Time Management Tips & Habits To Help You Manage Time Better, Avoid Stress & Boost Your Efficiency
Time management tips don’t have to be complex or complicated. Three of the most effective techniques to manage your time better are very simple –
- 1. make daily goals
- 2. plan your day’s activity
- 3. maintain good health through exercise and nutrition
There’s nothing difficult or confusing about them, yet these powerful time management ideas can transform your work day.
Time management tips can revolutionize your working style and dramatically impact your results. By practicing productive habits on a regular basis, anyone can learn to manage time better and transcend to a higher plane of productivity.
And surprisingly, these tips to manage time do not have to be esoteric or exotic. Indeed, the most effective ones are really quite simple.
Time Management Tips #1
Set Daily Goals
As a part of the overall Time Management Tao approach to getting more out of your day, setting the right goals and targets is an integral part of your time managing process. Worthy goals are the foundation for any meaningful accomplishment.
But those are higher level, long-term goals.
Breaking them down into daily sub-goals can be a very productive time management exercise. Every morning it helps if you write down a list of 6 to 10 of your important goals.
This helps your mind focus on these targets throughout your day, and easily filter out activities and distractions that are not directly relevant to them.
Write down your goals on a sheet of paper. There is a subliminal effect from actually writing them on paper with a pen or pencil, rather than reviewing them mentally, or even typing them on a computer screen.
When you jot them down, do it in the active present tense, as if you are carrying them out or seeing them come true “as we speak”.
Doing this sends a message to your subconscious mind that these goals are achievable, are in the process of being reached, and that you are serious about attaining them.
The synergy generated will actually make you more aware of opportunities and developments that can carry you to them faster.
Time Management Tips #2
Plan Your Daily Routine
Management is about setting priorities on the various tasks that you set yourself for the day. Time management tips are useful in prioritizing these tasks correctly, staying in alignment with your bigger goals.
At night before you go to bed, plan out the next day’s activities. This way you’ll give your brain a chance to mull over the tasks and figure out the optimal way to go about them in the morning.
When you begin work next day, get right to the most important task, and stay focused until it is completed. One of the Ming Vase Time Management guides, “How To Focus” can be of great help in showing you how to retain laser focus on the job at hand.
Setting limits on how much time you can devote to each task is a way to ensure that you get it done quickly, and avoids eating into precious time budgeted for other high priority tasks.
Time Management Tips #3
Get Exercise & Proper Nutrition
At first blush it might seem strange that exercise and nutrition would be listed among time management tips. But because everything else stems from maintaining good health, you’ll be able to get more done in less time if you are healthy and energetic.
Time management is a lifestyle. And health is an important component of that.
By disciplining yourself to eat nutritious food and workout on a regular basis, you will generate more from your efforts, in lesser time.
These are just 3 time management tips that can transform your level of success and take you from being mediocre to reaching stellar heights in your work and career.
There are many more tips and skills that will help you along the way. We’ll discuss them shortly.
Meanwhile you can explore other sections of the Time Management Tao website to learn about them, and the three-pronged approach rooted in these principles:
- Find your center – know WHAT to do
- Understand your order – know HOW to do it
- Pick your timing – know WHO to use & WHEN
These are powerful time management tips which, when combined with a philosophy of aligning your biggest goals to your available time, can place unlimited time at your disposal to achieve your greatest dreams.
For more information, updates and time management tips, subscribe to our free weekly email newsletter, the “Time Taozine”, by filling in the registration form here. (We’ll even send you a free report on managing time more effectively)
Simple & Easy Time Management Training
With These 5 Time Management Tips You’ll Find 3 Extra Hours In Your Busy Day
Easily squeeze an additional 3 hours of productivity from your typical work day, and also enjoy the calm, relaxing satisfaction that comes from achieving balance between all important elements of your life.
How often have you got a few tips for time management and tried to put them to use in your daily life – only to find them so difficult and confusing that you gave up in frustration?
Paradoxically, some time management systems take too much time to understand, apply and master!
That’s why Time Management Tao embraces simplicity. And natural flow.
