How Good Is Your Time Management?

Most people have a "to-do" list of some sort. The problem with many of these lists is they are just a collection of things that need to get done. There is no rhyme or reason to the list and, because of this, the work they do is just as unstructured. So how do you work on To Do List tasks – top down, bottom up, easiest to hardest?

See the lesson "How To Plan Your Time" to find out how to get the most benefit from a to do list.

To start managing time effectively, you need to set goals. When you know where you're going, you can then figure out what exactly needs to be done, in what order. Without proper goal setting, you'll fritter your time away on a confusion of conflicting priorities.

See the lesson "How To Set Goals And Objectives" to learn simple goal and objective setting techniques.

Much of time management comes down to effective planning of your time. When you know what your goals and priorities are, you then need to know how to go about creating a schedule that keeps you on track, and protects you from stress.

See the lesson "How To Plan Your Time" to learn how you can quickly and easily plan what you do each day.

To work efficiently you need to work on the most important, highest value tasks. This way you won't get caught scrambling to get something critical done as the deadline approaches.

See the lesson "How To Prioritise Your Work" to find out how to work out the value of individual tasks.

Effective time management means understanding the factors that affect the time you have available for work. You not only have to schedule priority tasks, you have to leave room for interruptions, and contingency time for those unexpected events that otherwise wreak chaos with your schedule.

See the lesson "How To Plan Your Time" to learn how to work out how long things will take.

Prioritizing what needs to be done is especially important. Without it, you may work very hard, but you won’t be achieving the results you desire because what you are working on is not of strategic importance.

See the lesson "How To Prioritise Your Work" for some tools and techniques that will help.

"I'll get to it later" has led to the downfall of many a good person. After too many "laters" the work piles up so high that any task seems insurmountable. Procrastination is as tempting as it is deadly. The best way to beat it is to recognize that you do indeed procrastinate. Then you need to figure out why. Perhaps you are afraid of failing? (And some people are actually afraid of success!)

See the lesson "How To Overcome Procrastination" for details of how you can get yourself motivated to get things done.

Whilst it is critical to understand what your own priorities should be it is also important to make sure that these do not conflict with those of other people. You need to make sure that everyone's priorities are aligned so that you do not end up working really hard on something that turns out to be unimportant to everyone else.

See the lesson "How To Manage Expectations" to learn how you can avoid conflicting priorities.

Having a plan and knowing how to prioritize it is one thing. The next issue is knowing what to do to minimize the interruptions you face during your day. There are phone calls, e-mails, information requests, questions from colleagues, and a whole host of events that crop up unexpectedly. Some do need to be dealt with immediately, but others need to be managed.

See the lessons "How To Deal With Time Stealers" and "How To Manage Expectations" for some practical ideas on how to manage interruptions.

To manage your time effectively you do need to set goals. People tend to neglect goal setting because it requires time and effort. What they fail to consider is that a little time and effort put in now saves an enormous amount of time, effort and frustration in the future.

See the lesson "How To Set Goals And Objectives" to find out how you can use goal setting to get yourself organised and reduce stress.