Time_Management

Time Management "Things that matter most should never be at the mercy of thing that matter least". We, as human beings, let this happen much too often. Many of us waste our time on things that are neither important nor necessary, instead of using that time for things that are significant Personal time management skills are essential for professional success in any workplace as well as your personal life. Those able to successfully implement time management strategies are able to control their workload rather than spend each day in a frenzy of activity reacting to crisis after crisis - stress declines and personal productivity soars! These highly effective individuals are able to focus on the tasks with the greatest impact to themselves and their organization. List of Worst Practices • Always saying yes • Attempting too much • Management by crisis • Overscheduling and overorganization • Poor planning • Using your memory to keep track of things • Wishful thinking List of Best Practices • Effective to-do list • Prioritizing • Time charts • Reminder systems By far the most common and worst practice to effectively manage your time is by procrastinating. Major Causes of Procrastination Below are the main causes of procrastination. In all likelihood, you may be facing several of these causes at the same time, which means that you may need to use multiple strategies to overcome your procrastination habit. 1. Avoiding an unpleasant task 2. Lack of energy/motivation 3. Escaping from an overwhelming project 4. Don't know where or how to get started 5. Don't know what to do next 6. Unclear goals and priorities 7. Urgency addiction 8. Psychological defense mechanism to protect your from fear of failure, fear of criticism, or fear of success. In addition to these common causes, several psychological factors may also be fueling your procrastination habit. If you can eliminate, or even reduce, these factors you'll find it much easier to conquer your procrastination habit. Procrastination Thought Patterns and Self-Talk You can see how moving from procrastination patterns to productive pattern Look at the differences in thought patterns and self-talk between a procrastinator and a highly productive person. See if you can recognize some of these patterns in your own thoughts and self-talk. PROCRASTINATOR PRODUCTIVE PERSON I don’t really want to do this task, but I HAVE to do it or I will… (get into trouble, fail, disappoint my spouse, lose my promotion, etc.) I CHOOSE to do this task now because it will… (help me get a promotion, help out my spouse, avoid tax penalties, etc.) This task is HORRIBLE. It will be such a pain to have to do , I can’t even begin to imagine it. Yes, this task is a bit unpleasant, but I’ve seen worse. It’s actually NOT THAT BAD, I’ll just GET IT DONE quickly and be rid of it. This task is so BIG, I don’t know if I’ll EVER be able to FINISH IT! This is a big project. I just need to figure out WHERE TO START and what to DO NEXT. "You must get good at one of two things. Planting in the spring or begging in the fall." - Jim Rohn (American entrepreneur, millionaire, motivational speaker Conclusion Have a great planning system and use it
 •Take on realistic goals and schedule accurately
 •Do not over-commit
 •Set and agree priorities to distinguish between urgent and important tasks 
 •Build in some flexibility to cope with anything unexpected •Don’t procrastinate – Manage Your Time Today •Define and use periods of quality time in your schedule
 
 •Stay away from perfectionism and aim for excellence
 •Build in time for personal development