There was a saying in our home as I grew up: “Even a world leader only has 24 hours in a day!” We all want to make sure we live well; that we make the best use of our time, but it is limited for each one of us. How can we make the best of our time? We all have different personalities and have various demands made on our time. Some of us are very organised, others less so. Over my working, I’ve learnt a number of techniques to help make good use of time. There are two basic ideas: one is to work efficiently _ to see that I have systems in place so that things go smoothly, making the best use of the resources available to me. But I have learnt to do more than that: I also want to live and work effectively – to make something of my life, to make it count, to achieve something definite, good and right. Over the 15 years of my working life, I have had to ask myself hard questions: what do I want out of life? What do I want to achieve? What do I want out of life? What do I want to achieve? What kind of person am I? How can I develop as a person? How do I want to spend my time? How should I value my time? These Seven secrets I found, which helped me to live effectively –
seven secrets of time management
seven secrets of time management
- Know yourself -Our business life is a major part of our lives. Knowing the underlying purpose of your job will help focus your attention on see in how well you use your time.
- Get organised- Here are tips on working effectively, e.g. by keeping a diary, setting up systems and drawing up schedules.
- Work better – It is important to use your time proactively, setting priorities and working well at tasks, however small they are.
- Work better as a team – We don’t work individually, in isolation from one another, so it’s vital to develop good working relationships within a team with successful delegation and well-run meetings.
- Communicate more effectively – How do we stop all our time being taken up by email, Computers and the internet? Face-to-face and phone communication are also vital in good time management, as are good listening, reading and writing skills.
- Take control of your time – Effective use of time takes place as you learn to manage time well by remaining focused on tasks, minimizing interruptions and using slack time that may come unexpectedly.