Monday, July 18, 2011

How to Define a Successful Time Management Strategy

One of the most challenging aspect in life is time management. In the current fast changing environment, time management is very important in both your personal and official life. There are a lot of time management techniques to control your day to day activities and can be used as a guide to make educated and effective decisions as to how to make the best and the most effective use of your time.

Every single person has the same number of hours everyday and nobody's gifted with an hour or two extra. It boils down to how we use these hours efficiently and effectively which is important. It's important to be more effective with our time management so that there is more time to do things than the allocated time. By practicing some of the efficient methods you will find yourself working very efficiently not in only in your social life but also at your business place.

The first step in successfully managing time is to develop a clear statement of your long-range goals. This statement of goals will allow you to set shorter range goals and to these long-range goals may be more difficult than you imagine. The most common time management mistake that people make is not allowing for a reasonable life-style. Remember that one's overall health and wellness require attention to exercise, nutrition, and sleep and other attentions are intellectual, social relationships, career, emotional feelings, desires, spiritual. People don't care of theses things. But you may be ignoring an important part of yourself.

Time management look like a very reasonable approach, yet many people never learn to manage their time. If you are having a problem with time management, follow these simple steps :

- Review your long-term and in-between goals often

- Continually try to avoid unnecessary tasks that are not related to your goals or to maintaining a balanced life style

- Be good and do your work individualized approach that make sense for you

Scheduling and managing time wisely are important for the school and college student. If you miss important appointments and deadlines you will cause complications to both your academic and social lives. This creates anxiety, frustration, guilt, and other nasty feelings. Prioritizing your responsibilities and engagements is very important to us.

The brochure is not going to tell you to study more and socialize less, although in some cases you might want to consider it. Instead, it will suggest how to make the most of your time and delicate it to fit your tastes and activities. It will also show you how to set your right way. This is applicable for busy schedules. One way that we will advise is the daily do lists. This brochure will also give you a variety of tips on how to save time and improve the time that you have. Some of the most important career skills that we want to learn are time management skills are essential for successful people - these are the practical techniques which have helped the leading people in business, sport and public service reach the pinnacles of their careers.

To begin managing, you need a clear idea of how you now use your time. The personal time study will help you to estimate how much time you currently spend in typical activities. To get a more exact estimate, you might keep track of how you spend your time for a week. This will help you get a better idea to prepare for each subject. It will also help you make out your time wasters. Now students might find themselves a bit stressed. Free from anxiety the quantity of study time but also its quality. This is a general guideline. Work out it and make adjustments as needed. Trying to be a perfect person sets you up for beat. Nobody can be perfect. Difficult tasks usually result in prevention and procrastination. You need to set achievable goals, but they should also be challenging.

There are a variety of time schedules that can keep your behavior good. You need to set achievable goals, but they must also be challenging. Once you decide upon the method, the next step is construction. Schedule and budget is the basic of timesavings and make it work for you. A more detailed sort of schedule will be compulsory for people who need more structure than the flexible list method offers. This kind of schedule allocates time specifically and gives you a clear guideline. If you are successful in managing your time, you will automatically get separated from unsuccessful business personalities. If you do not manage your time effectively, you will not be able to manage others and much else.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/56100

Time Management Tips For A Successful Life

The application of time management skills has tended, in the past, to be thought of as something that is for business life only. In reality, though, time management is something from which we can all benefit in our personal lives as well, and in the art of marrying our working lives with our home and social lives.

Those benefits show in a number of ways, including health, well being and satisfaction with our lives overall. Manage your time well, and you can feel in control of your life, rather than letting events control you. There is no single "method" of time management, either in business or personal life. However, there are various time management tips and techniques, practices and theories, which it is worth knowing about.

Acquiring time management skills is something we can set about doing in a methodical way. Really, we all practice time management whether we know it or not. It is more a matter of whether we do it well or badly. The following tips are for improving time management skills, building on those that you will naturally have. Even primitive man used time management, it was just a lot simpler in those days. Time had to be allocated for hunting, and that time had to be used to the fullest effect possible to survive.

