4 Proven Steps to Sharpen Your Time Management Skills

 

Why Manage Your Time?

One of the most important skills you can master to stack the odds of success in your favour is your ability to manage your time effectively.   

Your time is your life! 

For many of us, time management is a tough and persistent challenge.  

It's challenging to undo longlasting habits including procrastination, overscheduling, and our tendency to becoming distracted by the latest 'shiny bright object' that catches our attention online.  

Next thing you know, 2 hours have slipped away and nothing on your 'To-Do' list is checked off. 

Your ability to manage your time and your priorities applies to every aspect of your life, both professional and personal - your relationships, your health and your business will benefit immeasurably when you master your time. 

In fact - this one crucial skill - your time management abilities can make or break your success in life. 

The good news is that it's possible to change how you manage your time and your priorities.  When you do, you'll likely notice a boost in your energy too. 

Here are my best tips and strategies to help:

Step 1. Define Your Priorities

Anyone with a long 'To-Do' list and a bunch of balls to juggle (that just about covers everyone) will want to get the most from their day - there just never seems to be enough time in each one. 

Organizing tasks and schedules are important aspects of effective time management, but it's not the place to start. 

The very first step is to identify what's MOST important to you. 

This step calls in the 'Big Rocks First' concept which holds that once you figure out what your personal priorities are, you can then organize your time to support them.

For example, my own 3 priorities in specific order are:  

1. HEALTH (all aspects - physical, intellectual, soulful)
2. FAMILY (my partner and kids first, extended family and friends next - because my friends are the family I've chosen)
3. BUSINESS (clients, affiliates, colleagues, community members) 

Your priority list may be very different from mine, but the point is to start figuring out what's most important to you, and know what it is you want for yourself - your one wild and crazy life.

Understanding your motivations, recognizing your unique talents and gifts, and then cultivating your life in a way that best calls forth all of those gifts, and aligns with your passions and purpose, can be difficult work.  

Once you've figured it out though, you'll then be able to organize each month, each week, and every day by scheduling time in your planner for your priorities.  I recommend blocking out dedicated time for each of your priorities - for the entire month. 

With a little practice, you'll notice that you'll be less stressed and more energized - and more focused too.  You'll feel more in control and you'll also notice a boost in your productivity and how much you get accomplished each day. 

Step 2. Develop Self-Awareness

Even with your new plan, it'll take some time to break old habits and form new ones.  

The next step is to develop and practice some self-monitoring skills around your use of time to establish a baseline for your current behaviours.

Take a look at how you spend each day.

• Where are you inefficient with your time?
• Identify your 'Time Suckers' and determine if they're actually worth the time (gaming, binge-watching...)
• How can those 'Time Suckers' be eliminated or reduced?

Step 3. Improve Your Use of Time

Armed with the information from the above exercise, you can now figure out how to make improvements on your time management.

Create a plan that serves you best with these stepping stones strategies: 

1. Create a TIME BUDGET.  Outline how you want to spend your hours during a typical month/week/day based on the priorities you've identified. Include the 'musts' on your list as well as those things you like to do. Here's where you can add in the things that light you up, those that nourish your soul - those hobbies or interests that always get pushed off to the back burner because you just don't have time. 
2. Track your use of time.  Use a day planner, a journal, a notebook, or a logbook to divide up how you utilize your time each day. Whether it's for business projects or client calls, self-care, physical activity and exercise, family time, travel, errands, meal prep, eating with your family - whatever it is that you spend time on, track it.  Evaluate how long you expected something to take and how long it actually takes too.
3. Understand your natural rhythms.  Some of us have to be at work from a certain time of day to another.  Some are fortunate to have flexibility in their jobs or with their businesses. Some are most creative and productive at night, while others feel most energized first thing.  For some, mid-morning is the sweet-spot.  You may be someone who needs a nap or a coffee break mid-afternoon to stay focused. Segment your day so work and projects are scheduled when you're at your peak performance time when you know you'll be the most effective and productive.
4. Factor in 'Buffer Time.'   When mapping out your schedule and filling in your workouts, project time, client calls, meal prep, and errands, add time into your plan for transitioning from one task to the next, traveling to and from.  Adding 10-30 minutes to your initial time estimates will prevent you from overscheduling yourself and will significantly reduce your stress level.
5. Re-Evaluate.  Since you're now more aware of how you're investing your precious time, and recognizing the results of your increased productivity and reduced stress, you can ask yourself some important questions. How valuable is the outcome? Are you likely to realize the results you want if you keep doing what you've been doing?  Who'll be most affected if you do or don't finish? Once you have the answers to these questions, you can decide whether to soldier on, solicit help, delegate, complete at a future time, adjust or even abandon your project if it doesn't fit with your priorities. 

If you're noticing that you're spending 'too much time' on something, you can now adjust your schedule to accommodate it after figuring out if it's necessary and how to remedy it.    

Step 4. Develop Arrangement Skills

Once you've become more aware of how you're using your time, you can then begin to focus on arranging your schedule for maximum results and become a true master at planning out the best use of your most precious commodity. 

You'll be able to organize your tasks, projects and the time you need to support and achieve each goal in a way that utilizes your time most efficiently and productively. 

Here are some strategies to help:

1. Understand the difference between the urgency of your tasks. Urgent tasks require immediate action.  Important tasks have long-term consequences.  Activities or tasks that are both urgent and important need your attention first. 
2. When you're organizing your tasks and projects, meetings and family time, workouts, and 'To-Do' lists for the day, remember to include routine and recurring events and activities such as errands, cooking time, outdoor work, gym time...
3. Use a Calendar App but be mindful of the 'out of sight - out of mind' effect. Apps that automatically record and colour-code tasks and appointments will help you improve how you structure your day and plan out your time but you do want to be able to actually SEE your entire month.  I begin with a paper copy for planning where I can see the whole month, and then once I figure everything out - plot it into my electronic calendar, adding reminders if necessary. 
4. Make calendar appointments with yourself and commit to KEEPING those dates! This is a fantastic strategy to keep your self-care and workout time sacred and to honour your own personal needs.  Give yourself uninterrupted time for important projects, and personal development, as well as strategic planning time and time to tie up all those loose ends. 
5. Re-evaluate your goals, intentions, and priorities regularly.  I do this each month. If something seems too large or challenging, break up the larger project into smaller steps and schedule time for those. 
   

And finally, remember to recognize all the progress you're making and celebrate your gains along the way. 

While managing your time and priorities effectively takes conscious effort and practice, once you've mastered this method, you'll 

• increase your productivity
• Have greater success achieving your goals
• Feel less stressed and more in control
• Enjoy a greater sense of happiness in your life

A Gift For You

Becoming a master of my time made such a significant difference in my own life that I wrote a guide outlining my personal stepping-stone time-management plan.  It's specifically designed for the 'too-busy' entrepreneur or business owner and I'd be happy to send you a copy for free.  

Let me know if you'd like a copy of my guide. I'm happy to send a copy along to you for free - just send me an e-mail or a private message via Facebook.

I'd love to hear from you

• Which strategies do you already use?
• Which will you try?
• Would you like a Free Resource to help set up your time management plan?

Leave your comments below.

Share your thoughts and tips.  

 About the Author:

Andrea Raco, is a Certified Success and Life Enrichment Coach, Founder of Coach for Life, and Curator of Gold Key Club ~ a private community for Ladypreneurs, Supermoms, and Sisters making a difference in the world.

For more information about her services and programs, visit coachforlife.ca or contact her via e-mail: andrea@coachforlife.ca.