It adapts to what you are inclined to do anyway, taking advantage of your conventional approach to work and play, but inserting some minor tweaks and twists that radically improve your effectiveness.
5 Tips For Time Management That Actually Work
Here are 5 tips for time management which can create a remarkable impact.
Tips for Time Management #1
Prioritize Your Objectives
Every project or goal that you begin should be classified by its priority.
It may seem difficult to rank all the items on your to-do list by relative importance, but here’s a simple method. Take the first item on your list, and compare it against the second.
Is it more important? Or less?
Keep the ‘winner’, and then compare it against the next item on the list – going all the way to the end of your list.
This exercise will help you order items on your list by importance, with the highest priority being on top. Now you can assign enough time to finish the important tasks before beginning less important ones.
But it isn’t enough to just set priorities.
You also need the discipline to stick with your list, and must plan your resources and expenditure to match your goals. The biggest benefit from making your priority list is to focus your mind exclusively on things that will carry you towards your ultimate goals.
Tips for Time Management #2
Balance Your Time
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
We’ve all heard this time management quote (or similar ones) ever since we were kids. But we don’t take it to heart. (If we did, we’d be out of the office on time every day, right?)
Work is important. But so are other areas of your life, like
- Health
- Relationships
- Spirituality
- Relaxation
- Family
All of these matter. It’s why we use the analogy of precious Ming vases to explain effective time management principles to our students.
Imagine yourself juggling 5 Ming vases, none of which you can afford to drop. Ming Vase Time Management teaches tips for time management that help achieve this balance easily.
Tips for Time Management #3
Clearly Visualize Your Outcome
Once you’ve put these tips for time management into action and set goals, prioritized your actions, and figured out how to balance them so that none of the important elements of your life are ignored or overlooked, you are well on the path to success.
Next, clearly visualize your arrival at the destination.
- What do you expect to achieve from each action you plan to take?
- Why do those results matter to you?
- How will you feel when the outcome you desire becomes real?
- Who will benefit, profit or rejoice when you make it happen?
Take time every day to see these results in your mind’s eye.
Imagine yourself as having already achieved your biggest goals, and experience the thrill of accomplishment. And then, feel a sincere, deep-seated gratitude for having received these results which you have visualized.
In a subtle, sub-liminal way, this creates a positive energy that will bear you along the long path to making your dreams come true.
Tips for Time Management #4
Measure Your Results
Of all the tips for time management, this is the one often overlooked or treated lightly.
Many of us begin with ambitious plans and goals, deciding to change our lifestyle and work towards a target with determination and focus. But, like New Year resolutions, this well-intentioned action runs out of steam within a few days, weeks, or months.
And that’s because we don’t measure progress towards our goals.
If your goal is to finish writing a book over the next 3 months, and you plan for it to be 250 pages long, then you should be averaging at least 3 pages every day. That’s easy to measure and quantify. When you fall behind, you’ll know early on – and have a chance to take corrective action.
But when you don’t keep constantly evaluating your activities and make changes, you’ll wander way off-track… and then waste a lot of time and energy trying to find your way back.
Tips for Time Management #5
Be Flexible. Tweak, Adapt and Repeat
Unless you’re a rare genius (or very, very lucky), you won’t get it right the first time. It’s likely that you’ll make mistakes, learn from them, and modify your approach to effective time management as you go along.
Nothing is cast in stone. Everything is a learning experience. The biggest mistake is to refuse to fine tune.
When you review your performance and progress periodically, you might find that some of your priorities are wrong, or some elements of your life are still out of balance. Take the time to make revisions and changes to fix this.
If your results aren’t all that you expected, alter or modify something – and then measure your results again. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing but expecting a different outcome!
You may have to allocate time differently. Your goals and values may need minor (or major) alterations.
New objectives, tasks or priorities may intervene.
Unexpected changes, new relationships, or an evolution in the marketplace can skew the playing field and force you to adapt.
That’s why your time management strategy must be flexible enough to ebb and flow with the tide.
Tips for Time Management
Only Practice Makes Perfect
Following these 5 tips for time management can boost your productivity and enhance the satisfaction in your personal life.
But like any new habit, these tips take practice to make perfect.
