You've been there before, when you feel like there are just
not enough hours in the day. You juggle
so many things during the day you feel like you are in a three ring circus. You
want to manage your time better but you don’t know where to start. Well that is where I come in, The Queen of
Neat. I am going to give you 5 tips I
think can help anybody get on the track to managing their time better. I am
also going to share how I create and manage my daily schedule.
1.
Start by finding where you’re wasting your
time. According to “10 Time Management
Tips That Work” from entrepreneur.com, record your daily activities and tasks
for several days (I recommend at least one full week). After, evaluate these activities to see what
tasks you are wasting time on and how you can better utilize this time. For example, if grocery shopping is an all-day
event due child interruptions, try leaving the kids at home with a babysitter
or spouse. Or if you live somewhere that
has grocery stores that provide in house daycare utilize it.
2.
Plan out your day (“Time Management: Tips to
Reduce Stress and Improve Productivity” from the Mayo Clinic). Create a written daily “To Do” list. This is a great way to help you accomplish
more and feel more in control of your day. I like to create my “To Do” list the
night before. This way in the morning I
can hit the ground running. Surely,
though you can always create your list first thing in the morning. This may help you get the day started off on
the right foot and feel less overwhelmed.
3.
Schedule time for interruptions (10 Time
Management Tips That Work). This is a
great tip for the work place. There will
be times where you are pulled away from your current activity but if you plan
for these interruptions you will feel less anxious. An example of this would be
professors’ schedule office hours.
4.
Learn to delegate and outsource (“11 Time
Management Tips”, about.com). This can
work both in work and at home. Learn to
let go and know you don’t have to do everything yourself. At work try to find tasks you can delegate to
co-workers and assistants based on their level of expertise and knowledge. At home try creating a chore chart that
splits up household tasks between everyone.
To encourage participation offer some type of incentive or reward for
helping with completing the tasks.
5.
One of the most important steps: Stick with a
routine and a set time limit for tasks (“11 Time Management Tips”). Of course unexpected things can occur but if
you try to stick to a routine most of the time you will be more productive
during the day. Also, setting time
limits on task such as checking emails will keep you from focusing on a task
all day and allow you to get more done.
Now that I have shared my 5 tips to better manage your time,
I want to share some of the ways I create my schedule. You can keep a schedule in written format
like I do with a planner or electronically with online calendars or an excel
spreadsheet. You may even want to do
both ways to make sure you have back up.
1.
Now when first creating your schedule start with
what I call the “must haves”. These are
obligations you must do and are not flexible on time. For example if you work Monday-Friday every
week from 7:30am-4:30pm this is a must have.
During this time you are usually constrained to only doing work and
cannot use this time for other tasks such as household obligations. Also, the times you are in school would be a
must have.
2.
Next you move on to the “must haves” that are
flexible on their start and end time.
Such things would be eating, sleeping, studying and exercising.
3.
Once your “must haves” have been filled in you
can see where you have available space for free time or scheduling meetings and
appointments. You also can see where you
can move flexible obligations around in the case of an emergency.
4.
When creating a schedule make sure to stick with
it. Memory is important. If you suffer
from remembering the tasks you write down, I suggest using an electronic form of
scheduling. Whether you do this in your
phone or computer, you can set alarms and reminders for each task. This will help remind you and keep you on
track for the day’s obligations.
5.
Remember we can’t predict the future and things
come up so be prepared for the unexpected and be okay with change.
