What Is Not Time Management

Some of the most common arguments about not having to put time into segments of activities is that time management restrict spontaneity. It takes away the surprises that make life more enjoyable. It makes life so regimented to limit freedom.

On the other hand a person who have learned enough time management and have applied them have more predictable results, have better direction and purpose, are more successful and often ends up with more time in hand.

Correct time management is really to enjoy what one reaps. But often, time control buffs go to the extreme of gaining more time to turn it into another frenzy of activity and so on where no time is really left to enjoy the rewards gained.

Whatever the arguments are, time management has to be applied and is crucial if one has to adapt to the thrill of competition.

Time management is not meant to plunge the self into an unrelenting activity, moving every which way, ending up the day exhausted and achieving next to nothing. I know this is anal but often it is done that way.

Time management is the ability to adopt to the limitation of time that is allowed to each of us everyday focussing on the envisioned end result and not necessarily on the movement per se.

Good time management is doing things a little each time with well-defined purpose of action. It is the ability to categorize what need to be done immediately, what has to be done next and so forth, in a realistic time frame. It is the ability to discipline the self against too many procrastination and entertaining excuses that results at best to delaying what is unavoidable.

Time management is to recognize what time of the day where one is most effective and taking the opportunity to take advantage of these most productive hours.

It may not be an accident why some peoples phone rings more than others, where visitors and e-mails keeps popping up and work disruptions keeps happening. Entertaining time stealers are often the best arguments to justify why work has been done when the results are not there.

Time management does not mean having to do too much. It is planning, prioritizing, being focused and doing the most essential things whether on a personal or on a professional level without looking for arguments and justification for things undone. As reasons for not doing things exist, reasons for not doing things also exist. Up front, rationalizing may come as a validation or as an idiocy but while doing that, time ticks on without mercy.

Effective Time Management Strategies for Everyone

Good time management will always involve a strategy or an action plan if you will. The following are the most common and as effective.

Prioritize your work
Rank the thing you must do for the day. Start with the most important and unpleasant then work you way down. The things that you think is not really needed immediately and not important can be done as the day wore on and if you have the time.

Assign work time frames for each.
Assigning work time frames for each task, even if it is not so realistic at first can give you a good idea later on regarding the a more realistic approach. The idea is to start it off and stick it out.

Be flexible.
It always happen that when you are trying to do a good job or start on a significant one that will have a drastic effect, sooner or later something crops up to derail your effort. Ask anyone who has succeeded and they will tell you the same. Allow extra time for the unexpected. It may not be as dramatic. Unnecessary interruptions like phone calls, mails, the do you have a minute thing, this all eats up your time and if it is not prioritize or given allowances, frustration grows.

 Survive.
Limit giving in to temptation of engaging in small talk when priorities are set and being worked on. Respect you decision in planning and you are on your way.

Delegate.
Be realistic about the things that you can and can not do. Delegate the things that you must.

Floating work
There are tasks that you can do anywhere that doing them now will only complicate your main task at hand. Recognize them and do it on your flexible time.

Learn to compromise where it is necessary.
The importance and urgency of a task can change anytime of the day. Make adjustments and allow times for these. If there are things that has to be re prioritize, re scheduled, postponed and dropped altogether.

Accepting your limitations is a good idea anytime. There are tasks that you can not do now and there are tasks that you can learn to do better next time.

Learning to relax is the main point in all of these exercises. The main idea that makes time management very popular is the time it allows people to take control of their lives and have enough time left to enjoy things that matters most.

In today's busy schedules, it is imperative that time are assigned into manageable blocks because there is simply no other viable option. The other choice will be like standing still in the middle of a crowd that is moving forward.

Directing Your Future with Time Management for Students

Wherever you are is as good as any time to start. This may sound too simplistic but it is true. Think. If you would want to start at a better date when all things start falling into place, it will never happen. Besides that is the best way to loose time. That is procrastination.

When you have already heard about it, read about it or been trained to do it, do it already. It does not matter if you do not know all the rules, somehow you will learn because people are like that. We are trained to be smart. You and I

It is different though when you are hearing it for the first time or while you are already on this page, you want ideas to be reinforced. The fun thing is, your idea may just be as good as mine. We all have that at the back of our heads, unwritten, unspoken and often unheeded.

But for all that it is worth, my friend, here goes:

- What is your priority? What do you want to accomplish out of this school year? What marks will you want to see that will be your gift to yourself?

