Time Management Skills – Strategies and Principles

Time Management

Whether you are a billionaire or a fresh graduate, you have 24 hours or 1,440 minutes in a day. The basic difference among rich and poor is time management. Achievers know the value of time and manage it accordingly. There are numerous benefits of time management from increasing productivity to boosting confidence and improving efficiency. Time management leads to effective planning that is essential for success. Otherwise, Benjamin Franklin said: "if you fail to plan then you plan to fail”. If a person doesn’t value time, life starts to move him against his desires. And he becomes victim of the “Niagara Falls Syndrome” (the one who is trapped in Niagara Falls with no ores).

Essential of Time Management

You will find numerous tips and trick for time management on the internet. But apart from everything, the most important principle of time management is to “value your time”. If you start valuing it, management will become easy. Billionaires across the world know that their time is crucial and thus they act accordingly. For example, Bill Gates has a net worth of $133.8 billion and he earns around $7,600 per minute which gives him $456k an hour. The only reason he has these figures is that he understands the importance and value of time.

Time Management Strategies

Numerous books have suggested different strategies like time blocking, journaling, keeping a diary, planning for the week etc. But this article will give 4 simple strategies that will allow you to make the most of your time.

Wake Up Early

If you wake up early, it will not only add a few hours to your productive time but you will be able to enjoy a lot of other benefits. Most of the billionaires like Tim Cook, Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos don’t wake up later than 6 am. Apart from time management, those who wake up early improve their cognitive function, have less stress and enjoy more energy during the day. If you follow a winning morning ritual, you can drastically improve your health as well as time management. I’ve already written a blog on a secret morning routine which you can find here.

Plan in Advance

As discussed earlier, if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. It shows that planning is one of the most important things when it comes to time management. Now its up to you whether you plan for a day, week or month. It is recommended to start from a day if you are new to the club, then take it to the next level.

Journalize

Journalizing has gain significant importance in past few years. The reason is many studies have shown that our brain can hold data to a limited extent. And if we convert our to-do-list on a fresh crispy paper, it will help us to track the performance and stay ahead of the schedule. Now, what you can do is make the list a night before so you will have an idea what you’re going to do tomorrow. Secondly, write down the chores you did throughout the day and analyze the list. It will hep you to identify time wasters. Make the list everyday so you can adjust routine according to the need.

Use ABCDE Strategy

Now that you have the list, just mark the activities as ABCDE. A are those which have highest priority and leaving them can have negative impact on your day. B are the ones which have high priority but they can be adjusted later in the day. You can move Cs to upcoming days in the schedule, while Ds can be given to someone else. Finally, you can simply eliminate Es from the list as they don’t worth your time.

Final Thoughts

Conclusively, time management is more of an art than a technique. Valuing time, setting priorities and planning in advance can solve most of the problems, while using the above-mentioned techniques can help you take the game to the next level.