Time management equals an increase in productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency. Without proper management, things tend to become chaotic. Time management skills are essential in every area, be it your day to day activity, your business goals or your life goals.
Here are summarized skills to Time management :
- Aims/Goals keep you from squandering your time.
- Motivation to keep you going.
- Decision-making skills are a must.
- Prioritize
- Plan and execute.
- Managing stress and handling depression.
- Teamwork
- Patience and persistence
The road to your goals is always paved with obstacles. The things that mean the most to us never come easy, we always have to fight for them. Time management is one of the tools in your portmanteau that you can use to remove those obstacles.
That is the reason we have brought you a list of time management skills to master. These skills will help you overcome all the hurdles but only if you give it your best shot.
#1. Time management required Aims/Goals keep you from squandering your time
Reach high, for stars lie hidden in you. Dream deep, for every dream, precedes the goal.”
– Ravindranath Tagore
It doesn’t matter what you call it. You could call it your dream, your hopes, your aim or your goals but the important thing is to have one.
When you have a goal in your life, it has meaning. You’ll be constantly striving to achieve that goal. This will help you avoid procrastination which is most often found in idle minds and it aids the person in wasting more time.
Setting up your goals becomes an important time management skill just for that.
#2. Motivation to keep you going
You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it’s enough.
It takes just one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.”
Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway
Motivating yourself is as important as any other skills on this list. If you have a goal you believe you can achieve then keep working for it. You might fail a few times but you’ll figure out what you did wrong and rectify your mistake.
With the right amount of motivation, you could have the sky. Without proper motivation you’ll stop doing your best and which will take more time to complete a task. Or you would completely stop working for your goal. Now, where would that leave you?
#3. Decision-making skills are a must
“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” Peter F. Drucker
As a single skill, each one of these might not seem like much to you, but all of these skills together make time management. And you’ll understand them as you gradually move down this list.
Which is the correct decision? The one that takes you closer to your goal without stepping on anyone’s toes.
What if you chose the wrong answer? But what if you choose the right one? Will you let the fear of choosing the wrong answer paralyze you and not make a decision at all? What would that accomplish?
#4. Prioritize
“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Your dreams and goals have to be the first priority. Make sure that you don’t waste your time on things that are not important while the things that are actually important wither away and die.
Many times we make the mistake of taking the easier way out even if it will probably crush our dreams in the long run. Your priority could be your career or your relationship, or a balance of both for some.
Whatever it is, do not ignore it.
#5. Plan and execute
“In the planning stage of a book, don’t plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.” -Rose Tremain
Setting up deadlines, delegating work, making a to-do list or chart is all fun and good. But what good is all that planning if you don’t execute it?
No one is going to hand you a victory. Things don’t just happen because you want them to happen. Work for it, you could either work hard or work smart. But no one ever said that you can’t do both. Plan and then execute the plan who knows the end result might not just be achieving your goals but so much more. So, let life surprise you once a while.
#6. Managing stress and handling depression
“My body needs laughter as much as it needs tears. Both are cleansers of stress.”
Mahogany SilverRain, Ebony Encounters: A Trilogy of Erotic Tales
Stress, when ignored eventually, leads to depression in many people. So, take on tasks that you can do. And even if you can’t do them do not be demotivated it’s just another stepping stone to success. Don’t give up. Better yet when you are planning add some scenarios where you fail and what you can do if you do fail. This way you won’t be gripped with a loss but you’ll have another opportunity to win it or get it right.
#7. Teamwork
“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”-Phil Jackson
Delegating your tasks is another time management skill. This will ensure more amount of work done and faster the work is done the closer you reach your goals. Working alone towards your goals is not necessarily a bad thing but why do so when you can have help?
It will lessen the chances of stress and would keep you going.
#8. Patience and persistence.
“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.”
– Hal Borland
Patience and persistence alone would not help you but combined with others on this list they’ll help you come up with an effective time management strategy. A strategy that would work for you with everything.
Even after you have honed all these skills some of you might feel that reaching your goals is taking too much time and then you just can’t do this anymore, that is when patience and persistence come in.
Keep trying to you make it. If you ever think that the end result is not a realistic dream and too out there, you can find a version of it that is closer to reality and then work on it.
Don’t let people tell you that your dreams or goals are too far-fetched. If you are willing to work for it these time management skill will definitely help you achieve those goals and dreams.
Be it life or business, your goals matter.
So, brave the decisions, plan your execution, complete it, keep yourself motivated and don’t stress over it.