How do you deal with the ever expanding demands on your time? What do you do on a regular basis to put your first things first?

People are often surprised when I tell them that I meditate daily. Maybe they don't think that I look like the meditation type? I am not sure. What does your average meditator look like? I do not walk through the halls chanting " om..." but I do work in a very demanding field where burn-out is epidemic. Meditation is teaching me to put things in perspective. I am learning to use meditation as a means to stay mindful. Mindful of what is important to me. It is easy to get caught up in making plans, worrying about what happened yesterday and what lies ahead today or tomorrow or next Thursday. Do you find that you want to manage your time? When I googled time management I got 114 million hits. Apparently managing our time is very important to us.

Stephen Covey, who has written numerous books on how to manage our business/personal lives, how to set and achieve goals, how to make the most of what we have... states that we cannot manage time. Everyone has the same amount of time in a day, the same number of days in the week... etc. So we cannot manage time but... we can make choices around how we use the time we do have.

What is time really? It is an ethereal mechanical measurement that we often feel dictates much of our life. There is pressure to perform, pressure to have a certain body of work done by a 'deadline', pressure to let time manage us. What if instead of measuring our accomplishments and our expectations by past present and future we simply lived the experiences.

But, how do we do that? How do we move from our heads into our heart/soul/spirit? To be in-spirit (or to be inspired) is to take something in, not just into your brain/mind/ego, but into your inner being, into your spirit. To go within, to be in-spirit, to let go of ego and BE. I was inspired by a blog entry I read that was written by Gregg Krech. Gregg and Linda Anderson run a retreat centre in Vermont, The ToDo Institute (pronounced toe-doe) where "By blending Japanese approaches to mental health, they provide an approach to living well that bridges the gap between the spiritual, the psychological and the practical."

Gregg's blog entry is about awakening, how he has changed his focus upon waking each morning. Instead of waking up and starting right off the bat to plan his day, rather than jump right into considering all of the many tasks that lay before him he has taken to spending the first few minutes being mindful - in the moment. He takes a moment to be thankful for having a warm bed to sleep in, he takes a second to stretch and be thankful for the body parts that move at his subconscious will, he breaths, he enjoys the first sounds of nature beginning to stir outside, the song of an early bird, the whispering of the wind, the lightening of the sky.

That is what meditation does for me. It gives me the opportunity to stop in a perpetual-motion-kind-of-day , to take stock, to slow my life down to something as simple as breathing in and breathing out. It allows me to slow to a speed where I can luxuriate in the scent of a freshly cut flower. I can bathe in the warmth of the sun coming in the window. I can savor the taste of warm sweet tea. With each breath in a renewed energy fills me up, with each breath out a letting go of tension, concerns as well as a soft outflowing of my gifts to share with the world.

Barbara Shanahan is a Women's Spiritual Enrichment Coach, Facilitator and Registered Nurse From her extensive background working with families dealing with chronic and terminal illness, growing children, aging parents... the many issues women face, comes a passion for working with women to develop a kind, loving, nurturing relationship with themselves. She is a guide for women, who wish to explore their spiritual life purpose, women who are looking for authenticity and fulfillment in their lives.

You can't ignore the role of time management when training cycling. Here are some useful tips on time management.

Set goals

When you have the date of an important event circled on the calendar, you won't have difficulty motivating yourself to find riding opportunities. As the crucial day nears, you can justify arranging other parts of your life around cycling for a change. Afterward, reduce your cycling to recover, restore balance, and take care of things you ignored. Then, identify another goal to build toward. There's nothing like seeing progress to keep you interested in training.

Know your needs

Let's say your goal is the club century. You may assume that you need to be doing time-consuming 80-mile rides to train for it. In fact, most cyclists find that they can handle about three times the duration of their average training ride, as long as they maintain a sensible pace, keep eating and drinking, and take an occasional short break. So, if you find the time to average 35 miles every other day for several months, you should be capable of a 100-miler. For beginners who have a half-century or metric century as their goal, a 15- to 20-mile daily average is sufficient.

Ride early or late

With good planning, it may be possible to ride before or after your core work hours, however long they might be. Schedule weekday rides in your appointment calendar so that they become as important as any other responsibility.

Riding at dawn has several advantages. It sets the tone for a confident day. You'll feel good about having your workout safely behind you no matter what else happens. In summer, the air at daybreak is cooler and cleaner. There's usually less traffic and less wind, and you avoid the risk of afternoon thunderstorms. In winter, a bright, reliable lighting system makes it possible to be on the road despite late sunrises.

Riding in the evening is possible thanks to modern lighting systems. They expand cycling potential past sunset, ridding you of anxiety about getting home in time to squeeze in a ride before dark.

Ride at noon

Many companies now accept midday recreation by employees. Some even encourage it with flextime. When you're forced to fit your ride into an hour during the workday, you have the impetus to push yourself. The result should be lots of improvement for the time spent. Riding at lunchtime can work if you have suitable roads near your job (a park may be available if you work in a city), a way to clean up afterward, and a safe place to keep your bike.

Commute by bike

The oldest advice for creating training time is still the best: Ride your bike to your daily destination and back. Let's say you live 10 miles from your job. Driving that distance in stop-and-go rush-hour traffic takes 30 minutes. By using a 12-mile route that keeps you off the busy roads, you can ride there in about 50 minutes. So, you get 24 miles of round-trip cycling per day, and it takes only 40 minutes more than sitting behind the steering wheel, wondering how you'll find the time to squeeze in a ride.

Commuting miles aren't likely to be top quality, given the stop-and-go nature of riding in town, but you can improve them with some ingenuity. The simplest way is to find a longer route home and do some real training while you blow away the day's work stress. You'll get a decent workout and free your evening for other activities.

Ride for transportation

You want to do things with your spouse and kids on the weekends, but you also want to ride. Do both by pedaling to the lake while the rest of the family drives. If you depart early you'll all arrive at the same time, then you can enjoy the rest of the day knowing you got your miles. Throw the bike on the car rack and return with the family (unless you can talk them into letting you ride back, too).

Emphasize quality

Get maximum results from each minute on the bike by riding with a purpose. For example, if you're going with a group, practice your paceline skills. If you're solo, do low-gear sprints to work on your spin or climb hills to develop power. On a recovery ride, practice cornering, riding with no hands, or other skills that don't tax your cardiovascular system. You'll see how each day requires a different type of riding for maximum improvement.

Ride hills

Minute for minute, it's hard to beat the benefits of time spent climbing. Take it from three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, who says, "There's no better training than riding hills. For me it was the easiest way to get in shape." It improves everything-strength, power, stamina, cardiovascular conditioning. As opposed to a flat 90-minute ride, one that includes a couple of thousand vertical feet will leave you feeling happily hammered, satisfied that you got a lot for your precious on-bike time.

Be organized

Keep your riding gear in the same place so that you don't waste time hunting for something while your cycling clock is ticking. Lay out your clothes and food, and mix your drinks the night before. After the ride, put your sweaty clothes in the washer while you're in the shower. When you're clean, they're clean, and you can hang them to dry for the next ride. Routine means efficiency.

In the postmodern and connected life we “manage” our time. While world religions can’t agree whether time is linear, circular or stops altogether at one point, it seems to be a rather pretentious endeavor to establish rules for time management. Also for the faithless time remains an enigma and sometimes difficult to bear. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said that intelligence is the capability to be alone, and we might as well say - the capability to be alone when time passes by.

We can foster our philosophical understanding of time by using it efficiently in our daily lives dedicated to making money and thus gaining freedom from financial pressures. The single most reason for not realizing our longings in life lies in financial restrictions, hence money is an enabler for independence. When we assume independence from the usual walks of the life of the white collar worker’s 9-6-day in the office, we experience enhanced ease of time. We will grow more silent in our minds, and in silence there are truth and power for an eventually happier life.

Let’s have a look at daily practices for time management and more financial success:

If you organize your working time with reference to the Eisenhower method, you learn to distinguish the important from the urgent and to act accordingly. Ask yourself about every issue how it fits into the below mental diagram:

Important and urgent - get done with it right away.

