Control Time, Don’t Let It Control You!
Time management strategies will help you be super productive! Do you find that your to-do list keeps growing? Your wheels are spinning, but the work keeps piling up? You’re not alone – a lot of people struggle with the hustle.
Sadly, you can’t buy more, and you can’t save it. Time is finite. But you can manage it better to achieve more. All you need is a bit of know-how, a touch of technology and a few practical strategies under your belt. The trick is to control time and not let it control you!
Successful Time Management is a professional development course that will develop your schedule management skills and goal setting techniques to help you deliver under pressure.
You’ll explore how to leverage your personality traits to boost productivity, beat fatigue, maintain focus and decline work-related tasks. You’ll also discover how to implement organisation techniques, meet targets, achieve goals, and track your progress.
Learning Outcomes
Outcomes achieved by undertaking a course in time management strategies include:
- Manage priorities better
- Learn how to complete goal alignment worksheets
- How to clarify goals by asking questions
- Manage work priorities better
- Learn to use a priority matrix
- What does it mean to be more productive?
- Identify driving and inspirational personalities
- How to deal with time stealers
- Create effective to-do lists
- How to keep your time organised
- Assess the value and time of your tasks
- Prioritise tasks
- How to chunk your time
- Build a schedule
- Beat procrastination and temptation
- Beat fatigue
- Manage multitasking
- Block out distractions
- How to say “no.”
- Adjust your time when necessary
- How to regain focus
- Time management strategies
And more!
What is Time Management?
Put simply, time management is about using time management strategies to get more done in your professional and personal life. It’s implementing techniques that help you be more productive. At the heart of it, good time management allows you to manage tasks based on their importance and urgency. By prioritising your day, you can focus your time and energy where they matter most.
6 Secrets to Successful Time Management
Now, we’re not giving alway all the secrets. You’ll need to enrol in the Successful Time Management course to discover all the time management strategies! But, here are a few basic tips on managing your day better!
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The Morning Routine
Who doesn’t love a good sleep in? But could you be a little less indulgent? Weekends are for walking late, but could you make your weekdays a bit longer?
In The New York Times, Benjamin Spall wrote that his study of successful people revealed that most wake up with the sparrows. It seems the choices made in the first few hours of the day determine the success or failure of the rest of the day.
As a result of interviewing over 300 successful people, Mr Spall notes that the average wake-up time for successful people is 6.27 am. They also make time in the morning for what energises and motivates them, whether that’s a 5K run, meditation or a green smoothie!
On rising first thing in the morning, Marie Condo simply opens windows to let in the fresh air, lights incense, and tidies the house (of course)! Anna Wintour plays tennis before starting her workday, and our very own Turia Pitt practices gratitude by thinking of three things that make her grateful every morning on waking.
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Make Daily & Weekly To-Do List
A daily work plan helps us to prioritise tasks and make progress towards goals incrementally. They’re a great visual aide for those of us who take comfort in seeing items being ticked off! It’s also an excellent anxiety-killer because it gets the task out of your head and onto paper (screen or board).
The trick is to find the format that’s right for you. Electronic gadgets, notepad or whiteboard – it doesn’t matter, you’ll still get the same benefits! Just don’t make a list too long – perhaps three significant priorities for the day – and be specific.
Getting back to the importance of mornings – many a successful person swears by the ‘do the hardest task first rule.’ It’s a great way to gain momentum by starting the day with a win.
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Focus
If you still think multitasking is the new black – time to wake up (there’s that morning reference again)! It simply isn’t the most efficient use of time. Neuroscientist Earl Miller says that, for the most part, we simply can’t focus on more than one thing at a time.
“People can’t multitask very well, and when people say they can, they’re deluding themselves,” he says.
It’s science – don’t argue!
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Delegate
No one can be all things to all people. Don’t be a micro-manager, or you’ll burn out fast. Instead, employ the right people for the right tasks, and relinquish the reins.
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Use the 80/20 Rule
Are you familiar with the 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto Principle)? It basically means, in time-management terms, that 20 per cent of your effort will reap 80 per cent of your result. So, successful people understand that ‘top priorities’ (or 20 per cent of your to-do list) will drive your most important results.
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Allow Distraction Time
Distraction plays a considerable role in the productivity of our day. Whether it’s checking social media, making plans with friends, checking in on Aunt Betty or making a doctors appointment – distractions are part of every day. But what if you gave yourself distraction time? If you plan for it, it’s expected.
If you set aside 15 -20 minutes every day for distractions, they won’t consume you – or your day! Remember, unless it’s an emergency, you don’t need to instantly reply, return calls, or comment on social media. Save it for your set distraction times. You could space them out into five minutes chunks of distraction time throughout the day.
If you want to start managing your time better, time management strategies can save the day. You’ll discover how to reclaim your professional and personal life in our online course Successful Time Management.