Your Top Tips to Time Management Success

By Liz Rapelje

There seem to be so many thoughts on how to manage your time more effectively, and it can be difficult to identify which of those methods will be successful for you. Unfortunately, you can only determine through trial and error what techniques will have the most impact on your life. That said, here are 10 universal tips that, if followed, will ensure that you are on the road to time management success.

1. Set Goals That You Can Reach

Setting goals simply makes sense. You have something concrete to work towards, and you can measure your progress toward that end. Also, by setting attainable goals, you ensure your success.

2. Take it One Step at a Time

If you try to implement many different time management techniques at once, you’ll find yourself too overwhelmed to establish any new habits. Start with one method, get it ingrained into your daily routine, and only then, add a second.

On another tack, you can manage your time more effectively by breaking large, seemingly unmanageable tasks into smaller pieces. As with setting attainable goals, achieving smaller pieces of a bigger picture will give you a sense of accomplishing something, and provide you with measurable progress toward your goal, which will help to keep you focused and motivated.

3. It’s OK to Say No!

None of us can effectively manage our time if we haven’t yet learned to only take on tasks that we can reasonably accomplish. By learning to say no when you’re too busy to take on additional tasks, you’ll make it much easier to fit your tasks into the time you have.

4. Stop Procrastinating

Procrastination is a pretty big stumbling block when it comes to effectively managing our time. Often, we spend more time finding ways to avoid the tasks we don’t want to do, than they would take if we just sucked it up and got them done. Learn to recognize the signals that you’re beginning to procrastinate, and force yourself to focus and complete that task, instead of avoiding it. In doing so, you’ll begin to retrain yourself to resist procrastination

5. Get Organized

Whether you need to use a PDA, an online calendar, a traditional daytimer, or simple pen and paper, get the tools you need to get and stay organized. And start using them! You may need to try several different methods of creating schedules to find what works for you.