I have made it a habit to audit and revise my time expenditure on a weekly basis. This way I know exactly what activities support my long term goals, and which ones are wasteful of my time.
To get started along this path, begin with a high level objective or goal that you want to reach. Then ask yourself this simple (but very powerful) question:
If I could do only one thing today that will take me closer to this objective, what would it be?
The answer will serve as your guide to implementing the 5 tips for time management. Keep practicing, and soon you’ll notice that it becomes a part of your way of life… the Tao of your time management journey!
Ultimately, however, what determines the degree of success you’ll enjoy depends upon your ability to focus without distraction on the important tasks that take you closer to your goals.
In our special guide “How To Focus“, we go deeper into the tested and proven methods that virtually guarantee you will not get sidetracked, and streak ahead to success through the power of focus and concentration.
Want Effective Time Management Tips Free?
Everyone loves time management tips free. And contrary to other freebies, the free tips thrown out by experienced time managers could easily transform the way you manage your schedule and beat the clock.
One of the most effective time management tips freely given to me had to do with handling email. It introduced the concept of one-touch management of paper/email/fax.
Stop and think for a minute before you read further…
How many times do you look at an email message, or letter, or faxed note?
If you answered “More than once“, you’re wasting time!
A critical time saving skill is learning how to deal with information – with one touch.
If you look at an email or letter or fax, quickly decide how to deal with it – respond, trash or file for future action.
As you grow better at this skill, you’ll put fewer message in the ‘act later’ folder, and decide what to do with it. And if you effectively delegate your work, you’ll soon have someone else doing it for you!
Here’s a plan…
Stick to schedules for email, forums, online (and phone) chat as well as other electronic discussions. One of the biggest time wasting distractions for anyone working on the Internet is email, and participation on forums and discussion groups.
Don’t get me wrong. This kind of networking is critical to getting things done. But only a few people using these immensely powerful tools use them correctly, efficiently, effectively.
Think about how you use these online communication media. How much time in your working day do you spend on your email? On discussion forums? On email lists?
More important, how do you schedule such activity (if you do it at all)? Do you chunk out time blocks to work on them? Or do you do them during breaks from more productive work?
Or are you hanging around forums most of your time online?
Too many people find themselves caught in this time-trap. Spending far too much time on email and forum discussions.
So stop – abruptly.
There’s one of the very effective time management tips free for you.
You’ll find it incredible to see how much time you now have to spend on the more important activities.
No longer will you have to put off important work because it needed time to execute and you don’t have enough of it. From the time you spare from discussion boards and email, you’ll be able to set up a structure which would bring long term results and take you closer to your goals.
On Time Management Tao and in the free “Time Taozine” email newsletter, you’ll get many more time management tips free to use and benefit from.
2 Super Effective Time Management Tips And Techniques
Someone asked me for time management tips and techniques that have the highest potential to transform the success of everyone who uses them.
Looking back on the Time Management Tao system of being more efficient and effective, it is obvious that two techniques are far more effective than others.
Be focused
Concentration, in its truest, unadulterated form, means the ability to focus the mind on one single solitary thing.
The hardest thing anyone has to learn over years is to stay focused on a few key things at any given time. There were times when I juggled 20 different projects online, in addition to a full-time professional schedule at work! What ensued was sub-optimal performance in most areas.
It is often not apparent – until you start to radically scale down things you’re involved in. I make it a rule to manage no more than 3 projects at a time, and restrict other activities to manageable chunks spread out over the year.
While this approach might mean you’ll spend less time on each activity than before, your results will improve massively.
This is one of the most effective time management tips and techniques I’ve learned (and taught) over the years. Yes, if you stay focused and concentrate on a few things, you’ll achieve more in each. Truly, less is more.
Be organized
Ok, now here’s another of my favorite time management tips and techniques.
It is a somewhat controversial area for many who argue that chaos and clutter helps creativity and that meticulous organization stifles all fun and excitement. “Orderliness is the sign of a sick mind!”, they claim.
Viewed from a productivity angle, however, it quickly becomes clear that a disorganized work space will waste time, lower efficiency and increase stress.
Have things easily available.
Don’t waste time searching for them.
