Zen of Time Management

Time is synonymous to Life, isn’t it? If you say, you have spent X years for something, means you have devoted X years of your life to that thing!

It is an irreplaceable resource. Effectual use of Time will increase your efficiency.

OK, I know all this… but how… how would I use my time effectively? What is it that I can follow to commit to it? I am an average person… so I can implement it only if the system is simple.

Here is the answer… the few simple steps that will help you save your time the way you dreamt.

Daily Touchstones:

1. Monitor your time on daily basis. Keep track of the actual flow of your days for 15 days. Categorize time spent activities by the activity type.
2. Observe where your time is utilized by viewing Time Record Summary and Daily Time Record.
3. Setup your ideal daily routine and establish the habit of daily priority setting.
4. Identify the time-stealers and adopt Anti-time-stealing techniques to deal effectively with the time-stealers.

Anti-time-stealing techniques:

1. Break down the projects into smaller chunk of tasks. Learn how to eat the elephant…. one piece at a time.
2. Set priorities to stay focused. Set goals to accomplish no more than 3 of your most important tasks (MITs) – these tasks should be the biggest rocks, if climbed successfully; lead you to nearer to your set goal.
3. Remind everyone involved of the priorities – this will align everyone.
4. Learn to say “No”: Don’t say “Yes” to everything and everyone that come to you.
5. Delegate whatever you can
6. Identify common pattern of tasks. Organize such tasks to be done together. It should be part of your permanent daily schedule.
7. Talk about time saving ideas with others… surprisingly you will find a few more ideas than you already know.
8. Make “Beating the Deadlines” a top-priority. Just Meeting the deadline should not be acceptable!
9. Organize yourself to accomplish a thing from start to end. Don’t fragment your time.
10. Reserve a day of quiet time for yourself in a week. Use “Do not disturb” sign for uninterrupted work.
11. Make effective use of secretaries or receptionist to screen out time stealers.
12. Consolidate email, chat or telephone time. Set fixed time for answering the calls or answering your emails. Your Chat window should not enjoy “Available” status for all the time.
13. Eat that Frog! – don’t put off unpleasant tasks.
14. Use your idle time to read through Blogs or listen to inspiring music.
15. Eat light; stay tight. Eliminate alcohol from your weekdays.
16. Understand that work from home is no brainier.
17. Learn to tolerate ‘Excellence’ everyday, procrastinate perfection for the next day.
18. Use your prime time for the MITs.
19. Make a habit of keeping a capture tool to capture your great ideas and to save them for later use.
20. Follow the 80/20 rule. Plan for 20 percent of your time so that you can act effectively for the rest of 80% – Gone are the days of first acting and then thinking.
21. Audit your Time Record – Criticize yourself mercilessly.
22. Focus on “What” not “How” Things should be got done; doesn’t matter how.

See Also:

1. Twenty One Project Management Tips On How To Get Co-operation of Senior Management
2. Seven Prioritization Tips To Get Things Done In A More Meaningful Way
3. Directness, A Deviant Act That Is More Than Worth In Agile Project Management
4. Nine Steps To Deal With Bad Management
5. Pacesetters 10

Tagged as: Eat That Frog