Important but not urgent - make an entry into your calendar.

Not important but urgent - try to delegate as much as possible and reduce involvement.

Not important and not urgent - trash it.

The Eisenhower method makes sense if we work receiving from and reacting to the environment, i.e. if we are working dependently. This method helps to prioritize work tasks. In order to become financially free we have to go one step further and look at how we should plan and spend effectively.

Let’s have a look at the “time quadrant”. So, once more we have the dimensions urgent and important, but this time we do not look at how they help us prioritize work tasks, but at how to spend our time in first place so we can plan our lives.

Steven Covey also describes this time management matrix in the “the 7 habits of highly effective people” in habit 3 “Put First Things First”.

Urgent and important - fighting daily fires. This is where most people spend much of their time, doing so is a guarantee to remain in the rat race. Try to minimize your time in this quadrant and if possible, delegate.

Not urgent and important - strategic thinking, big picture mode. This is where you see the forest and not only the tree. This is where you want to spend quality time, maximize!

Urgent and not important - urgent to someone else, not important to you. This is the daily situation of unhappily employed people. Minimize!

Not urgent and not important - this is where you waste your time. Like e.g. gossiping on the phone, watching television, surfing the Internet without purpose. Try to minimize!

Even if we plan our time and spend most of our time in strategic thinking mode, we are sometimes overwhelmed by our daily lives. To gain clarity again and physical strength we should retreat once in a while. Eventually peace of mind and happiness will come along with developing your own inherent time making you a fully intrinsically motivated person.

Augustine of Hippo once said “There is only one word written on the eternal watch - now!” - this tells us not to procrastinate. This is also where intuitions come into play to make wise decision, as in the complex world we live in we do not - and in fact should not - always have the time to gather all the information we feel is required to take an informed decision. If we learn to use our intuitions we learn to be close to ourselves.

Finally, we actively need to give our friends, families, leisure and pleasure the same priority as we give to our work.

Applying the simple methods describe above will not only help us become more effective professionals, but also bring us closer to time. Development, it was once said, is the increase of consciousness.

Most people believe that the secret to time management is doing more things in less time. This is simply not true. The secret to time management is doing fewer things!

This may sound strange, but it is still true. It is so important that I will say it once again.

The secret to time management is not doing more things in less time, it is doing fewer things.

At the beginning of each year, sit down and ask yourself the following question: "If I could do just one thing this year in my business and nothing else, and looking back at the end of the year I would say to myself, 'What a terrific year!' what would that one thing have to be?"

Then take it one step further. "If I could do just one more thing, and looking back at the end of the year I would say to myself, 'This has been the most productive, profitable, and rewarding year ever!' what would that one more thing be?"

Then do these two things and nothing else.

You will have an amazing career. You will become a business legend.

Then do the same thing in your personal life. Find the two most important things.

Do those two things and nothing else.

You will have an amazing life.

Then do the same thing with your philanthropy. Find the two most important things.

Do those two things and nothing else.

You will make an amazing contribution to humanity!

Imagine what it would be like if you get to the end of the year, and looking back . . .

You launched the most successful product in your company's history.
You recruited five of the most talented people in the industry to join your team.
You built your dream home.
You found and married the partner of your dreams.
You took 150 orphans to Disneyland.
You sponsored an emergency medical team to fly to a region wracked by natural disaster.

Then imagine to yourself a life made up of 30 more years just like this one!

A reality check is a good time management technique. When you procrastinate because of exaggeration you exaggerate the extent and involvement of a project. Part of you is hoping that will make others just give up and go away, but that doesn’t work all that often. Break the project down into it’s components to understand the full scope of the project, and then just work on one component at a time until it’s done.

Another good time management technique is to get the overall scope down on paper before starting anything. Write out a quick rough draft identifying the big pieces needed for the project. Check and review to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything, and that you haven’t added more than is necessary.

Look at each big piece and write out the major steps or activities required to accomplish each one. This time management technique either re-enforces that the project is as big as you thought, or it demonstrates that maybe it’s not as bad as you were making it out to be. When the project really is big, look for outside help to get things done rather than just putting it to the side because it seems overwhelming.

Delegation is always a good time management technique so ask yourself, “what can I delegate”? Now if you believe the only way to get things done right is to do them yourself this will be really hard for you. If you think this way I challenge you to recognize that you’re also creating your own time management prison where you have to be at the center of everything or nothing happens.

The next time management technique is to break the big steps or activities into all the little supporting steps or activities. This serves two purposes. First, it prevents you from overlooking things and having to scramble to recover. Second, as you go through this thought process you’re getting everything that needs to go on your to do list so you can efficiently work down your list checking things off as you go.

Exaggeration procrastination doesn’t have to foil your time management techniques. Exaggeration is just part of who you are, and there isn’t anything wrong with that. Now you can choose how you respond to your need for exaggeration by stepping up and taking control and getting things done no matter how big or small.

Being half a century in age, I have given the subject of time management a lot of thought. I am endlessly fascinated, entertained, and humbled by the concept of time. As an entrepreneur, I have often speculated~ "If only I could bottle and market time, I would be richer than Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola put together!" I would be Deborah Nelson, the original bottler of time, a Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Martha Stuart, all rolled into one. I would be the wealthiest person ever to walk the earth-even more wealthy than Solomon who was granted wisdom and wealth by God. But who can bottle time? Time is a rebellious demon wretch. Nothing less than a life long quest could put that Genie into a bottle, and it would take none one less than God Himself to do it.

Time Ticks Me Off!

Time causes problems. When you need something in a hurry, there's an instant time shortage. Tempers flair. Road Rage is born, car wrecks happen, sirens scream, dangerously challenging the bounds of time even further. Time seems uncooperative. Whether you are waiting for a teenager to come home from a party, a late arrival to show up, or simply caught in a daily traffic jam, time ticking off, ticks us off!

But my purpose is not to complain about time even though Time gets the brunt of all our complaints. "I didn't have enough time," "Our marriage is on the rocks because we don't have time for each other." Teacher, I didn't finish my homework, because I ran out of time." "My checks bounced because I didn't get the deposit to the bank on time." Time gets all of our excuses doesn't it? Time really ticks us off.

You Are What You Eat?

We have all heard the expression, "You are what you eat," but I would argue--You are what you spend your time on. "A Nick in Time saves nine." "Time Heals All Wounds." "Time waits for no one." "Time Will Tell." "Time is Money." All these are powerful expressions about Time. How we use our time says a lot about who we are doesn't it? If we want to make a difference in our entrpreneural and personal life, we need to be honest and admit, "We are what we Time." You may wonder, how is Deborah Nelson qualified to give powerful time tips? Surely the experts, Covey, Franklin, and Mr. Day Timer have already done it with their expert time management systems. However, I have wrestled with time as a 24/7 single parent, an entrepreneur, a writer, a homeowner supporting a daughter in a private art college, and as a woman living in the twentieth and twenty first centuries.

Having had less time and far more challenges than the average person, I have experimented and implemented all the Time Management methods of the day, finding them to be inadequate for my particular life challenges.

Graduating from Time Management to Time Prosperity

I love the expression; "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." I finally had to admit that I was not a good time manager. I was doing the same thing over and over again and not getting different results. For Example, I was chasing time, and time was running out on me. I was twenty minutes late to everything, and after trying linear time management for many frustrating years; I was still 10 minutes late to everything. Not good enough.

I had to do something different than trying to manage time, chase time, and conquer time. I had made an enemy of Time and I was losing. It was a process, but now I have learned to become a leader of, friend, and partner with Time; and have discovered Time Prosperity! Here are 3 Time Prosperity Tips for your to begin this journey. I hope even one of them will transform your relationship with Time. It a whole new way of thinking about Time and being with Time.

Time Prosperity Tip #1: You can make time your enemy or you can become friends with your time. Think about it, honestly, is Time Your Enemy or Is Time Your friend?