Studies have estimated the average knowledge worker is wasting around 15 minutes every day looking for things – and that’s a minimum.
Still, it adds up to 1.5 hours a week – or 75 hours a year!
That’s what makes this one of the most powerful time management tips and techniques. By simply improving your organization skills, you could get THREE EXTRA DAYS in a year!
Think about how much more you could accomplish with that extra time. Then get to work establishing better order and system in your work place.
Time Management Hints You Can Take To The Bank
Want some time management hints you can cash in immediately?
Ok. I’ll share a few with you.
Here’s the first.
Stop planning for a day.
Many time management guides teach you how to plan out your day.
And surely you know of some amazing folks who plan for a day in great detail.
Personally, I’ve never been able to.
Part of the reason is that my professional schedule is unpredictable. Without the luxury of a fixed and regulated lifestyle, daily planning is bound to become a frustrating and inefficient waste.
That’s why one of the most practical time management hints is to keep a longer range in mind while making plans.
Most of us do not like being tied down to too rigid a structure – even if following such a strict time-table will be beneficial.
This is a mind-set many entrepreneurs share. That’s the reason why we look for time management hints to help us enjoy our desired lifestyle without losing track of our goals or getting distracted off our course.
So, how can you manage and plan your time?
It still helps to chalk out broad plans for things that you would like to get done each day. But more important are the mini-goals that you break down your big ones into.
If writing a book is your big goal, your smaller milestones will be outlining the chapters, conducting the research, and writing individual chapters (or even smaller sections) of it.
Those mini-goals are then prioritized, so the most important ones get done first, followed by the less important ones.
A fringe benefit of having an irregular, uncertain schedule is that there is an in-built sense of urgency. If you have a goal to reach – but am not sure when you might be disturbed – it serves as an agent of focus, and will help you concentrate all your attention on the task at hand, until it gets done.
But remember that it’s not all about projects and work, no… these time management hints involve family and social life too. ‘Do it today’ is a watchword that helps a lot.
Want more?
Here’s another hint that’ll save you time and improve your efficiency.
Keep your to-do list flexible.
Divide your working day into sections. This allows you to take steps towards achieving your goals, and gives you room for unexpected opportunities that require quick action.
If your master plan requires you to take action in four areas, break your day into four sections. In each section, list individual task(s) you need to complete. Take one step in each section toward your goals.
In case something comes up that needs immediate attention, you can reschedule your other planned tasks to take advantage of the new opportunity. You’ll still have your section completed for that day.
Simple – but very effective.
Want One Last Free Time Management Tip?
Here you go. A free time management tip guaranteed to make you more productive and efficient.
Stop Talking, Start Doing
I know, I know. It sounds absolutely obvious. But here’s the thing.
‘Analysis paralysis‘ is a serious syndrome that afflicts many people.
So stop over-thinking stuff, hesitating too long, and waiting for circumstances to be perfect.
Start doing things. Small things. Inexpensive things.
That way you start gathering momentum.
The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. And the first step is often the hardest – because you have to get over inertia.
Once you’re moving, it is far easier to go back and start over again.
What has this got to do with a free time management tip or secret?
Well, if you waste hours and hours on planning and thinking about stuff, by the time you get down to action your environment might have changed or altered significantly.
You’ll waste more time than if you simply did something.
Tell me that isn’t a nice time management tip worth taking to the bank!
Now I don’t mean behave rashly or entirely without thought. No. That’s a recipe for disaster.
But what I do mean is that you shouldn’t waste more time thinking through every minor detail of a huge project – without ever taking the first step.
When you first launch any new initiative,
- You’ll have no idea of how things work.
- You simply cannot foresee all eventualities.
- You cannot prepare for each and every hurdle or obstacle.
- You’ll not plan for every contingency.
You just get going.
And as things evolve, you’ll learn many intricate things that you would not have known (or had a chance of observing) before.
Often, if you had known that things would be so difficult, complicated or time-consuming before you begun, it might even put you off starting!
But once you get going, invest hours of time and effort on preparatory steps, you’ll consider it worthwhile to follow through to the happy ending.
That’s what makes this an effective free time management tip.
