Develop time management skills

KNOW YOUR PRIORITIES

Life can feel overwhelmingly chaotic and busy sometimes, but often times, we are creating the hectic chaos all by ourselves. There is one simple way to eliminate the clutter from your life and develop effective time management skills, and that is to know your priorities. You may be piling too much on your plate – more than you will be able to handle. If you are over-scheduling yourself, you will never feel accomplished or satisfied because you will never have gotten everything done that you set out to do. You will perpetually feel disappointed and in over your head. Make a list of the priorities in your life – the top five priorities. Then, write down your priorities for the month, then for the week, then for the day. Do the priorities for your week and day align with your life priorities? If not, you need to rethink your reasons for listing certain things as pressing priorities for the here and now. To ensure that you are going to be able to manage your time effectively and complete all of the items on your daily priority list, you should jot down the estimated time that you will spend on each item on the list. Don’t tell yourself that you are going to do today what you know very well you won’t have time to do until tomorrow or the next day!

DEVELOP A PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM

There are several different ways that you can go about organizing your daily priority lists. You have to figure out which method works best for you. Some people like to make checklists for themselves in a journal that they can carry around. Other people prefer to use a date book. Dry erase boards are great for making lists at home, so many stay-at home moms benefit from a dry erase board on the refrigerator. If you are a technology lover, you can use a palm pilot or another electronic organizer to make your lists. While you may think that you will be fine just keeping a mental list of what your priorities are, this is not a good move. Your mind will play tricks on you, and you will wind up mentally assigning yourself more tasks throughout the day, hence ruining your time management. If you have a list that is written down (or typed into a palm pilot), then you will know exactly what your priorities are, and you will have a better chance of sticking to that list of things to get accomplished.

READY OR NOT, MOVE ON

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you don’t need to get everything done in one day either. If you say that you are going to spend an hour cleaning the kitchen then spend an hour cleaning the kitchen. If you didn’t have enough time to mop the floor after doing the dishes, so be it; move on to the next item on your list. You can’t be a perfectionist if you want to develop strong time management skills. You will feel much better about getting most of the work done for all of your tasks than getting all of it done for one and leaving four more tasks completely undone. If you have extra time at the end of your day or on the weekend, you can tie up any loose ends that you have remaining. In order to stay on track, wear a watch, set your alarm clock in the morning, and get to bed early enough to get enough sleep to fuel your next day.