Time Prosperity Tip #2 You can chase time, making time run away from you, or you can walk with time side by side. Are you chasing time away, or are you walking with time?

Time Prosperity Tip #3 Time is our most powerful and precious resource-more powerful than money, love, health, and space. How do you perceive time? Is time a Thief, or is time a Gift?

Time in a bottle? I haven't done that yet. But making friends with time is a great start. My quest now is to tell everyone who will listen how to graduate from time management to time prosperity...because--- "You Are What You Time."

A reality check is a good time management technique. When you procrastinate because of exaggeration you exaggerate the extent and involvement of a project. Part of you is hoping that will make others just give up and go away, but that doesn’t work all that often. Break the project down into it’s components to understand the full scope of the project, and then just work on one component at a time until it’s done.

Another good time management technique is to get the overall scope down on paper before starting anything. Write out a quick rough draft identifying the big pieces needed for the project. Check and review to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything, and that you haven’t added more than is necessary.

Look at each big piece and write out the major steps or activities required to accomplish each one. This time management technique either re-enforces that the project is as big as you thought, or it demonstrates that maybe it’s not as bad as you were making it out to be. When the project really is big, look for outside help to get things done rather than just putting it to the side because it seems overwhelming.

Delegation is always a good time management technique so ask yourself, “what can I delegate”? Now if you believe the only way to get things done right is to do them yourself this will be really hard for you. If you think this way I challenge you to recognize that you’re also creating your own time management prison where you have to be at the center of everything or nothing happens.

The next time management technique is to break the big steps or activities into all the little supporting steps or activities. This serves two purposes. First, it prevents you from overlooking things and having to scramble to recover. Second, as you go through this thought process you’re getting everything that needs to go on your to do list so you can efficiently work down your list checking things off as you go.

Exaggeration procrastination doesn’t have to foil your time management techniques. Exaggeration is just part of who you are, and there isn’t anything wrong with that. Now you can choose how you respond to your need for exaggeration by stepping up and taking control and getting things done no matter how big or small.

Time management advice is found in great abundance on the Internet. You can determine how to schedule your day, how to set your priorities, how to delegate, and how to tackle your to-do list.

As a service business owner, you face an enormous number of tasks and responsibilities each and every day. What I've come to realize in my years of self-employment that my most valuable asset isn't my contact database or my marketing materials or my business plan.

It's my time.

Most entrepreneurs are time-starved. It seems everyone wants a piece of you -- your clients, your family, your prospective customers, your friends, your employees or subcontractors. For most service business owners, there always seems to be too much stuff to fit into too little day.

The most valuable time management question that time-starved entrepreneurs need to ask themselves before agreeing to do something is, "How will this serve me?" A business coaching colleague asks the same question a little differently, "Is what I'm about to do going to increase the confusion/complexity in my life?"

That's it -- pretty simple, isn't it? So, before I'm about to embark on joining a new organization or committee, or before I'm about to think of another sideline path for my business, I just ask myself this one simple question.

The answer leads me to my next step.

Now, a word of caution here---don't get caught in the "but crack". If your answer is, "Well, yes, it'll be good for my business but it's.....", you've just fallen into the "but crack", which means that you've negated everything that came before the "but" in your thinking. If there's a "but" attached to your sentence, more than likely what you really need to do is the opposite of what you're saying.

So, in the example above, "Well, yes, it'll serve my business well but it's going to take the next 8 weekends to pull it off," it may not be the great opportunity you think if you already are concerned about the havoc it might bring to your life.

What if you're unsure of how this opportunity/task/chance will serve you? How do you make that determination?

I borrow a page from life coach Cheryl Richardson's book, Take Time for Your Life, and create what she refers to as an "Absolute Yes List." This is your list of the top 5 priorities in your life. For most of us that would include spouse/significant other, family, work or business, hobby, volunteer effort, and yourself. You did remember to include yourself, didn't you?

Remember, your time is your most valuable asset. If you don't create time for yourself and make that your #1 priority, I will guarantee you that no one else will do that for you. When I used to deliver my work/life balance speech to various women's professional organizations, I would have the participants create their "absolute yes" list and then take a survey of hands to see how many had included themselves on the list. Typically less than one-third of any group put themselves on their list, and less than 5% of that number listed themselves first.

If what you're considering doesn't fit on your "absolute yes" list, then it's an "absolute no." If it does match your top 5 priorities, then give it the, "How will this serve me?" test.

Punctuality is a big deal in time management. Everyone is late sometimes, right? Yes, most people are occasionally late and when they are it’s because of an unexpected occurrence. But when you are habitually late punctuality is an issue you need to address.

When you aren’t punctual you set yourself up for escalating levels of stress. When you start the day late you tend to run late the entire day. Even though you may not place a high value on punctuality, recognize that others do. Lateness can lose you the sale, cost you the job, diminish the level of respect the other person has for you because they are thinking that if you can’t even be counted on to be on time how can they count on you for something important.

Punctuality is an integrity issue that creates chaos in your time management program. When you aren’t punctual you are demonstrating a lack of integrity with yourself and others. When you agree to hold an appointment at a specific time and then you’re late you have missed an opportunity to keep your word. Keeping your word enables you to feel good about yourself and others to feel good about you.

Punctuality communicates more than timeliness. When you aren’t punctual it demonstrates a lack of focus and clarity on what’s important. When something is really important to you, you will be on time. Being late communicates the appointment wasn’t important to you.

How do you improve your punctuality? Start allowing a little slack time between your appointments. Give yourself at least an extra 15 minutes between each appointment. Then if you’re a little early use those few minutes to do those little things that don’t take much time like reading an article, making a quick phone call, planning the next week’s calendar etc. As you improve your timeliness you’ll feel a whole lot better and more in control. You won’t need to be speeding around to get everywhere, and you project a more professional image.

Is time management or the lack of effective time management training getting the best of you? Are you:

* Missing target or due dates?
* Unable to get motivated to get things done?
* Finding less and less time to spend with family or even yourself?
* Working longer and harder?
*
* Having problems making decisions because of no time?
* Feeling stressed out, frustrated and just tired of the rat race of life?

So as you look above to any of these questions, is time management the real problem or possibly just a symptom of a greater problem? If time management is a symptom instead of a problem, then what is the real problem?

If you are honest with yourself, the real problem is your inability for consistent self leadership. For if you cannot lead yourself, how can lead others when trying to meet deadlines or work together as a team?

The problem with most time management training is that it focuses on trying to manage a constant that being time. Since time is a constant, you cannot manage it. However, when the focus is on developing extraordinary self-leadership, then improving the result that being better time management is much easier to be achieved.

And anyway, doesn't it make sense to work on developing all of those essential skills necessary for business, professional and personal success instead of creating a silo solution that focuses on just one?

If you are considering a time management training course, then look beyond time management strategies and to self-leadership strategies. Some of these strategies might include:

* Goal setting
* Goal planning
* Goal achievement
* Decision making
* Problem solving
*
* Communication
* Statement of individual purpose
* Balanced action plan between professional and personal lives

Sustainable time management is truly about extraordinary self-leadership especially if you wish to get to where you want to go for yourself, your professional life and your business.

Would you like to take control of your time? Are you tired of not getting things done on time or on budget? Do you truly know how to write goal statements that are executable, reinforce your long term desires and work within your limited time?

I have just completed a 9 lesson on-line email coaching program. Visit WAY SMART Goals to learn more.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S. is nationally recognized business author, speaker and Indianapolis business coach. She has authored over 500 articles. She focuses on leveraging human capital for sustainable transformational change.

You're either directly responsible or overseeing all functions, and you're overwhelmed by the details. Rather than focusing on the important you seem to fight the fires and at the end of the day you aren't sure if you've really invested your time in the best way. Long-term your time management skills will either make you or break you, so it's time to improve those skills before it's too late.

