Effective time management
Get the most out of life

Have you implemented effective time management? Or....

Do you feel as if you are constantly running around trying to get tasks done, but there never seems to be enough time in the day?

Do you have unfinished projects that have been waiting for completion for weeks, months or even years?

Do you sometimes feel as if you never get anything done?

If these sound familiar, it may be time for you to consider implementing effective time management techniques.

Get More Done

The reality is that most people fall behind on their projects because they are not using effective time management skills.  Time can easily slip away if you don’t take steps to control of it.

However, by implementing a few simple effective time management techniques, you'll find that you can complete all of your tasks and enjoy free time as well.  The key to an effective time management program is taking an honest look at yourself.  You need to determine where changes can and should be made.

There are a few common difficulties.  For example, failure to set priorities.  When I talk to groups about prioritization of tasks, they tell me that they know all about prioritization.  I then ask them if they do it.  Almost all say yes.

After a bit of discussion it generally transpires that although they prioritize in their heads they don't write down the results.  I ask them to tell me what they had for dinner the previous four nights.  Most can't.  So I ask how you remember the priority of 20 tasks. You can't.

If you only prioritize in your head then you're not committing fully to the priority that you've given to the tasks.  You need to write it down so that you can measure whether you were successful or not.  You'll find that when you write the priority down that you probably haven't included all the tasks.  It's a simple but very effective way of making you feel accountable for your actions.

Although this extra step in prioritization takes extra effort it's worth it.  You need this extra self-discipline to ensure you achieve effective time management.

80/20 Rule

The 80/20 principle, which is also referred to as Pareto’s Principal after Vilfredo Pareto, is a really effective time management technique.  The principle states simply that you need to focus on 20% of your tasks in order to achieve 80% of the results you want.

In other words, of all of the things you do during your day, only 20% of those tasks really matter and 80% of them are sapping your time.  So, if you have to ignore a certain task for the day, make sure it isn’t one of those tasks that falls within the all-important 20% group.

To identify the 20% of tasks that are important you need to start with your task list.  You need to go through the list ruthlessly.  Cull out any items that you think might not be as important as the others.  Be brutal.  You're not getting rid of them for good only for the day.  Keep gong until you only have 20% of the tasks left.

If you have sufficient time to complete the 20% of task then tackle them.  If not be brutal and get rid of more tasks.  You need to get rid of anything that's not productive.  Don't waste time on the 80%.

If you'd like more information on task lists you should have a read of this effective time management page.

But How?

I get asked "but how" a lot.  Although people appreciate the need to prioritise they generally are unsure how to do it.  They've heard about important versus urgent or setting a number 1 to 10 or a variety of other techniques.

The easy answer is that you need to find a technique that will work for you.  What works for me is to follow my rules on setting up task lists.  I set up a list that I tackle immediately and I set up a slightly longer list for items that I can't do straight away.

I used to also run a list of perhaps never.  But after a few years I gave up on it.  I gave up on it because I never did anything on it so I decided if I wasn't doing it now or in the near future I wasn't going to think about it.  That doesn't mean it's not valuable, for some people they need that extra list to set their minds at rest.  For them it's invaluable.

Once I have my two lists I'm really brutal with them - you have to be to achieve effective time management.  Anything I don't think adds value gets thrown off the list.  In case you're wondering I get it wrong but I know I can always add them in tomorrow so I'm not that concerned.

Generally I end up with a couple of very short lists.  Often there will be less than 10 items on each list.  These lists are really cut down to the things that are valuable to me and they hold nothing else.

Within these lists I don't worry too much about priority.  If it's the DO NOW list I start at the top and work to the bottom.  It all needs done and it's all important so the order is unimportant.  The only thing that might alter that is if I'm looking forward to a particular task. When I have a task like that I'll save it as a reward and force myself to do a task I don't like first.

If it's my DO LATER list then I'll try to do them in some sort of date order.  It's hard to be specific but I look at the due dates and work from them to get the right order.  The key thing is that I'm not prioritizing by task comparison.  All tasks are equally important.  Instead I'm arranging by what makes common sense for the order.

If you are ready to reap the rewards of effective time management, get ready to be brutal with your tasks.  You need to get disciplined and follow through daily with your task lists.  You'll be thrilled with the results!