Time management plays a very important role not only to our success at work, but also in our personal lives.
It’s importance is highlighted by the fact that time is a precious commodity. Every day we use up the 24 hours we are given, sometimes without thought or little regard.
Then we wake the next morning and automatically our bank has been restocked with another 24 hours for us to use as we decide.
The great thing about time however is that all of us start on the same footing. We are all handed the same daily amount, and how we manage the time we are given, at the end of the day is entirely up to us.
There are repercussions though. How we invest the time we are given today can make a huge impact on the quality of the 24 hour slabs we will receive tomorrow and beyond.
So here are 3 essential time management skills to ensure we invest our time effectively:
Time Management Skill #
01. Set Goals
The best way to maximise our efforts each day is to set goals. Goals will help make the time we are given, work for us by giving us priorities and allowing us to arrange our work accordingly.
You should set your goals high enough to excite you and motivate you, and set your sights on things that will make you have to reach a little to achieve them so you can grow in the process.
The Pareto Principle suggests that we are generating 80% of our results in just 20% of our time but this also means that we are spending 80% of our time to reap just 20% of the results.
This means prioritisation and focus are also key skills in effective time management.
02. Prioritise
Prioritise your list of targets. Don’t waste precious time on unimportant tasks. Constantly update your list of “to do’s” and invest your time in tackling the most important and urgent tasks first.
Just getting into the habit of having a prioritised to do list before starting each day will make a huge difference to the way you invest each 24 hours.
03. Focus
Have a clear vision and a target of where you are wanting to go and what you are trying to achieve.
Life doesn’t always deal the ideal hand, there are going to be days when nothing seems to be going right and there will be times when we can lose direction. The beauty of pursuing a goal is that with a clear vision and focus, we can take on the role of captain of our own ship and simply steer ourselves back on the right course.
Remember time is the most precious commodity of life. With time, anything is possible without it nothing is.
So set your goals, prioritise your efforts, plan and monitor your progress.
The major point is that unless we die in the meantime, we are going to get 24 hours deposited into our account today and another tomorrow and another the next day.
Don’t you owe it to yourself to actually achieve something during these 24 hour slabs?
To learn more about time management, check out our 4 minute video from our Management Series.