Here are just a few time management tips:

1. Before learning any techniques to help you manage your time, have a clear idea of what you are setting out to achieve. Give yourself the opportunity to get your life in some sort of order so that you can both enjoy it to the full and succeed to the full. If you just apply time management to areas of your life that do not really matter to you, then you will not be progressing at a personal level.

2. Get your priorities clear in your mind, so that they are a natural part of you. This will need to become a habit to be very effective, and you will need to apply prioritizing over a number of time spans. Your long term success will probably depend on your being able to prioritize what you need to do to achieve that success. However, to use your time well on a particular day, you need to start the day with a clear idea of your priorities. that also applies to the week, the month and the year. Your priorities for the shorter period must always feed positively into the priorities in the next longer period, and so on, so that each time period is mapped out with priorities that lead to your ultimate success.

3. When assessing priorities, be ruthless with parts of your life that are not contributing to your longer term goals. Removing the areas of your life where you are wasting time, will free up more time for you to apply to reaching your goals.

4. Always be sure to build your health and enjoyment into any plans. Time for relaxation and exercise are critical to your long term achievements; always make time for proper meals, and keep to a healthy but enjoyable diet. Time management is not an exercise in being macho with your business life; it is an opportunity to build a balanced life for yourself and your family.

5. Once you have set your priorities for any period, write them down and refer to them from time to time, updating them if necessary. Should you appear to be failing, examine why, and reset and reinforce your goals and priorities. It is too easy to slip back into bad habits that inhibit your progress.

6. Be sure to keep a diary and use it to plan out each day, week, month. There are all sorts of electronic gizmos, online planners, software etc to act as aids to your time management. Personally, I think a good old fashioned diary is just as good, if not better. About 18 months ago I reverted to using a traditional diary to plan my working time. That forces me to get away from the computer, even for a few minutes, and think what my priorities are, and what I need to be reminded about.

If you can become better at time management, you will find your life more satisfying and less stressful, as well as being able to achieve greater things. For millions of people, life just sweeps them along in a torrent of activity, or inactivity, over which they have little or no control. That can be very stressful, unhealthy, inefficient, and demoralising over the long term. There is nothing quite like controlling your own destiny to reduce stress and aid success.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/118375

Time Management - Why it is a Problem

Some of the reasons people use time management can be counter productive to achieving sustainable change that delivers consistent results.

Part of the problem is that the phrase can be misleading. Here's why:

Time doesn't need managing. It's YOU that needs managing!

The problem is that you are diverting attention from resolving underlying problems permanently that would create lasting solutions that would then no longer require managing.

The problem with time management strategies is that they are often used inappropriately - and that is what concerns me. What we are often doing is using time management to manage ineffective behaviour patterns and bad habits instead of using them for improving productiveness and effectiveness. An important distinction.

So instead, I chose to focus on, what I call, self management.

Focussing on self management is about finding lasting changes to ineffective behaviour patterns and bad habits. Whereas time management often is about managing these problems. Self management deals with real change that delivers tangible results. Hence my preference for focussing on self management, not time management. You are going to dramatically increase your effectiveness if your remove problem areas totally rather than putting things in place to manage them.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting you throw out the current methods you use to get things done or that time management tools don't have a place. What I am suggesting is this......

Focusing on self management is more likely to give real solutions, lasting change and effective habits that naturally produce results.

A good starting point is to look at the mindset you go into when something comes up that you feel falls into a "time management" issue.

If every time a bad habit or behaviour pattern surfaces your immediate mindset is to put a time management technique or tool in place to manage it, you are going to be forever in managing issues mode, not creating lasting solutions mode.