When you're solely responsible for everything in your business it's easy to get caught up in firefighting and micro-managing. It's actually easier to respond to interruptions and crisis than it is to focus on the important. But that's a success killing habit that you'll want to break now. In order to develop good time management skills you'll need to set aside time outside of your normal business hours to de-clutter and sort through all the stuff you've allowed to build up. This is the piles of paperwork you have in and under your desk and shoved into drawers and cupboards that needs to be gone through to determine relevance. Quickly sort through this stuff creating piles or boxes for: needs action now, needs action at some point, reference, and throw away.

The reason you have poor time management skills is because you aren't sure what actions you should be taking at any given moment. Gather up all the stuff in your needs action now pile and identify all the actions you need to take making one list so you have everything in one place. When you have to search through files, folders, your calendar, and your computer to find what you're supposed to be taking action on you forget, and you just won't take the time to hunt through everything.

Good time management skills come from knowing when to take action on the right things. As you look at your list of actions the next step is to prioritize, delegate, or dump each action. Start by crossing off anything on your list that you or anyone that works for you shouldn't be doing. Then get tough with yourself and challenge yourself to find as many things that could be delegated to someone else so you have more time for the business of running your business that you can. Don't overlook opportunities to outsource things to virtual assistants, employees, or even volunteers. Did you know that some senior citizen centers want work like addressing envelopes, and will have their members do this work for donations? Now you still have a lot of stuff left on your list that needs to be prioritized, but I only want you to select the three most important things for you do to one day at a time. Do not prioritize the whole list just prioritize and commit to taking the required action on one to three actions each day.

Good time management skills are inspired by the desired end results. As the owner it's up to you to develop the higher level big picture that you want to accomplish and that you need to focus on. With that big picture in mind decide on the actions you'll take and when, based on their alignment with what you're trying to accomplish. See how else you might improve your time management skills by taking the free time management analysis.

Use routine to make efficient use of your time. Get up at the same time of day, start your day the same way on most days, have your meals at the same time, etc. The more routine you have the less time you spend settling in on regular tasks.

Streamline any thing you do regularly. Choose a few regular options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that are quick to prepare. Choose exercise that will give you excellent benefit in less time and can be done with little preparation, or while you are watching television or getting together with others.

Portion the tasks you regularly do at work for particular hours or days of the week. Early mornings are generally good for tasks that require solitary concentration, and later in the day for our contact with people. Schedule in blocks long enough to get up to speed, and short enough that we do not tire, then switch tasks.

For each day, pick three tasks that are most important for you to do, or that will make the most difference in your life, and do these things early in the day if at all possible.

Work very hard during some hours, but always allow yourself a block of time every day where you expect nothing of yourself and can relax.

Our being able to work quickly is affected by our feeling fully present, alert, and focused. Sometimes moving our body quickly for a moment, breathing deeply, or changing our position helps us to freshen our mind and become alert. Avoid drifting and pausing.

Set your goals high so that you are challenged and don’t have time to waste.

Rest when truly tired... not distraction, but rest.

Know what you should be doing at each hour of your work day. Plan ahead and set most of your tasks for the day at least the day before.

We are all familiar with the concept of “time”, but when you add the word “management” behind it, things can get a little cloudy. Simply put, time management is the process of managing your time. People can make this more confusing and harder than it has to be when they try to get too technical and start creating “time maps” and flow charts.

When it comes down to it, it is a lot simpler than that. We all have twenty four hours each day. By practicing time management strategies, we are deciding how to use those hours to accomplish all the tasks we have on our to-do lists.

Having a schedule is a fundamental part of time management. You can imagine your schedule as a road-map. It provides important information about where you are going and how you can get there. Without it, you may take a wrong turn somewhere and find yourself lost. Once someone is lost, it may take some time before they get back on track, and they usually arrive to their destination a bit later than they would have liked.

When you have a schedule, you can look at it and see what you need to do each day. You’ll know if you are on track, and if you aren’t, what you need to do to get back on course.

How To Make a Schedule

One of the first things to do when making a schedule is to write down all the things you have to do on a piece of paper. Some people keep separate work and family schedules, and if you decide that would work best for you, you can divvy those tasks up later. For now, simply write out everything that needs to be done on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis.

Once you have everything written out and in front of you, it’s time to start sorting between the common themes. You can do this by assigning a highlighter color to each theme (such as family, work, daily, monthly, weekly) or by taking out another piece of paper and writing those columns on it, and rewriting all the tasks into the appropriate column.

Now that you have all of your tasks sorted out, try to give a time estimate to each one. You may even want to time yourself for a week or two on these tasks, as you may be very surprised at how long some things take.

For instance, you may think it only takes 45 minutes to go to the grocery store, but in reality it could take an hour and 15 minutes. You may think it only takes 15 minutes to run up to the school and pick up the kids, but may find it actually takes 25 minutes.

In many cases, people underestimate the time it takes to do things, and this is one of the reasons they think they aren’t getting enough done. By timing yourself, you will get a visual picture of your time. When you see how long it really takes to accomplish your regular tasks, you will be able to see how many things you can fit into a normal day. You won’t constantly be trying to push yourself to do more.

Once you have written down your tasks and estimated the time it takes to accomplish them, you can start planning your schedule. Some people like to have a daily schedule that is very organized with certain tasks assigned to certain times and others prefer to keep a weekly schedule that is more flexible.

It’s not your fault you lack self-discipline. This time management technique will help you to understand why you lack self-discipline, and how it’s not your fault but rather a mismatch between who you are and what you’re being asked to do. Procrastination caused by lack of self-discipline is a warning signal to you that needs to be investigated.

Most time management techniques are generic recommendations that don’t address your uniqueness. You don’t lack self-discipline because you’re just a lazy lout, there are very specific reasons that you seem to lack self-discipline. You lack self-discipline because you don’t clearly understand what’s important. When you don’t understand or haven’t clarified what’s truly important it’s very easy to float from one thing to another completing few projects. Taking the time to clarify what’s most important will increase your self-discipline and reduce your tendency to procrastinate.

Most time management techniques fail to recognize everyone doesn’t have the same behaviors. You lack self-discipline because you’re trying to work in a manner that contradicts your natural behaviors. You naturally behave a certain way in response to different situations. How you behave isn’t right or wrong, but understanding how you behave enables you to better control your environment and your response. Some people are naturally fast paced and drive hard. You may not be one of those people yet you can still get things done in a timely manner that feels more comfortable to you.

Most time management techniques fail to recognize that everyone isn’t motivated by the same things. You lack self-discipline because what you’re doing doesn’t match with your natural motivators. You have natural motivators that lead you to take action. When something doesn’t fit with your natural motivators you seem to lack self-discipline because you don’t get things done, but what is really happening is that you are balking because the situation isn’t motivating to you. For example, if helping people is really important to you and your boss is only talking to you about increasing sales and bottom line profits you aren’t motivated to act at all. If you worked for a non-profit and your boss was talking to you about the number of people that you could help you would be highly motivated.

Is your procrastination really a matter of a lack of self-discipline, or a mismatch between you and the task at hand? When you’re doing something that is motivating to you and compliments your natural behavior style you have all the self-discipline you need to get the project done, and you aren’t likely to procrastinate because the work is energizing and exciting to you. So the next time you find yourself procrastinating remember this time management technique and determine if you simply lack self-discipline or if you’re responding to a poor match between you and the task at hand.

Have you come to realize the true value of time from past time management programs you’ve tried? Simply speaking time is more valuable than money because it’s a non-replenishable resource. The great thing is that time is available to everyone, and anyone can have more free time.

To get started with some good time management habits schedule at least one thing each week that is really important and rewarding to you. Emphasize important and rewarding to you. Don’t think about or worry about the things you must do or should do here. If you wanted to purchase a new home and you had zero dollars for a down payment you understand the concept in the financial arena that you have to pay yourself first, or set aside even a small amount of money each week until you reach your target. The same concept works here. If you want to be time rich you have to start by giving yourself a little bit of just plain old free time to do what you want now, or you never will and you’ll never be time rich.

