Time Management Skills

Balancing work with family can be one of the most difficult challenges for women working from home.

Time Management Skills
By Richard Gumsley

As a Life Coach, and after coaching many different clients, I
have come to realize that to effectively manage time, we need to
first realize that time itself cannot be managed! We all get
seven days a week and 168 hours within those seven days. This
cannot be increased or changed in any way. However, what we can
change, improve and manage is ourselves. In essence then, true
time management now becomes management of ourselves – "self
management!"

So being aware of this, we now know that it's not the amount of
time we have that's important; it's how effectively we use that
time that makes the difference. Successful people have exactly
the same amount of time in the day as each of us. The only
difference is they use their time differently – more
effectively.

You might say "I don't have the time to commit to learning some
time management skills". I hear this a lot during life coaching
sessions, but the fact is if this were true, do you really think
you have the time not to?

Time management principles and techniques are usually quite
simple to learn. They do not require deep thinking, a high I.Q
or lots of preparation. In fact if you were to put the search
term "Time Management Resources" into a search engine you will
get dozens of websites offering help, advice, tips and
suggestions on how to manage and prioritize your time.

To sum time management up I would say you need to ask yourself
two questions:

1. Do I physically have enough time to do the tasks that are
required of me? We only have so much time. Sometimes it's not
always physically possible to fit everything in. If this is the
case then you need to prioritize and drop some of the low
priority task/activities to claim some time back.

2. Do I fully optimize and use my time effectively? If the
answer is NO then you might want to learn and implement some
time management principles and techniques.

Below is a list of some time management (self management)
techniques and tips that I use during life coaching. You may
find a couple of them helpful yourself. They are in no
particular order.

• Figure out when (what time of the day?) you work most
efficiently.

• Establish your priorities for what you want to get done.
Identify the tasks and activities that are the highest priority
and eliminate those of low priority.

• Allow more time than you think you will need. This makes your
schedule flexible and allows for the unexpected.

• Get into the habit of using your odd five minutes here and
there more productively. Don't just dismiss it as only five
minutes – they add up throughout the week!

• Accomplish one or two important tasks rather than lots
unimportant ones.

• Keep a calendar/diary. Mark all your important dates/tasks.

• Keep a list of "Things to Do" and mark them off as completed.

• Every day make a list of what you have to do tomorrow.

• When possible do the unpleasant tasks first.

• Tidiness makes your life easier and reduces stress.

• Allow time to relax, recharge and do nothing.

• Leave time in your schedule for un-planned activities.

• Know your strengths, skills and weakness.

• Ask yourself, "What am I doing that someone else could do for
me?" Delegate!

• Don't be scared to ask for help

• Bin things straight away to reduce the clutter (junk mail,
newspapers and spam email etc).

• Divide large overwhelming tasks into smaller chunks, and
attack them one at a time.

• Complete at least one task each day that you don't like to
do, but know you should.

• Realize that all your email checking, surfing the internet
and other procrastinations add up to hours of lost time each
week (sometime even each day!)

• Watch less T.V. If you watch T.V for three hours a day from
the age of five years old, by the time you are fifty five the
amount of T.V you will have watched will be the equivalent to
watching non-stop 24 hours a day for six years and three months.
If you cut this down by just one hour a day, so then only watch
two hours of T.V, you will have gained back over two years worth
of time.

"Living is the constant process of deciding what we are going
to do" (Jose Ortega y Gasset)

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For more information on the author check out
his website's http://www.startliving.org.uk and
http://www.findalifecoach.co.uk/

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