9 Time Management Tips

Time is a gift.  This is what my mother used to remind me as I used to wake up late in the morning.  It’s always been a struggle for me to balance and make the best use of time. The lack of time management had caused imbalance, rush and practically no time for important things.

The other day my wife wanted me to take her out to the mall. But I had to politely say no to her as I had to finish an important assignment. I do not know about you, but I am slowly forgetting the fun stuff, like catching up with old friends or a trip to our favorite mall.  Our jobs and our organization that we work for have become the Pharaoh’s of our lives.  The question is am I wasting time or whether I am managing time.

 Here are 9 tips I have gathered that has been helping my time management skill lately. 

1. Finishing your work earlier and getting out of the office—I have started to leave my office on time and this I have been doing on Thursday.  Thursday’s have been productive to me and my wife.

 2. Hiring a helper – Previously I used to do the dish washing and mopping the floor and my wife the laundry and cooking. Now we have decided to hire a house cleaner. And outsourcing of work has saved some time for us.

 3. Avoiding the traffic – I usually drop my wife to her work spot and we have been saving some time as we are leaving ten minutes earlier than usual avoiding the major traffic rush and our drive is no time waster.

 4. Create a schedule, a plan – Although seven months of the year has passed I unashamedly bought myself a year planner and also a monthly planner.  I have fixed it up in a visible place.  This is helping me to have a glance at the days of the week that are busy and say no to appointments for things that I don’t have the time.

 5. Start by planning your day- I have started to devote morning to writing report and in the afternoon to check my emails and meet up for meetings. This has helped me to manage my time.

6. Prioritize – climbing up the success ladder, I used to put work first, my self and my family second.   But now I have reversed it. Each week I am carving blocks in my schedule for exercise, appointment with doctor and even dinner with my wife.

7. Surf smarter-I have wasted a lot of time on the net.  Now it’s a different life style. Time has been saved since I check my mail only for an hour and make sure to log in 3 to 4 times in a day. I have stopped replying a no of times and have started to send a single mail at the end of the day.  Also I have stopped checking business emails after dinner since it eats up our precious family time.

8. Saying No when you can- one way to add some time to your pocket is by saying no for opportunities and assignments that you are not capable of handling. Time management is saying I’d love to but I am booked or that’s great but my weekends are fully packed or simply saying that this is not my area of specialization. Believe me it works.

9. Look ahead to stay ahead – Sometime I have failed to plan, but without being discouraged I have started to take 15 minutes every evening to review my next day schedule and stay focused.

 Hope you enjoyed reading these 9 time management tips. Let me remind you that putting theses tips to the test is a great challenge.  I can say honestly that life is slowly turning out to be balanced these days.

 Your comments and suggestions are valuable.

Andy