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Time Management for Your Personal Life |
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When it comes to good resource management most people instantly think about their work and their pro life, but studies prove that many people waste an amazing amount of time in their personal life. By identifying and dealing with the time wasters in your personal life you can help manage your time better in your business life.
Many of us cannot help but feel overwhelmed by the pressures and demands of work and home. After you have a tendency to your partner, children, pets, housework, lawn maintenance, shows, and reports, what little leftover time you find is usually reserved for buddies. Time alone is practically nonexistent.
Because there are only 24 hours in a day, many of us need a bit of help in deciding the simple way to manage our responsibilities inside that infinite timeframe. According to several time-management professionals, it is not the huge amount of activities we have that keeps us running eternally behind; it is the small bits of wasted time that gobble up the day.
The very first thing to remember when it comes to good time management is that you are the only person who can decide when you’re not using your time effectively. Sometimes you do not consciously make that decision; it is made for you by your tired body. If that is the case, heed the call. Your body is probably telling you to slow down.
Realistic goals are urgent to good time management. Expectations are a resource allocation killer. Your aim should be to feel good, not to do more. For instance, sometimes you are expecting to get a lot done on the weekend, but when you do not attain everything you set out to do, you feel frustrated. Instead of making attempts to do it all, try and do one thing. Make that your goal.
An alternate way to start gaining control over your time is to become aware of how you currently spend it. A good first step in learning the best way to manage your time is to start keeping a log of daily activities. Use a calendar for this purpose, so you can get an idea of how you typically let time escape from you. This can give you a firm foundation upon which to formulate systems to use your time more effectively.
Thru my seminars and consulting over time I have handled crowds of people. My experiences with people have let me to spot some of the common time wasters that many people deal with in their private life. While, realistically, we cannot avoid these things, we can cut back their impact on our lives.
The telephone acts as lifeline to the world, but its presence may also be disruptive. Learn to economize on your use of the phone. Answer it if you need to talk, but do not answer out of need. If you do take a call, limit it to fifteen minutes or less. An alternate way to reduce phone time is to use it as an answering machine. If the telephone remains a problem, unplug it or if it is your cell phone, turn it off. Just do not forget to reconnect it or turn it back on when you are ready to talk to the world again.
The TV is a massive source of wasted time. If you have children, the tenet of television rationing is perhaps not unfamiliar to you. Practice what you preach, switch off the TV if you cannot afford distractions. Physically remove yourself from the room if you have to. Or, if you do decide to watch, try to do something else at the same time for example paying a bill or letter writing. Remember, when you're watching television to avoid doing something else, it is a time waster for you.
Next, inspect how much time you spend in the vehicle. Can you cut down that time by trying alternative method of transportation? Limiting your use of the vehicle is not simply a time-saver; it also sounds right economically and environmentally. Join a vehicle pool, or take public transport. You can read or hear the radio while you are taking a bus or tube to work, turning time previously spent on driving into precious free time.
Another enormously waster that you have got to get control of is trivialities. This contains the time you spend doing housework, and running errands. If you can learn to streamline these activities, you can make your time much better.
To take control over the time you spend doing housework and general property maintenance i suggest that you employ a cleaning and upkeep schedule. You must reserve certain activities for a particular day of the week. For example, clean the lavatory on Saturdays, but do the not-so-critical items every fortnight. Also, limit the period of time you spend running errands.
I cannot emphasize strong enough how important list-making is as a time-management tool. Lists are a useful aid in reducing psychological clutter. A list not only reminds you of what you need to do, but it also helps you to prioritize the day. If you are serious about saving time you must get in the habit of making lists.
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