The next step is a common time management practice. Fill in all the must do’s for the week in your calendar. But only fill in things that are absolute requirements, not things that you just think are absolute requirements. For example, you have to go to work or you’ll be cash poor, but you only think you have to do some of the chores you have on your calendar for the week. If there aren’t immediate negative consequences for not doing something it isn’t really a must to.

Don’t forget the hidden time sappers, this is an often overlooked item in your time management training. It takes time to drive to and from work. It takes time to get ready for work. Don’t forget to allocate time in your scheduling to allow for all these little time sappers that seem to slip through the cracks of accountability, and cause all sorts of problems with your scheduling.

Now evaluate everything that didn’t fit in. When you start planning based on how you will spend your time rather how you are spending your time, you quickly realize that you can’t possibly fit everything in. That means if you want to implement an effective time management program that some things are going to have to: get dumped, get delegated, or get moved to a later time. Just evaluate each remaining thing with the objective of first seeing if you can dump it and never do it, be ruthless here. Then identify what someone else can do and get them doing it. Finally, only focus on the things that must be done this week and move other things to a later more appropriate time.

Time management is a battle you can win. As you start to reward yourself by allocating free time for yourself first your incentive to guard your time against the things that are time sappers strengthens. It gets easier to say no to those things because you just don’t have time for them. As you get more ruthless in your dumping and delegating, and more committed to paying yourself in time first you develop the skills and habits you need to be time rich.

For many time is viewed as the master and they are the lowly slave who must walk to the constant beating on the drum of time. Yet, this is not how it must be.

What would happen if you could become the master and not the slave to time? Would you have:

* More free time?
* More balanced life?
* More results?
* More fun?
* More success?

Maybe you are thinking:

* That is not just possible?
* You don’t know my schedule?
* Time management training does not work because I have been there, done that?

First to answer those three questions:

* Yes it is possible because it is about you and not about time!
* I do not need to know your schedule, because you probably focus more of your time on what you cannot control than what you can control.
* Yes, most time management training does not work, because time management is not about time nor about management, but about goals and integrity.

Starting right now, you must learn to lead yourself first. Self-leadership is how you no longer become the slave to time. Within this process of internal leadership, you should write down your own personal values statement. When you adhere to this along with your vision and current mission statements, you will direct your actions and not react to the actions of others.

Finally, learn a proven goal setting and goal achievement process. Time management is really the apex of goal setting. Many time management training courses do not focus on the foundation that being goal setting for their time management skills and knowledge. Without a solid foundation, time management implodes creating more redo of the time management training.

By changing your focus away from time and to what the real issues are, you will no longer become the slave, but will become the master.

Your time management skills are directly proportional to your ability to take the right actions at the right time for the right reasons. Are your in boxes overflowing: physical “in” stack tray, email, and voice mail? Perhaps all these things are building up because you just can’t figure out what to take action on, what action to take and when to take action. One way or another, an action will have to be taken to make them all go away and to remove the clutter from your environment.

The act of making a decision is part of this time management skill. As you look at all this stuff you may be overwhelmed even thinking about how to decide on what to take action on. There is a simple solution to that. You will take action on each thing until an action has been taken on each thing up to a certain date and time. Don’t get scared we’re going to figure out how to do that next.

You have to quickly go through each thing and just decide what action you will take. Start with just one of your inboxes and begin reviewing each item either from oldest to newest or newest to oldest it doesn’t matter which end you start from. Starting from the end of your choice evaluate each item to determine if you could take care of this item in one to two minutes, if you can then take care of it so it’s done and over with. If the item requires more time and you know the next action you need to take on the item add that action to your weekly To Do list. Don’t worry about organizing and prioritizing your To Do list because you’re prioritizing your list each day and checking things off so by the end of the week you have a lot of things checked off, and only a few things to carry over to the following week’s To Do list. If there isn’t an action that needs to be taken delete the item or put it in the garbage. If it’s an idea that you want to think about at a later time add it to the future planning part of your To Do list. If it’s an item you want for future reference set up a file folder and put the item in the right folder. Don’t make this folder or filing complicated or you won’t do it. You could just have a folder for each topic and organize the items within the folder alphabetically or by date or in another way that makes sense to you.

Prioritization is another time management skill. Some of the items from your inboxes are now on your To Do list. The next step is to determine when to take action on those action items. There is a simple and time saving way to approach this that doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed. Once a week put together your To Do list with everything that needs to be there not worrying about organization or prioritization, your only concern is getting all things that require an action or future consideration on this one list. Then each day scan your list of actions and prioritize only the top 3-7 things that if you were to take just those actions would make your day successful.

When you use this time management skill you consistently take actions and you consistently take the right actions. You don’t need to tackle everything at once you only need to take on the most important things. After a couple weeks you may decide that some of the actions on your To Do list really don’t need to be taken. Once you do this quick sort and make your action decisions to get control of your inboxes make a commitment to clear your inboxes at one point each day so you don’t get into the situation of having overflowing inboxes again.

It’s very hard to benefit from time management techniques when you procrastinate. There are a number of reasons you procrastinate, and fretting may be the source behind your tendency to procrastinate. When you fret you think about all sorts of imagined problems that may or may not ever happen. You fret about what might happen if you succeed. You fret about what might happen if you fail. You fret about what others will think. You fret that you don’t really know how to tackle the problem. With all this fretting your expending way more energy thinking about it than it would ever take to just do it.

Procrastinators who fret are thinkers, so let’s get you thinking about the right things. What happens if you do succeed if you complete this project or activity? What’s the absolute worst thing that could happen and the absolute best thing that could happen when you finish the project? Get out a piece of paper. Divide it in half heading one side best and the other worst. Keep brain storming and writing until you can’t come up with anything else. Is there anything on the paper that you absolutely couldn’t live with? If not, go to the next step.

The next step in this time management technique is to identify what happens if you fail. Flip you paper over and now list the absolute worst thing that could happen if you fail, and the best thing that could happen if you fail? Your first reaction may be there isn’t a best thing that could happen if you fail, but there is. Every time you fail at something you’re one step closer to succeeding, so you really want to fail fast and often so you can succeed that much faster.

When you procrastinate because you fret about everything isn’t a big part of your concern about what others will think? This time management technique may be hard for you, but mastering this technique will liberate you. Recognize that you can’t control how other people will think or react now or ever. You can only control how you respond to how others react. So, on a second piece of paper list how you think others might react on one side and on the other side list how you choose to react in response to that reaction. Let’s say you’re fretting that if you complete this project or activity that someone may get very angry and confront you. You can choose to remain calm, acknowledge the other persons feelings, ask them to tell you more about whatever they are telling you, and then communicate that you want to work together to resolve their concern. Because you’re prepared for the possible reactions and responses of others you’re prepared to handle your own responses.

Often the reason behind your fretting is that you’re concerned that you don’t know how to do what you need to do. All time management techniques are really about taking control and moving forward. In this case, flip your second piece of paper over and list what you don’t know how to do. Review your list and on the other half of the sheet identify how you could know how to do it, and when you will take action to know how. Evaluate which things that you don’t know how to do that you could have someone who does know how do for you.

Ultimately fretting usually comes down to fear. The best time management technique for overcoming fears is to face them. As you thought things out through the previous steps you were really identifying your worst fears and coming up with solutions for working around them. The best way to conquer your enemy is to know your enemy. As you work through this thought process your confidence builds, and you restore your ability to move ahead armed with the knowledge of what you need to do and how to do it.

If you wish to lead a goal-oriented lifestyle, it is necessary to realize the importance of time management. It is only through a time bound program of action that you can hope to achieve success in any venture. Many people do not attach much significance to time management and because of the same, they are unable to finish their tasks on time and fail miserably.

Importance Of Time Management

It is important to realize that the available amount of time is constant and all that you can change is the way you utilize this time. If you take time management seriously, you can break loose from this bondage and pack more in the available amount of time. You need to alter your habits and your attitude in order to derive the maximum utilization of the limited time at your disposal. Wasted time can never come back.

