This article comes from Entrepreneur.
When you’re able to manage time, you’re not wasting your most valuable resource in life. You’ll become more productive and successful at work and at home. You’ll also improve your overall health. And, you’ll be more confident and energetic to take face anything head-on.
But, how can you tell if you’re good at time management or not?
It’s become a running joke with my friends. We have one member of our crew is infamous for being late and unreliable. In fact, it’s so bad that if you had dinner reservations for 7 p.m., we would tell him that it’s at 6 just to make that they arrive on time!
I don’t think anyone purposely wants to have that reputation. But if you’re known for constantly running late or missing deadlines, then that’s definitely a sign that you need to step-up your time management game. You could do this by giving yourself more time then you need. Examples would be bumping up a due date by a day or two or leaving ten minutes earlier.
Prioritizing what needs to be done and time management goes hand-in-hand. After all, identifying your priorities ensures that you’re spending the right time on the right task at the right moment. It also prevents you from wasting your valuable time on activities that are so unimportant that they could either be done by someone else or completely removed for your to-do-list.
The most important thing to remember here is that not everything is important. To help you determine this, create a master list of everything that you need to get done. Next, analyze your list and determine what you need to do right now and what can be scheduled for later. As for everything else? Delegate.
Do you feel like you’re always rushing out the door in the morning? Do you wait until the last minute to complete a project? Are there times when you’re rushing around so much that you literally seem exhausted and out of breath? If so, that’s another telltale sign.
Some people are just naturally like this. But, it doesn’t have to be this way. Give yourself more time to complete a project or travel from one location to another. Use calendar reminders to remind you of upcoming tasks or appointments. Plan ahead in advance, like prepping meals and your wardrobe so that your mornings aren’t as hectic.
“Procrastination is something that most people have faced at some point in their lives,” Denna Ritchie writes in a Calendar article. “For some reason, we as humans struggle to avoid things that are unpleasant.”
“We delay the inevitable, especially when it’s unpalatable,” adds Ritchie. “And we even do the same procrastination techniques when there is an issue or event that is really important to us — even if it’s something critical.
You are not the Energizer bunny and keep going and going. You’re a human being that needs to periodically step away from work in order to clear your head, stretch, eat, or use the bathroom. That may sound counterproductive when you have such on your plate. But, these breaks are needed to recharge your batteries so that you have the focus and energy to tackle your priorities.
Wouldn’t it be cool to be a hero like Superman or Spider-Man? You’re busy doing your work when suddenly you hear a scream or have your Spidy sense go off? You can instantly leap into action, save the day, and then seamlessly return to work.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news. But, you don’t possess superpowers. It’s particularity true when it comes to multitasking and switching between one task to another with ease. It may sound like a great way to save time. Unfortunately, the human brain just wasn’t made to multitask. And, it takes longer to complete tasks when you’re switching between them since you’re spreading your attention too thin.
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