Plan your time-management

The best day to begin time management is today.

1. Define a weekly plan

• Write down your goals for the week and the actions you have to complete to accomplish them.
  
  
• Determine the week’s most important, essential tasks.
  
  
• Assess all your listed tasks to see if they are essential.
  • you have time for
  • you don’t have time for
  • you wish you had time for
    
    
• Eliminate all tasks that don’t contribute to what you need or want to accomplish.
  
  
• Identify the specific actions necessary to get moving on the remaining activities and add a time estimate.

The tasks and the list may change during the week, depending on circumstances. As new tasks come up, assign them a value. Understand your limits, so you can be practical about what you can honestly achieve.

2. Schedule your activities

A list is only a plan; to put a plan into action, you need a schedule. It will help to see what you have to do quickly.

• Optimize Your Schedule

1. Break up weekly objectives into smaller daily increments.
Identify your best time of day for getting things done and plan to accomplish your most essential tasks at that time.

2. Don’t over-schedule.
To reduce stress, leave time for taking breaks, catching up, and coping with unforeseen circumstances.

3. Review your schedule throughout the day.

4. Check off tasks and objectives as you complete them.
The good feeling you experience will inspire you to continue moving forward.

5. Check tomorrow’s schedule before leaving work.
If necessary, adjust it to include today’s still-to-do tasks.

6. Accept that you will not always be able to cross off every job by the end of the week.

7. Recognize time-crushers as people or events and learn to control their impact.
Often a control might be possible by giving yourself or the related time-crusher a choice. If going to this event, you might cancel another one, or your boss might get this report, but then not get the previous one on time.

3. Review your results

Compare your estimated time with your actual time to pinpoint trouble spots.

Be proud of even small successes during the early stages of your transition towards time management. 

Once you have started time management, keep going.