10 Feb How To Manage Your Time

Across all social classes and walks of life, people who improve their time management skills live more fulfilling lives. From entrepreneurs in demanding industries to full-time college students, individuals must control their time if they hope to achieve important goals.

To make a solid plan for improvement time management, it’s important to know how one’s time is being spent. To identify problem areas, it’s helpful to record an hour-by-hour activity log for an entire week. Many people are shocked when they find out how much time they spend waste on less important tasks. For example, many people spend precious hours engaged in political arguments with co-workers and friends. While social interaction and conversation adds spice to life, unchecked socializing can lead to serious problems. When arranging their lives, people should give preference to schedules over to-do lists. Oftentimes, these lists become so long and unwieldy that they’re difficult to use. Appointment books and day planners provide handy spaces to schedule all necessary tasks in an organized manner.

Counter-intuitively, people who don’t schedule leisure time often end up failing to achieve high levels of productivity. With daily scheduled recreational time, individuals have something real and concrete to work for. Without these scheduled breaks, even hard workers can face fatigue-related temptation. More than simply relying on self-discipline, good time managers learn tricks for getting the most out of their own psychological makeups.

Before starting important tasks, people should have clearly defined criteria for success. These clearly defined goals should be modest and achievable. For example writers should have specific goals for how many words per hour they need to complete. Without specific goals, many people get bogged down with needless perfectionism. Others may feel overwhelmed or fail to recognize their own achievements. The best time managers learn how to focus on specific tasks to the exclusion of all else. Research has shown that the human brain is ill-suited to multitasking. To focus better, it helps to turn off phones, messaging systems and even Internet connections.

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