Making use of those valuable hours

Even for the most senior people in organisations, time management can be an ongoing challenge. Many, apparently quite efficient people, live with the thought that they could use their time at work better.

There are numerous programs designed to help, and endless lists of tips and hints, but finally, time management is a very personal issue.

For more effective time management, the simple fact is that you have no one but yourself to monitor how well you are using your time.

Self-monitoring is essential. For improving time management, you must be your own watchdog. No skill can improve without feedback, so as a daily practice, you need to evaluate how your time plan is working and whether tasks have been accomplished or not.

To be an excellent time manager, the skills and abilities that need to be developed, include:

• Setting priorities so that you are sufficiently organised to meet deadlines;
• Setting and achieving goals,
• Getting over your internal barriers when putting your goals and plans into action,
• Making smarter decisions faster; and
• Uncovering better options.

The good news is, that all time management skills are learnable. More than likely you will see much improvement from simply becoming aware of the essence and causes of common personal time management problems. With these time management lessons, you can better identify which time management techniques are most relevant for your situation.

With good time management skills you are in control of your time and your life, of your stress and energy levels. You make progress at work. You are able to maintain balance between your work, personal, and family lives. You have enough flexibility to respond to surprises or new opportunities.

Two of the biggest and most fundamental aids for better time management relate to planning and being realistic.

Planning your day
If you want to have a good, productive day at your workplace, start yourself up with daily planning. Create a To-Do list of all the tasks that have to be completed.

Don't be afraid of putting too much on your list.  If you give yourself one thing to do, it may take you all day. If you give yourself 12 things to do, you may not get them all done, but you'll knock off eight or nine.

But rather than just producing a daily list, items need to be prioritised. Otherwise you very often end up achieving only the things you want to do rather than the important things.

Setting realistic goals
Goals give you direction, and they help you manage your time. Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, realistic and achievable. But don’t be too hard on yourself. In the perfect world, your goals ‘stretch’ you but you don’t want goals that can ‘break’ you.

Of course, any worthwhile strategy for using time efficiently, has to identify things that take your time away, such as

• Telephone interruptions;
• Tasks that should be delegated;
• Procrastination;
• Unclear communication;
• Unnecessary meetings; and
• Lack of focus or objectives.

For most people reasonable time management does not take too much effort. If you need to improve your performance in this area, it does take discipline and the consistent application of the obvious techniques such as planning and being realistic.