Time is a
resource many of us believe we have in abundance but do not manage well. The old adage states: “Time is money”. Whilst
this not to be taken literally, it does have a strong basis in economic terms
because a lot of jobs and services are valued based on the time it takes to
complete or use them.
Therefore,
it is imperative for anyone that wants to be more productive to manage time
better.
I will now share
with you 7 tips on how to make the most of time.
1. Respect Time as a Resource
You have a finite
amount of time to spend on the surface of the earth. Therefore, every second of
your life is precious and very valuable. Once you assimilate this into your
consciousness, you will see time in a new, purposeful way which should drive
you to being better at utilising it.
2. Create a Schedule
This can be
done by using a diary, your computer or phone. The reason for creating a daily,
weekly or even monthly schedule is to organize your tasks and activities in an
orderly manner. You should categorise them into 2 major groups based on their
importance and date of completion. The most important ones and those with
shortest lead times to completion should be handled first whilst others can be
handled later.
3. Avoid too Much Multitasking
The
prevailing wisdom in recent years is that great achievers are very good at
multitasking. Whilst this is usually true, you should avoid taking-on too many
overlapping duties. When you do too many things at the same time, you become
distracted and sometimes confused without doing any particular task well. Rather
than try to do everything at once, you should break the multiple tasks into little
bits and do them one after the other in quick succession. You should achieve
more with this methodology.
4. Use tools to help you do things at
the right time
Alarms, organisers,
reminders, portable storage devices, the Internet are just a few tools that you
can use to help you with your tasks, saving information about them and using
such information at a later date. Moreover, they save you time by helping you
do things faster.
5. Rest
Work and rest
are 2 things you have to master before you can optimise your usage of time.
Rest helps you replenish your energy levels and ease-off accumulated stress
which can prevent you from doing the required work at the right time. In
addition, adequate rest helps to keep you healthy. Without good health, you can
hardly achieve anything substantial because it requires so much time, effort and
resources to recover from illness, a disease or negative physiological condition.
6. Stay Focused
Time can be
wasted when you do not focus on the task at end and allow diversions which may
come in different forms; other people, self-indulgence, laziness, play and
others. Diversions often lead to wrong decisions which make it difficult to
achieve your goals and objectives in the shortest possible time. You should do
your best to avoid them.
7. Learn better ways of getting work
done
Advances in
technology and human knowledge mean that there are often newer and better ways
of doing things than what you have now. You should always lookout for these and
take advantage of them. They may require you to learn new skills like many
typists with typewriters had to learn how to use a computer for word processing;
the advantages of the newer technology far outweigh the cost of acquiring the
new skill. New technology and developments are important if you want to optimise
your time and productivity.
There you
have it, are there other ways to optimise time that I have left out? Let me
know by dropping a comment. I love getting feedback from my readers. I might
just learn from you better ways of being productive with my time. I am handing
over to you now.