Prioritizing Your Tasks

The first step towards an effective time management planning is to make a list of all that needs to be done in the course of the day. You would then need to find out which tasks are more important than the others and this will enable you to prioritize your tasks. You, however, should retain the less important tasks on your list. The next step is to estimate the amount of time that each task is likely to take and in doing so, you should take a realistic view. It is no use trying to achieve the impossible and then failing miserably and upsetting the entire schedule. Even the smallest element of the task needs to be considered in arriving at the required time. Once you have analyzed all these elements, you will be able to see where you might waste time so that you can adopt a time saving strategy.

After identifying the areas where you can waste time, you need to eliminate such activities. Your work schedule will thus be compacted and you will be able to find some free time for relaxing with your family. The significance of time management will be apparent when you have been able to organize your daily activities and are able to achieve your long-term goals with a sustained methodical approach.

Start Now

Realizing the significance of time management is essential but not enough as these principles need to be put into practice in order to derive the maximum benefits. The best time to start is now as the duration of your life is predetermined and limited. The time that has elapsed is gone forever and the future is not known. All that you have is the present time and so, you need to start now. If you can set into motion the correct time management techniques, you will find that you will be able to achieve your target of a goal-oriented lifestyle and enjoy life to the fullest.

Your time management skills are directly proportional to your ability to take the right actions at the right time for the right reasons. Are your in boxes overflowing: physical “in” stack tray, email, and voice mail? Perhaps all these things are building up because you just can’t figure out what to take action on, what action to take and when to take action. One way or another, an action will have to be taken to make them all go away and to remove the clutter from your environment.

The act of making a decision is part of this time management skill. As you look at all this stuff you may be overwhelmed even thinking about how to decide on what to take action on. There is a simple solution to that. You will take action on each thing until an action has been taken on each thing up to a certain date and time. Don’t get scared we’re going to figure out how to do that next.

You have to quickly go through each thing and just decide what action you will take. Start with just one of your inboxes and begin reviewing each item either from oldest to newest or newest to oldest it doesn’t matter which end you start from. Starting from the end of your choice evaluate each item to determine if you could take care of this item in one to two minutes, if you can then take care of it so it’s done and over with. If the item requires more time and you know the next action you need to take on the item add that action to your weekly To Do list. Don’t worry about organizing and prioritizing your To Do list because you’re prioritizing your list each day and checking things off so by the end of the week you have a lot of things checked off, and only a few things to carry over to the following week’s To Do list. If there isn’t an action that needs to be taken delete the item or put it in the garbage. If it’s an idea that you want to think about at a later time add it to the future planning part of your To Do list. If it’s an item you want for future reference set up a file folder and put the item in the right folder. Don’t make this folder or filing complicated or you won’t do it. You could just have a folder for each topic and organize the items within the folder alphabetically or by date or in another way that makes sense to you.

Prioritization is another time management skill. Some of the items from your inboxes are now on your To Do list. The next step is to determine when to take action on those action items. There is a simple and time saving way to approach this that doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed. Once a week put together your To Do list with everything that needs to be there not worrying about organization or prioritization, your only concern is getting all things that require an action or future consideration on this one list. Then each day scan your list of actions and prioritize only the top 3-7 things that if you were to take just those actions would make your day successful.

When you use this time management skill you consistently take actions and you consistently take the right actions. You don’t need to tackle everything at once you only need to take on the most important things. After a couple weeks you may decide that some of the actions on your To Do list really don’t need to be taken. Once you do this quick sort and make your action decisions to get control of your inboxes make a commitment to clear your inboxes at one point each day so you don’t get into the situation of having overflowing inboxes again.

It’s very hard to benefit from time management techniques when you procrastinate. There are a number of reasons you procrastinate, and fretting may be the source behind your tendency to procrastinate. When you fret you think about all sorts of imagined problems that may or may not ever happen. You fret about what might happen if you succeed. You fret about what might happen if you fail. You fret about what others will think. You fret that you don’t really know how to tackle the problem. With all this fretting your expending way more energy thinking about it than it would ever take to just do it.

Procrastinators who fret are thinkers, so let’s get you thinking about the right things. What happens if you do succeed if you complete this project or activity? What’s the absolute worst thing that could happen and the absolute best thing that could happen when you finish the project? Get out a piece of paper. Divide it in half heading one side best and the other worst. Keep brain storming and writing until you can’t come up with anything else. Is there anything on the paper that you absolutely couldn’t live with? If not, go to the next step.

The next step in this time management technique is to identify what happens if you fail. Flip you paper over and now list the absolute worst thing that could happen if you fail, and the best thing that could happen if you fail? Your first reaction may be there isn’t a best thing that could happen if you fail, but there is. Every time you fail at something you’re one step closer to succeeding, so you really want to fail fast and often so you can succeed that much faster.

When you procrastinate because you fret about everything isn’t a big part of your concern about what others will think? This time management technique may be hard for you, but mastering this technique will liberate you. Recognize that you can’t control how other people will think or react now or ever. You can only control how you respond to how others react. So, on a second piece of paper list how you think others might react on one side and on the other side list how you choose to react in response to that reaction. Let’s say you’re fretting that if you complete this project or activity that someone may get very angry and confront you. You can choose to remain calm, acknowledge the other persons feelings, ask them to tell you more about whatever they are telling you, and then communicate that you want to work together to resolve their concern. Because you’re prepared for the possible reactions and responses of others you’re prepared to handle your own responses.

Often the reason behind your fretting is that you’re concerned that you don’t know how to do what you need to do. All time management techniques are really about taking control and moving forward. In this case, flip your second piece of paper over and list what you don’t know how to do. Review your list and on the other half of the sheet identify how you could know how to do it, and when you will take action to know how. Evaluate which things that you don’t know how to do that you could have someone who does know how do for you.

Ultimately fretting usually comes down to fear. The best time management technique for overcoming fears is to face them. As you thought things out through the previous steps you were really identifying your worst fears and coming up with solutions for working around them. The best way to conquer your enemy is to know your enemy. As you work through this thought process your confidence builds, and you restore your ability to move ahead armed with the knowledge of what you need to do and how to do it.

Scheduling is best practiced when it is done regularly; for instance, at the beginning of the week or month. When you schedule your activities you may want to follow some steps which would serve as helpful pointers to help you get organized:

Begin your planner by specifying the schedule and the amount of time you will allot for the task. Of course this will vary with the kind of and requirements for the task and with the objectives and goals you have set.

After that, you need to identify the necessary actions and steps that you think you will need for the successful completion of the task. This enumeration of actions and steps will serve as an outlined guide for you so that when you are already working on the task you will not literally get lost and confused on what you will do next. In addition, this outline of steps and actions will help you work conveniently.

One good feature of schedule preparation is its quality of being flexible. Once you are done outlining the steps and actions, go over your to-do-list and make the necessary adjustments if you think they are necessary. You can add more time for one task or chip off a small amount from it. You can change the date you have identified and so on, to fit your needs.

More importantly, do not forget to schedule in the bigger, inevitable and most important tasks first. They should be placed in the top order of your to-do-list and the less important tasks should follow. This set-up will help you experience less stress as you work on the tasks because you will start in the right manner. As you work on the most important down to the less important tasks you will notice an increase in satisfaction, pride and fulfillment as you go down the ladder; that is, as you accomplish the things in your well-prepared list.

However, do not forget to allot some time for interruptions and emergency. You will not be told when emergency cases or intermissions will turn up so you better indicate some space in your schedule. Thus, the best thing that you can do is to prepare for it especially if you have an unpredictable work where unpredictable circumstances show up. By indicating some time for such restraints, you and your schedule are being adjustable to meet the needs of the time and respond to them as they show up. You call this kind of time in your schedule as "contingency time."

Then, after indicating the contingency time what remains is the working time, the time that you have specified to work on the tasks and meet your priorities and goals.

Lastly, give your schedule a final review by going through it thoroughly. Examine the objectives, priorities and time you designated. If you are not satisfied then revise and adjust. If you are already contented, then you have now a schedule to follow.