The key is to create a mindset that looks inside yourself to the source and solution first and techniques to manage issues second.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4141966

Software For Time Management

From time immemorial, time has been our greatest enemy. In a world where everyone is racing to be numero uno, time management is of the greatest essence. Time lost is gone forever. Therefore, people try to fit in as many tasks as they can in the span of a day, so that not a moment is lost. At least, that is what most ambitious wannabes and gung-ho go-getters do. They are obsessed with time management to the point that they keep staring at their wristwatches or timepieces while they eat, wait in a queue, take a bath. However, if you are so fanatical about time and timekeeping, you might start suffering from hypertension, anxiety, ulcers, diabetes and cardiac problems. Being punctual and disciplined is one thing, but trying to be a human robot is another!

Time Never Stands Still...So Don't Delay

It is true that time never stops or waits for anyone. It is the only dimension about our lives that goes relentlessly forward, without ever showing any signs of abating. Years fly by in the blink of an eye. Youth disappears and is replaced by old age in no time. Life is shadowed either by bittersweet nostalgia or by a heavy burden of regrets. A self-introspection leaves no space for improvement, only squeezes the remaining life out. In fact, dwelling in the past makes you lose out on the present, on whatever time you still have left in your hands. Wishing for a second life, a second chance and opportunity to correct your mistakes, a second chance to do things right, is common, even normal, but not at all practical or helpful. The second chance will never arise, the second opportunity will never surface, even if you manage to eke out a life on borrowed time. There is actually no Time Machine that can take you back in time, even though HG Wells desired one. Even if you are in your second childhood, you shall not feel the joys of childhood. You know that, as well as I do. You probably want to start life afresh. But I hope it is not too late.

No Time to Relax

The utopian thing would obviously be not to do anything regrettable, not to miss out on opportunities, to do things right, the first time. But youth often has its failings, its temptations that are hard to resist until youth vanishes and until realization dawns. To do things right, right from the start, so that you can have the time of your life always, you have to be mature, well organized, methodical, precise. You have to be always on the lookout, always alert for the single lucky break that will change your life, after which you will not have to look back anymore. You have to be astute to distinguish the right opening from all the other openings that will lead you nowhere. Whatever your time of life, you cannot afford to sit back and relax and take your own sweet time.

Those Who Get It Right, Straightaway

People who manage to make it big in life, are successful, have got it right the first time. Remember, only those people who have the ability to think far ahead of their times, are the ones who do not live to regret. At the same time, they are people who live in the present, and are not behind their times. They say that patience is the mother of all virtues but the adage belongs to once upon a time, is hardly applicable today, when everybody is racing against time.

What Is Time Management?

Effective time management is the only answer to the question of how to live a successful life. Now, what is time management all about? Does time management mean that you will sit with a Tissot around your wrist, a Timex around your neck? Does it mean that you will waste valuable time by gazing at the wall clock for most of the time? Does it mean that you will lead your life to the beat of a metronome, a millisecond timer or a stopwatch? No. That is not time management. That is whiling away and wasting precious time, killing time as though you have nothing better to do. Time management is a serious business as it determines the pace at which your life will move.

Time Teaches But Punishes Too

Some people are lucky to have guardian angels who guide them on managing time smartly. Time management gurus teach their pupils to make the maximum use of available time so that they are able to reduce downtime to a minimum and increase uptime to a maximum in their own lives. However, such mentors and teachers are hard to come by. For most of us, time is the greatest and the only teacher. But time can be a very harsh teacher, unforgiving, unyielding, refusing to give a timely warning, chastening when it is too late. So, if time is not the ideal teacher, who is?

Time Existed Since Prehistory...But There Is a New Way of Managing Time

I do not know what happened ages ago. I do not know how people managed their time with the help of a sundial or an hourglass. For the time being, let us leave history aside though Stephen Hawking claims that even time has its own brief history. At this time, let us not play for time anymore. We cannot deny that we need to integrate the phenomenon of time management into our lives if we have to win in life. We have to be organized, systematic. And since this is the time and age of software, why not search for some software that will help us manage time? After all, we use software, the email, for sending letters - the postman's time is up; we use software, the video conferencing software, for conferring with people across seas and oceans - gone are the days of unnecessary traveling for attending conferences; we even use software, the desktop calculator and Microsoft Word, for computing and for the basic task of writing - calculators and papers and pens are almost passe.