- Once you have decided on that, compute the time that you have for the week. Let the week be our benchmark. Out of that take away all the time that you will need for sleep and rests, meals, personal things, errands and all those things that you can not do without. And with that I do not mean the TV, the telephone and the chitchat - yet.

- If you are like most students, there is a good chance that you are left with about 85 hours.

- Take away your lecture time for the week. Let us say here (just for illustration) that lecture time is 25 hours. What remains is about 60 hours.

- Here's the sweet part. Once you take away the time to review and do the assignments in each lesson, becomes your free time. If you use your time well during class, you would not be reviewing as much and those are hours added to your personal time.

- What you control then out of the 168 hours is 60. Use it well.

Many students will want to use that to improve their standing in class. And so they will devote time to studying more. They will set their priorities and make the best out of it. But do not forget the TV, the phone and the socializing only have it scheduled.

Even in your young life you must have noticed that it is so easy to squander time. And yet time is the only thing that is mostly in your control. Control it because it is a good start at controlling what you will become.

Directing Personal Time Management Effectively

To begin personal time management, it will be good to look at first on how much time is really available for us and having a good grasp on how much is that time worth.

Everyone has 168 hours to spend every week. If you are like most of us, taking away the time required for sleeping and rest, personal hygiene and grooming, time needed for meals and snacks, travelling and other personal necessities will leave you with 90 hours for the week that you can divide for work and leisure.

Depending on how it is perceived and used, the 90-hour window spells much of the difference between planning and control or being on the other side of efficiency and production.

The language in the business world is productivity and wise use of time. Time has often been translated into dollars that if one is to remain competitive, there is simply no other option.

Personal time management is recognizing how much your time is worth. Typically, the 90 hours window for the week is divided into work and personal time. The failure and success of personal time management relies heavily on these. When work time is mixed with the personal time and vice versa, negative repercussions happen.

The two can really not be mixed. Otherwise the body will interpret leisure time mixed with work as work and tasks mixed with leisure will still be work that leaves one exhausted and stressed and in extreme cases lowers down the body functions that makes one prone to illnesses.

Assigning time blocks to each and working it out until the habit is formed is what personal time management all about. It is obviously a healthy, productive and successful alternative than simply allowing oneself to cruise along believing that it is more freedom filled and spontaneous. Schedules can not be avoided as much as time for sleeping and eating can not.

Out of the 168 hours every week, the crucial time for management is really only about 40 hours. If this can be handled very well most things already can.

The rule of the thumb in personal time management is simple. Creating a plan and working on it. It is prioritizing which, in most cases are easy to identify, learning to say no when the plan is being compromised, yet being flexible enough to realize that events can crop up and re adjusting the plan to achieve a logical conclusion. It is avoidance of time stealers that are the usually temptations to postpone a work plan. It is simply dedicating hours for particular activities and earning time that the body can recognize as rest and the body can recognize as job well done.

Can Time be Truly Managed or Is it Managing Us

One of the only real resources that we all have in common is time. Everything can change but anyone has a constant 24 hours of everyday. The irony is no one can manage time. Time is linear and once the second is gone, it is gone. To manage time then is a misnomer. We do not manage time, we manage ourselves according to the time available to us.

If we have to come to grasp and make the most out of our time we have to think of it as an idea. It is a myth that binds all our reference points and it is the most and only valuable resource that is available to all. No one has really conquered time all of the time but the few that made the most out of it are richly rewarded

When we say time management however, what it generally refers to is its better use so that productivity and efficiency are increased because today, to continuously be competitive whether in business or in personal affairs, time management is crucial.

Time management is making the most of our time so that we deal with efficiency the things that we do not want to do but have to, and be left with enough time to do the things that we enjoy. 

We exist only in the present, the now. It has to be enjoyed to the fullest extent that we can. Maybe this is why it is called a present.

Failing to do those will find many of us having spent time and having done nothing much. Movement as we all know is not always being efficient. Yet everyday, movement is often mistaken to be progress when all one did was like sitting on a rocking horse moving back and forth and getting nowhere. It is often ironic that individuals who focus on the end results and not in being busy ends up in doing much and still have time enough for themselves.

Time management involves planning and sticking out to a planned course of action that is directed towards a specific goal. Time management is not having to do everything and being everyone to everybody. It is the realization of what are important and prioritizing things from those. It is the ability to say no and the ability to reject time stealers. Time management is delegating things when there is a need for delegation, deciding on things with dispatch when the need arises and developing the ability to spot potential problems before it can occur.

Having the ability or training to do that makes the now truly a present that only people who can manage the self as he relates to time can really enjoy.