in doing, which results in delays. Some others do tasks without planning, which leads to confusion and delay. Planning must be done, but it must not lead to procrastination. An effective method to help you get the right balance in planning and procrastination is to set a deadline for the planning. Give yourself an hour, ten minutes or a day for planning, depending on the importance and the largeness of the task. After the deadline, get down to do it. It will save your time, and will help you to complete tasks smoothly and successfully.
3. Organising
For the effective handling of large or multiple projects, organising becomes essential. Create specific places, physical or virtual, for your files and documents. Make it a habit to keep everything in its place so that you remember where a thing is kept. If you use one folder for keeping your tax bills, and you always put that folder in the top drawer, your brain will immediately recall where a tax bill is kept. It will save much of your time in looking for and sorting out things. Turn organising into a ritual and you will save time.
4. Reducing Distractions
Much of our time is lost in attending to distractions. It is hard to resist temptations; that is why, it is important to keep distractions away so that you are not tempted to give in. Keeping the television off when you are working will help you to concentrate. If you face distractions at the office, you may consider playing meditative music to help you to concentrate. It will assist you in completing the job much faster.