"Don’t
say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly
the same umber of hours per day that were given
to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa,
Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert
Einstein.”
—H. Jackson Brown, #1 New
York Times best-selling author of Life’s
Little Instruction Books
earning
about time management has one inherent flaw: usually
you find yourself most in need of time management
skills exactly when you have the least amount of
time to dedicate to the task. Without investing
days of your time, the following tips will help
you make the most of your time-whether with family,
at work, at school or in your community.
Many people spend their days
rushing around but achieve little of importance
because they are not concentrating on the right
things. The 80/20 Rule, or Pareto Principle (named
for Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto), states that
20 percent of your time results in 80 percent of
your returns. For example, 20 percent of the time
you spend studying accounts for 80 percent of the
grade you are going to get. The trick to making
this rule work for you is to identify what you need
to spend the 20 percent of your time on to maximize
your results.
No matter how productive you believe yourself
to be, after keeping a daily activity log-written
on paper, not in your head-you will be surprised
to discover how much time you waste and how much
your energy level varies throughout the day. Keep
an activity log for several days; every time you
change activities-brushing your hair, making breakfast,
driving to work, opening junk mail, studying for
school-jot down the time of the change as well as
how you feel (alert, lethargic, energetic). When
analyzing the log, identify and eliminate time-wasting
jobs and learn the times during each day when you
are most effective so that you may build your new
schedule around them.
By knowing precisely what you want
to achieve-whether it is in school, at work, or
with your family-you know what you have to spend
time on. Perhaps more importantly, you'll also know
what you don't need to spend time on. While daily
or monthly goals are often the easiest to come up
with, don't make the mistake of overlooking the
larger picture. Short-term goals should lead you
towards lifetime goals. Here are some categories
to consider setting goals in: career, artistic,
family, financial, physical, community service,
education, pleasure.
Now that you know what you want
to do with your life, assign each goal a priority
from A to F (A being high priority). Try to space
goals as evenly as possible at each priority level.
Remember, you have the power to change the list
at any time.
Items on your to-so list are things you should do
in the short-term to work towards your goals. To
help you recognize which to-do tasks deserve the
most time, Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits
of Highly Effective People, suggests thinking of
to-do priorities in terms of two dimensions, importance
(I) and urgency (U). Note tasks as urgent (U) or
non-urgent (NU) and important (I) or non-important
(NI). (An example of an urgent task is one with
an imminent deadline; an important task is one with
a direct bearing on a goal.) Each task should now
be able to fit into the table below:
Obviously quadrant 1 tasks are high priority and quadrant 4 low priority. Don't make the common mistake of many poor time managers and overlook less urgent but highly important tasks in quadrant 2 in favor of those in quadrant 3.
By knowing what you need to get done today to achieve
what you want down the line and knowing what times
of day you are most effective, you're already ahead
of most people in the time management game…and in
the perfect place to start scheduling your time.
Take the times of day in which you are most alert
and effective and schedule in your quadrant 1 tasks.
Next, decide between quadrant 2 and 3 activities
and schedule them. Because you cannot completely
erase interruptions, schedule in some contingency
time as well. (You'll learn how much of this you
need through experience.) Finally, if you have time
left over, pencil in any quadrant 4 tasks you can't
write off as irrelevant. This method works equally
well for daily or weekly schedules.
"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes
its undoing." Wiser, and truer, words may never
have been spoken. Alan Lakein, in his landmark 1974
book, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life,
describes an anti-procrastination method he calls
"Swiss Cheese." Break whatever task you are finding
hard to do into smaller bits and work on just one
bit for a set amount of time. Alternately, set the
same amount of time-15 minutes is usually doable-and
work on the big task. You can tell yourself 15 minutes
isn't that long and before you know it, you'll reach
a point where you're able to keep going.
The
most powerful word in the time management vocabulary
is often the hardest to say. Try focusing on your
goals and priorities…and thinking about how important
they are. Once you realize their importance, saying
"no" becomes easier. Practice helps as well. It
can also help to put those most often asking for
your time-family and friends-into quadrant 1; eliminate
the need to say "no" by actively scheduling time
with them.
Goals
are little fun to achieve when you don't stop to
enjoy them. Celebrate each success, no matter how
small, with an indulgence for yourself: five minutes
of meditation, a new CD, a dinner with your spouse.
Doing so not only helps maintain balance in your
life but can keep you motivated.
Good luck!
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