Ten Commandments for Time Management

"Time is the scarcest resource of the manager; if it is not managed, nothing else can be managed." – Peter F. Drucker

One of the major causes of stress is work overload and not having enough time to accomplish your tasks. The easy way to get out of this predicament is to get organized and managing your time effectively. The goal of time management should not be to find more time. The goal is to prioritize what is important and use the time available wisely.

We’ve put together 10 tips to help you take charge of your life and enjoy what you do:
1. Make a list and prioritize: Time management starts here. Write down a list of tasks to be done, rank them on a scale of importance and plan when you will complete them. Writing down objectives, duties and activities helps to make them more manageable and do-able. Prioritizing tasks will help you minimize stressful situations.
2. Get into a routine: Select a time of the day or week to get certain routine tasks accomplished such as answering email, replying to calls, completing paper work; then stick to it.
3. Learn to say “No”: There are times when you have to learn to draw the line. Poor time management is often the result of our tendency to say “yes” to too many things. Every time you agree to do something out of schedule, another task that was scheduled will not get done. Learn how to say no. Sometimes the “no” has to be said to yourself – do not take on more than you are capable of.
4. Do not commit to activities in the future: Even if a commitment is a year ahead, it is still a commitment. You have no idea what your situation will be then and no matter how far ahead it is, it will still take the same amount of your time.
5. Break up large tasks: If possible, large tasks should be broken up into a series of small, manageable tasks. This will make it easier for you to deal with them. Also, by using a piecemeal approach, you will be able to fit a lot more into your hectic schedule.
6. Conserve your efforts: Look at the way you do things. Are you a perfectionist? If so, try to decide which tasks truly require meticulous attention to detail and which can be done casually. There is a place for perfectionism, but for most activities, there comes a stage when there is not much to be gained from putting extra effort.
7. Choose your course of action: Often, we start a task, think about it, and then lay it aside. This gets repeated over and over again. This way, you have not completed the task and you have also lost valuable time. When you are confronted with a task, decide what you are going to do - deal with it right away or attend to it at a later time.
8. Set time limits: We’re talking time management, so naturally, along with setting up start times for activities we also need to set up stop times. This will call for some estimating, but your guesswork will improve with practice. This will allow you and others to better schedule activities.
9. Pad your schedule: Allot yourself enough time to accomplish a task and cut back on anxiety. If you have trouble meeting deadlines, always give yourself 20 percent more time than you think you need to do the job.
10. Plan your activities - To get all this done, you have to set aside time to plan and schedule your activities. Ironically, if time management is important to you, you need to allow yourself enough time to plan the way you will use it.
By taking the time and effort to plan and prioritize your activities, you will be able to achieve much more than you ever thought was possible in a 24-hour day. So go ahead and incorporate the above tips into your work habits and see where it takes you.