Many people have lost a lot of opportunities because they were unable to manage their time well. We can control our thoughts, emotions, attitudes, behavior, and many more, but we cannot control the hands of time. However, time can be managed in your favor. You become more productive and achieve success when you manage your time well.
Your time is your life, you need to learn how to manage your time effectively because time spent or lost will never be recovered. Everyone gets 24 hours in a day; nobody gets more or less. Effective time management helps you to achieve your goals, live a purposeful life, be productive, save time, and reduce stress.
The following principles will help you to effectively manage your time:
1. Planning
Develop a habit of planning your time. To effectively plan your time, think of your day in terms of time, not the tasks you have to do. Planning can be done daily, monthly, or yearly based on the one that suits you, but having a daily plan is more effective as it helps in achieving large goals in steps. Ensure to be flexible with your plan.
2. Organise And Prioritise
Organise your plan by understanding what tasks needs to be done based on priority. Prioritise your tasks by differentiating what is important and what is urgent. Your To-do list should follow this order; Important and urgent should come first, followed by important but not urgent, then not important but urgent, and then not important and not urgent. You should also allot time to each task, tick when each task is done, have a deadline and it’s okay to carry over uncompleted tasks.
3. Scale Of Preference
Focus on 20% of your action which will reap 80% of the result, focus on those tasks that are 20% but will yield 80% result.
4. Do One Thing At A Time
Avoid engaging in multitasking activity if you can, it helps increase effectiveness and productivity at work. Practice doing one thing at a time and eventually, it will become your normal routine. Always be present at the moment, concentrate on one thing at a time, those who multitask get carried away and lose focus, and sometimes make mistakes.
5. Avoid Distractions And Don’t Procrastinate
Avoid distraction, take a break and relax when you feel stressed or less motivated, put down your phone to avoid socialising.
6. Delegate
Delegation means identifying if some of your tasks can be handled by others and assigning those tasks to someone else who has the time, resources, and knowledge.
7. Keep Yourself Healthy And Stress-free
Health is wealth; take care of yourself, eat healthy meals, drink plenty of water, and get enough sleep. Only people with a healthy mind and body can accomplish their tasks quickly, easily, and efficiently.
8. Learn To Say No
Know that it is perfectly okay to say “NO” to tasks you feel overwhelmed by.
The reason for time management is because time flies, but you’re the pilot of your life. Endeavour to set daily goals and aim towards achieving them. Identify your time wasters and tackle them aggressively. They say time is money, how do you spend your time?