Time Management Software

To tell you the truth, there is some software that can help you in your goal of time management. Such software is pretty high-end software and can really help you master the trick of managing time, so that in the graph of success versus time, you keep going up the y-axis which measures success as time proceeds on the x-axis. Time management in today's fast-paced environment is a resource per se that can help you do 'business at the speed of thought'. Modern time management software trains you in such a way so that you can manage time beautifully, can work with clockwork precision. By forcing you to make a note of your meetings and appointments and by reminding you of your appointments when you forget about them, modern time management software ensures that you do not miss out any vital opportunities, however hard-pressed you may be for time. In the modern corporate world, every moment is crunch time. Even keeping abreast of each day can be a trial, can give you a trying time.

Time management software is designed using cutting-edge technology so that time management is a seamless affair. New-age time management software enables you to store names and particulars of people and places in it. Time management software also helps you to store valuable meeting agenda, minutes and summaries along with meeting or conference schedules so that you can refer to the software, anytime, anywhere for various professional and personal details. Unlike diaries in which you have to scribble in details, the pages of which are limited and may tear, time management software permits you to key in unlimited information and retrieve information from the software at the click of a mouse. You might thumb through diaries and still not find what you are looking for but if you just ask the software what you want, it will flash the right answer to you in no time. All you have to do with modern time management software is feed data into the software from time to time. Most time management software are platform independent too. Which means you do not have to lug the software around like you have to lug around your notebook or diary. You just have to sit before a laptop, PC or other device, which is connected to the Internet, in order to access the platform of the software. Once you access the software, getting to your personal account is a cakewalk.

Endless Advantages of Modern Time Management Software

Modern time management software has the added advantage of being tamperproof, failsafe. You can only log into your account with your Username and Password. Hence, your confidential information remains totally safeguarded from unauthorized access unless you make the mistake of revealing your Password to people. Additionally, modern time management software helps you to network professionally and socially with others. If you are planning a meeting shortly, you can get in touch instantly with your coworkers, who may be situated miles away, through the platform of the software, so that all of you can fix the meeting date. For tasks that require a consensus and which you cannot do at your sole discretion, professional and instantaneous networking is the only answer, if the tasks have to be executed in good time. Or else, you shall have to wait for days for your colleagues to return from their trips abroad, just so that they can agree or disagree to a particular meeting schedule. It is the same with party dates. If you can fix the date and time of a party, send out party invitations, discuss with your friends the theme of the party by simply keying in data on a keyboard, I can promise that you shall have a whale of a time at the party.

Modern time management software is so smart that it will help you carry out whole processes such as meeting planning and management, event planning and management, and daily life planning and management, through it and thus help you save lots of time. Smart time management software can transform you into a big time entrepreneur from a small time businessperson. Authentic time management software can change hard times to great and memorable times and can really help you have a good time. As such software has been around for quite some time now, you can say that it is time tested.

Time management software is also extremely state-of-the-art. In order to keep up with the times, ace time management software is even cell phone compatible. Which means that if you have the time management software integrated into your mobile or handheld device, you will receive meeting alerts, agenda alerts, and other alerts via your cell phone or handheld device. You will also be able to log into your software account from your cell phone and use the software in a full-fledged manner just like you would use it from a PC or a laptop.