If you wish to lead a goal-oriented lifestyle, it is necessary to realize the importance of time management. It is only through a time bound program of action that you can hope to achieve success in any venture. Many people do not attach much significance to time management and because of the same, they are unable to finish their tasks on time and fail miserably.

Importance Of Time Management

It is important to realize that the available amount of time is constant and all that you can change is the way you utilize this time. If you take time management seriously, you can break loose from this bondage and pack more in the available amount of time. You need to alter your habits and your attitude in order to derive the maximum utilization of the limited time at your disposal. Wasted time can never come back.

Prioritizing Your Tasks

The first step towards an effective time management planning is to make a list of all that needs to be done in the course of the day. You would then need to find out which tasks are more important than the others and this will enable you to prioritize your tasks. You, however, should retain the less important tasks on your list. The next step is to estimate the amount of time that each task is likely to take and in doing so, you should take a realistic view. It is no use trying to achieve the impossible and then failing miserably and upsetting the entire schedule. Even the smallest element of the task needs to be considered in arriving at the required time. Once you have analyzed all these elements, you will be able to see where you might waste time so that you can adopt a time saving strategy.

After identifying the areas where you can waste time, you need to eliminate such activities. Your work schedule will thus be compacted and you will be able to find some free time for relaxing with your family. The significance of time management will be apparent when you have been able to organize your daily activities and are able to achieve your long-term goals with a sustained methodical approach.

Start Now

Realizing the significance of time management is essential but not enough as these principles need to be put into practice in order to derive the maximum benefits. The best time to start is now as the duration of your life is predetermined and limited. The time that has elapsed is gone forever and the future is not known. All that you have is the present time and so, you need to start now. If you can set into motion the correct time management techniques, you will find that you will be able to achieve your target of a goal-oriented lifestyle and enjoy life to the fullest.

Scheduling is best practiced when it is done regularly; for instance, at the beginning of the week or month. When you schedule your activities you may want to follow some steps which would serve as helpful pointers to help you get organized:

Begin your planner by specifying the schedule and the amount of time you will allot for the task. Of course this will vary with the kind of and requirements for the task and with the objectives and goals you have set.

After that, you need to identify the necessary actions and steps that you think you will need for the successful completion of the task. This enumeration of actions and steps will serve as an outlined guide for you so that when you are already working on the task you will not literally get lost and confused on what you will do next. In addition, this outline of steps and actions will help you work conveniently.

One good feature of schedule preparation is its quality of being flexible. Once you are done outlining the steps and actions, go over your to-do-list and make the necessary adjustments if you think they are necessary. You can add more time for one task or chip off a small amount from it. You can change the date you have identified and so on, to fit your needs.

More importantly, do not forget to schedule in the bigger, inevitable and most important tasks first. They should be placed in the top order of your to-do-list and the less important tasks should follow. This set-up will help you experience less stress as you work on the tasks because you will start in the right manner. As you work on the most important down to the less important tasks you will notice an increase in satisfaction, pride and fulfillment as you go down the ladder; that is, as you accomplish the things in your well-prepared list.

However, do not forget to allot some time for interruptions and emergency. You will not be told when emergency cases or intermissions will turn up so you better indicate some space in your schedule. Thus, the best thing that you can do is to prepare for it especially if you have an unpredictable work where unpredictable circumstances show up. By indicating some time for such restraints, you and your schedule are being adjustable to meet the needs of the time and respond to them as they show up. You call this kind of time in your schedule as "contingency time."

Then, after indicating the contingency time what remains is the working time, the time that you have specified to work on the tasks and meet your priorities and goals.

Lastly, give your schedule a final review by going through it thoroughly. Examine the objectives, priorities and time you designated. If you are not satisfied then revise and adjust. If you are already contented, then you have now a schedule to follow.

Scheduling is best practiced when it is done regularly; for instance, at the beginning of the week or month. When you schedule your activities you may want to follow some steps which would serve as helpful pointers to help you get organized:

Begin your planner by specifying the schedule and the amount of time you will allot for the task. Of course this will vary with the kind of and requirements for the task and with the objectives and goals you have set.

After that, you need to identify the necessary actions and steps that you think you will need for the successful completion of the task. This enumeration of actions and steps will serve as an outlined guide for you so that when you are already working on the task you will not literally get lost and confused on what you will do next. In addition, this outline of steps and actions will help you work conveniently.

One good feature of schedule preparation is its quality of being flexible. Once you are done outlining the steps and actions, go over your to-do-list and make the necessary adjustments if you think they are necessary. You can add more time for one task or chip off a small amount from it. You can change the date you have identified and so on, to fit your needs.

More importantly, do not forget to schedule in the bigger, inevitable and most important tasks first. They should be placed in the top order of your to-do-list and the less important tasks should follow. This set-up will help you experience less stress as you work on the tasks because you will start in the right manner. As you work on the most important down to the less important tasks you will notice an increase in satisfaction, pride and fulfillment as you go down the ladder; that is, as you accomplish the things in your well-prepared list.

However, do not forget to allot some time for interruptions and emergency. You will not be told when emergency cases or intermissions will turn up so you better indicate some space in your schedule. Thus, the best thing that you can do is to prepare for it especially if you have an unpredictable work where unpredictable circumstances show up. By indicating some time for such restraints, you and your schedule are being adjustable to meet the needs of the time and respond to them as they show up. You call this kind of time in your schedule as "contingency time."

Then, after indicating the contingency time what remains is the working time, the time that you have specified to work on the tasks and meet your priorities and goals.

Lastly, give your schedule a final review by going through it thoroughly. Examine the objectives, priorities and time you designated. If you are not satisfied then revise and adjust. If you are already contented, then you have now a schedule to follow.

This time management tip focuses on the outcome first and then the details. What is the ultimate outcome you want to achieve from your day? If you were to achieve even just that one outcome would it make today a success? What would prevent you from achieving that outcome today? How could you remove this obstacle? The reason I want you to focus on the outcome rather than all the individual steps for right now, is because I want you to realize there may be an easier way to get the outcome you want than you’re doing now.

The outcome you want from this time management tip will be obtained through your actions. What actual actions would you have to take to accomplish your ultimate outcome for today? If you and only you were to take these actions could you achieve your ultimate outcome? If you need others to make your ultimate outcome happen have you taken the necessary steps to communicate their responsibility, and gained a commitment including a deadline?

Is time management hard for you because of all the distractions? What are the distractions or interests that you spend the bulk of your time on? Will those distractions or interests contribute to the outcome you want from today? If not, can you set these distractions aside until your ultimate outcome for the day is accomplished? If you worked on just the ultimate outcome for a concentrated period of time, could you achieve it today or could you achieve a mile stone towards its accomplishment? How long would that really take if you had zero distractions or interruptions?

You probably can’t eliminate all the distractions from your time management plans, so you have to learn to deal with them or work around them. Is there a way to quickly move through the things that you have to do that aren’t part of your day’s ultimate outcome? If you had everything in place to handle your major distractions and only dealt with them for a concentrated period of time, how long would it take to get through at least the bulk of the distractions? When you look at the things that interrupt or distract you that you absolutely have to do, could you set appointments to work strictly on these things and hold yourself to it?

You probably already use one or more time management system. How do you track the unimportant stuff that still has to be done, but doesn’t have to be done right now? Do you have one central spot where you can capture all the stuff you have to remember, but you don’t have to take action on right now? If you committed to one central location would it make things easier for you to find things when you needed them because you’d always know where to look?

An important time management skill is the ability to take the thoughts cluttering your mind, and turn them into actions. Ideally the objective of your time management skills is simplification of your very busy hectic life. When you try to store information in your head about what you need to do and remember later your complicating things, cluttering your mind, and increasing your level of stress. When you write those thoughts down in more than one place as random thoughts you’re also complicating things, cluttering your mind, and increasing your stress level.

Using one place to record all these thoughts is a good time management skill. You want something simple, portable, and easy to use so you will use it. A “to do” list can do all these things for you, provided you know how to make a “to do” list. And you know when to make one.

