How To Manage Time And Your Priorities

 

Prioritizing a piece of work daily is the key to successful time management which is a misnomer term. You can never manage time. You only can manage the events happening in your life in relation to time.

Do you ever feel like there is never enough time to read or go out?

Do you feel overburdened by all your present commitments and ponder how you will ever fit them all in?

You sometimes wish for more time but you only get 24 hours each day.  Few times you don’t even know where to begin. But you always need to remember that you are in charge of your own time and daily activities.

Finding such a plan that works best for you depends generally on your ability to self-motivate, your personality, and your level of self-discipline.

To help out with this, here are few strategies for managing both time and your priorities.

 Set Your Priorities

When you prioritize, make sure you fulfill the most important tasks first. Experts say that managing time effectively requires a difference between what is urgent and what is important. However, we are more inclined to let urgent works dominate our lives.

The easiest way to prioritize is to make yourself a “to do” list, whether you need a daily, weekly, or monthly depends on your lifestyle. Then rank the items on your “to-do” list in order of their importance and urgency.

Schedule Your Daily Routine

The experts suggested that using a personal planning tool can improve your productivity. Personal planning tools include calendars, electronic planners, wall charts, index cards, pocket diaries, computer programs, and notebooks.

You need to Map out each task in the list; set a time limit and give yourself deadlines to achieve them by the end of the day or month. Always carry the planning tool with you and keep a backup system.

Stop Delaying

 

Sometimes you can put off tasks when they seem overwhelming or unpleasant. To avoid that try breaking down a single task into smaller segments that require less time commitment, result in specific and also realistic deadlines.

And even after doing this, if you’re having trouble, as you complete each small segment of the task, try building in a reward system.

Remove The Distractions

You need to control the inputs in your life by removing obstructions when you have to get down to work. Your time can be impacted by external factors done by other people and things. Those distractions can be telephone, meetings, unexpected visitors, and e-mail or family obligations.

Social media, in particular, can be very addictive. Better to use them less and less. You can check your email or inbox at the end of the day when your work gets completed.

Tell others to value your priorities by saying to your friends and family that you are unavailable during your work time.

Don’t Indulge In Multi-Tasking

Recent psychological studies have discovered that you lose seconds while switching from one task to another which results in a loss of productivity. Multi-tasking does not save seconds but leads to difficulty in maintaining focus and concentrating when needed.

Stay Healthy & Have A Strategy Meeting With Yourself

Poor time management can lead to moodiness, fatigue, and frequent illness. Try to reward yourself for time management success, to reduce stress. Before moving on to the next activity, take time to acknowledge that you have completed a major task or challenge.

People who usually practice proper time management techniques find that they are often more productive, feel less stressed, get more things done, have more energy for things they need to accomplish, relate more positively to others, and also feel better about themselves.

 

Image Courtesy:  Pixabay & Unsplash