It Will Serve You until the End of Time

Modern time management software has myriads of advantages. Apart from helping you to structure your life and schedule your appointments, it enables you to structure your thoughts, bring discipline into your actions and become more competitive. Contemporary time management software compels you to think proactively all the time. It also helps you enhance your capabilities and your skills and multitask so that you start to think creatively and imaginatively and out-of-the-box. Time management software makes you work like a magician - execute mammoth processes in the flash of a second, perform huge and formidable tasks, like Atlas did, without feeling anything, shore up major business processes, without feeling the strain. The Terminator, Super Girl, Spiderman, Superman or Batman, I don't know which one of these is your idol, but if you manage time with the aid of modern time management software, you shall soon begin to work like heroes and heroines do.

You do not have to think about time management if you use time management software as the software will accustom you to time management in such a way that you will not feel a thing or have to put in any effort. The time management software will habituate you to perfect time management so that you turn agile and swift, fast and nimble over a course of time.

In the Nick of Time

And if you have just come upon this article, remember that you are in the nick of time. You still have time to change. It is high time that you made up for the time you lost. Time and time again, I am telling you not to sit back and bide your time waiting for the golden opportunity to come your way. Opportunity will not come to you, you have to get up and grab it. If you make time management your motto from today, it will pay you some time or the other, sooner or later. Now's the time, now's the moment to change, to grab time by its hour hand and minute hand and make it move at your chosen pace. Though they say that time is a healer, I will say that time is also a stealer - if you cannot make proper use of your own time, time will run out; if you cannot make a stitch in time, you will have to thread your needle at least some nine more times.

Your Time Starts Now

So, get up and start looking for some time management software. If you find one to your liking, start using it. And if you don't, don't fret, just visit Meeting Diary. It is one timeless time management software that will leave you in no time for anything else but success, that will help you to beat time for the first time. Log into Meeting Diary and be dot on time and well in time...for life! Your time starts now...

Damien Ghosh is a prolific writer of articles that focus on technology, places, psychology and people. Damien has worked in different industries such as the information technology industry, the travel and tourism industry and the retail industry. He has worked in several projects for blue-chip companies, that are part of the IT, travel and tourism and retail industries. His work and his passion for traveling has made him journey across the world. He has led large work-teams to accomplish business goals successfully. He is also an expert on psychology and has many degrees and diplomas in clinical and business psychology. He has successfully coached, counseled and mentored several people in the various organizations he has worked as a professional HR manager and psychologist. He has also counseled many people by holding counseling sessions in different parts of the world. His counseling sessions have been very helpful for motivating people and for enabling them to identify and set their goals. His rich experience undoubtedly helps him to write extensively.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4093934

Time Management Tips for Managers

Late last year I was presenting a workshop for the senior managers of a major organisation. Whilst doing a pre-workshop survey to assess the challenges these managers were experiencing it became very apparent to me that many of them were showing the signs of business burn-out. And it was no wonder why. They were suffering from 'Priority Problems'. Quite simply they were making the mistake of doing the urgent rather than the important tasks.

They were working extremely long hours, with no time for themselves or the people in their lives. Their offices and departments were cluttered as was their communication as a consequence. This meant that they had difficulty communicating effectively with team members and, worse still with their families. Naturally this had a huge impact on the morale and productivity of their teams and the bottom line. What it did on the home front was even worse!

And yet overcoming Priority Problems is pretty easy. All you have to do is look at what successful managers do and model their behaviour. You'll also find that they are very effective with their time management skills.

Five Secrets of Highly Successful Managers:

Highly successful managers are great role models

They practice what they preach.

Highly successful managers invest time and money in their team and themselves

They develop their people and themselves through education and coaching.

Highly successful managers are organised

They learn effective time management skills so they can manage their time and have systems in place which enables them and their team to work on the important issues.

Highly successful managers are fit and healthy

They understand that a healthy mind and body improves their productivity and general well-being.

Highly successful managers have a life

They apply their time management skills so they can enjoy ensure their personal life is a priority. They know by having a balance makes them a happier and more successful manager.

The result of putting these secrets into action is pretty simple. Highly successful mangers get their priorities about people, work and home right! They hone their time management skills and apply them to all areas of their life.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/15200