Simplicity is the idea of this time management skill. When you create daily “to do” lists you’re doing seven time the work you need to do, and it’s a senseless use of your time. In today’s electronic age it’s very easy to create a template for your to do list. In your template have the standing actions you need to take automatically on your list. When you have outstanding projects put those on your template with space for all the actions yet to do until the project is complete. Once a week print your template and fill in the actions for the upcoming week.

A “to do” list shouldn’t just be a list of random and disorganized thoughts. You want your “to do” list to be a list of actions you need to take now and later. That way it serves as both a check sheet for marking off actions as they are complete, and a reminder for future actions so you won’t forget them when the time comes. Make sure as you enter things on your “to do” list that you state them as actions. Using your time is about actions not ideas. Include a section for future ideas and plans you want to make, but in the actual “to do” section every entry must be made in terms of an action. You wouldn’t write the word groceries by itself on your “to do” list. Instead groceries might be an item on your list with actions listed: make list on Thursday with items for Saturdays party, and go to store on Saturday.

Your weekly “to do” list is also a great place to track your progress. On your template you may want to include a section for phone calls you need to make with the names and numbers of those to call. You absolutely want a results section where you track your weekly outcomes. If you’re a sales person you may want your phone call section next to your results section so as you make calls you can track and record the number of appointments you make and/or the number of sales you make. At the end of the week you already have your numbers, so you can immediately see when you are on target and off target. One little tool to keep everything together in one place so you aren’t wasting time trying to store things in your head needlessly or hunting for information you know you have somewhere but you just can’t remember exactly where you put it.

This time management tip is about the importance of communication in your efforts to be more efficient with your time. Communication always involves at least two parties, and the more people involved the more likely communication problems will cost you time. As with any good plan you have to start right to end right, and it’s no different with communication.

Good upfront communication improves time management and lessens frustration. Before starting on any project clarify the expected results, and get agreement on both the results and the time line. In most cases any two people don’t have to take the exact approach to get the same result. It’s the result that’s important not the details of how. Setting time lines up front establishes mutually agreed upon time frames so no one feels let down later.

Tracking and measuring saves time and improves your time management. Establish the measurements that will be used by everyone involved to measure progress, and set a date and time for follow-up. Measurements and follow-up dates won’t prevent things from going wrong, but it will prevent them from getting ignored until it’s too late to correct things and get things back on track.

Communication provides an opportunity for you to learn things that will further improve your time management effectiveness. At the agreed upon date and time follow-up and get feedback. From the feedback you will learn about any problems or short falls, and you will learn information that will be useful if you ever have to do this again. Feedback is really important on several different levels. Through feedback you will learn how to effectively communicate with the other person, how to improve the system, what you’ve overlooked, and how to make the project efficiently repeatable if it needs to be.

You may have thought that time management tips were just personal pointers, but as you can see time management tips often extend to your interaction with others. You don’t usually get behind all on your own, so you need to learn how to help others to help you to stay on track. Communication with a few measurements and follow-up is a great way to improve your time management efforts.

Focus is a great time management technique. Many of you like to think you can multi-task ,and women are purportedly supposed to be good at it, but the truth is no one is good at it. Let me explain what I mean by multi-tasking. Multi-tasking isn’t planning ahead and recognizing that if you turn the oven on it can be heating while you’re putting a load of clothes in the washer so they can be washing while you prepare dinner. That’s efficiency not multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is when you think you can read your email, write a report, and give someone a verbal message while you’re talking on the phone. When you do that everything takes you longer, and you end up having to go back and correct mistakes.

You can’t possibly focus on thinking, talking, and writing all at the same time. Your brain simply isn’t wired that way. When you try to multi-task you aren’t focused on anything, everything takes longer, and you make more mistakes than you normally would if you just focused. Stop this insanity by developing the self-discipline to focus on one thing at a time so you can move to the next thing quicker, or you can take a much needed break. When you’re trying to read your email or write something at the same time as you’re talking to someone else either on the phone or in person you are sending a message loud and clear that says, “you aren’t important enough for me to devote my attention to so go away”. Is that the message you want to send?

Learning to group or categorize things is an effective time management technique. Rather than trying to deal with everything as it comes at you take control, and plan when you will respond or act on each group or category. Check and respond to your email no more than 1-3 times a day. When you check your email every time a new message arrives in your inbox you’re not only losing the 2-5 minutes you spend on the email, but your losing the time it takes you to return to what you were working on and get regrouped.

When you don’t focus you start, stop, and regroup dozens of times before you finish anything. With all that starting, stopping, and regrouping you could have had time to really enjoy something. Instead you end up feeling stressed out and overwhelmed because you feel inundated by a sea of endless tasks. Answering the phone and stopping your work just because it rings or talking with anyone who happens to walk by is just as bad.

You may not have a door you can close or someone who can act as a filter for you, but you can rely on your ability to focus as a time management technique that works for you. Have you ever noticed how mothers can drive around with a car full of screaming kids and not even notice all the noise? That’s because they’ve trained themselves to focus in spite of all this apparent chaos. It’s actually a matter of self-preservation through focus, but isn’t that what you’re faced with too? Aren’t you to the point where your just stressed out and overwhelmed by too much stimuli keeping you from being productive. Focus is your self-preservation self-discipline tool that will enable you to survive and thrive in highly demanding situations.

Is time management one of your daily challenges? If so, then how do you define time management?

For many this definition begins by focusing on time and how to get more time out of 24 hours. By using this paradigm, most people have already set themselves up to fail because no one can manage a constant! Managing is about juggling a lot of different thinks because there is not a constant.

So to improve time management begins by accepting that your must shift your paradigm and focus on the real issue or challenge – YOU! Possibly now you are thinking, OKAY, its me, but the issue of getting things done is still a problem.

You are absolutely correct. However by shifting your paradigm you can now put into action specific steps to correct those issues.

From my perspective and what I share with my clients is that time management is really the apex of goal setting. For without goals, why would we care if we are late for a meeting or sending out that proposal or taking that phone call?

What I have also discovered is that the majority of people and I mean probably over 90% that I have encountered do not have a proven goal setting process in place. So time management is a symptom of poor goal setting behaviors.

One of my colleagues, David Herdlinger, once said that time management is really about goals and values. By not having goals and not having values or a commitment to achieving those goals, individuals are faced with not having enough time to do what they say they are going to do.

Another trusted advisor, Arnie Rintzler, shared that time management is about not identifying your must dos from your should dos. Must dos are those items that you have given your word or that someone may suffer something terrible if you do not take action. Everything else is a should do. You then prioritize your should dos based upon your goals (there is that word again). These skills are really self leadership skills.

Finally, Ray Overdorff, a valued mentor (I have been fortunate to meet many wise individuals), said that when you shift your paradigm, the things within your focus will look differently. So, if you accept that time management is about you, your goals and your self leadership skills, you will then have the opportunity to make the most out of every single day.

The desire to improve time management skills is coveted by many if recent searches on the Internet are even a remotely accurate assessment of this desire. From the Internet and all the local public workshops and seminars, there appears that many are desirous of learning time management skills. So if the desire is great and the supply is equally great, then why do so many people still have time management challenges?

First, time management is not about managing time since time is a constant. Second, today’s society is experiencing more change in one year than their grandparents faced during their entire lifetimes. Finally, time management is truly about self-management or self leadership skills.

If we begin to improve time management skills by looking at time management through a different perspective, we then can begin to realize positive behavioral changes. From these changes, we can see improved results.

Now that you understand that time management is not about time, but rather is about how we handle change through our self leadership skills, we begin to identify those obstacles keeping us from improved results. So, what are your obstacles?

After speaking to and working with hundreds of individuals, I have come to realize that to improve time management skills requires that we must have a proven goal setting process and a written goals action plan. For without goals, why do we care if we are on time or not?

Another obstacle to effective time management skills is attitudes or those habits of thoughts. Do you wake up knowing exactly what you need to do first because the night before you planned your next day? Or do you wait to the last minute to see what you are doing in the next hour or two? Poor attitudes are demonstrated through poor behaviors.