Learning effective time management skills can dramatically change your life. If you have kids then you really need to know how to best manage your time, so that you can keep up with all of the demands that kids can dish out. There are lots of time management skills that you can learn and utilize that can keep you in the stress free zone.
If you`re the type of person who has poor time management skills, then you probably feel that your life is crazy, unorganized and chaotic. You might run late all the time, which makes your friends, personal life and business life suffers. You might also take on too much which can leave you feeling like you`re about to lose your mind. Luckily there are some solid tips that can help you discover ways to better manage your time.
The first thing you should do is make a to-do-list for your next day. And you should write every detail down. From walking kids to school, dog walks, breakfast making, coffee run. And beside each task, you should write down how long it takes you and how long it could take you ideally. Making a visual list will let you see what you have to do and it will enable you to visualize what exactly you have to do.
You might find that after making a to-do-list that you realize that you have actually penciled in way too many things for your morning. You might learn that you can`t possibly get all those things done, and it might motivate you to reschedule some tasks. This is actually a positive thing. Now instead of falling behind and running late, you will be able to accommodate all of your tasks effectively.
Now looking back at your list and your time frames, see if you can break tasks down into small steps. For example, is there anything about breakfast that you can do to make it easier and faster for you and your family? Are there quicker breakfast ideas? Are you making them pancakes and eggs every day? Or are the kids just slow cereal eaters? In this case, you could wake up the slow eaters up earlier, or you could make breakfast meals faster, such as shakes, cereal bars and so on. You could also prepare breakfast meals and have everything cleaned up the night before.
Another key factor in managing your time is staying on time. That means that if your to-do-list involves grocery shopping before work, then you need to give yourself a realistic amount of shopping time. Are you doing a big shopping or a small one? Is your goal realistic to your time? Can a big shopping really fit into the half an hour you might have scheduled in before work? If you set yourself up for failure than you will only feel bad about yourself. Plan realistic goals and time frames. Remember that you`re not a super hero!
Time management works best if you have a day planner and keep track of everything. Write down a list of things you may have to do at work. Give yourself time frames to get things done and have a backup plan for anything that you can`t get done on time; lunch breaks, take home work.
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