|
Here are four easy-to-use time management tools that will end procrastination and put you in control.
1. Pick the right time management tools from the start by using planners or calendars of a size that you can keep with you at all times. If you regularly use a planner, you know how valuable this is for effective time management. Of all time management tools, this one alone will end procrastination, reduce stress, and add value and balance to your life.
Two of the most effective time management tools are a paper planner/calendar with one to two pages for each day or an electronic planner. One or two pages per day give you the room to write not only your scheduled items for the day but notes for each meeting, directions, and other comments relevant to your day. Write everything in one place, your planner. Do not write an appointment in your calendar, the phone number on a napkin, and the directions on a notepad. That's Stress City, and it’s not taking advantage of your time management tools. When you are rushing out to that appointment, you won't be able to put your hands on all the things you need.
Throw away your to do list. Delete it from your computer. To do lists are out of date time management tools. However, before you throw your to do list away, you need to do one very important thing.
2. Take a couple of seconds on each item and ask yourself the magic question that ends procrastination "When am I going to do this?" …."I have to do meeting planning in the morning, this phone call to a client I'll do on Thursday, taking some additional college classes I don't intend to do until fall - I'll put that down in early March to check out." Then, for the most effective time management, transfer each item from your to do list to a day in your planner/calendar when you intend to do it or start it.
And don't transfer your entire To Do List until tomorrow. Breaking it down by days takes what is often an overwhelming list and sorts it by time into manageable segments. When you get to the day for doing it, act on it – or again, at least start it. When new events of the day try and crowd out what you had planned to do, ask yourself, "Is this new item more important to do today than what I had planned?" If so, do it. If not, stick to what you had planned and write down the new item on a future day in one of your time management tools, your planner or PDA.
And don't be stressed by having to transfer planned items to another day because higher priorities come along. The act of transferring is motivational and after you've transferred something three or four times, you will say to yourself, "Am I ever going to do this?" Sometimes you'll answer NO, this isn't that important, and you'll delete it. More often you'll say, I'm tired of transferring this, and you'll find the time to get it started that day.
3. Every time you decide to do something in the future, take 3 additional seconds and answer the magic question, "When am I going to do it?" If you’re driving home from work and you think "I need to finish that report soon," don't write it on a to do list. Take a couple more seconds and ask yourself, "When am I going to do that?" Then immediately write it down on the specific day in your planner that you intend to do it. The best thinking and best intentions will not help with overall effective time management unless you make a commitment in time when you are going to do something about them.
4. Open up your planner every day, one of the most important of all time management tools. At least 80 percent of the value of all planner systems for effective time management comes from only two things. When you decide to do something, immediately writing it down on the day you intend to do it AND opening up your planner everyday. If you will do these two things, you are getting at least 80 percent of the value of these time management tools. Immediately writing down your activities on a daily page and opening your planner up every morning will greatly reduce procrastination and increase the achievement and enjoyment levels in your life.
View More Articles on Management
|
