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Time Management Tips For Free

Managing your time is the most important thing you can do to avoid wasting your most valuable resource-time. Because time management principles do not apply equally to everyone, the challenge is to implement the rules and principles that best fit in a specific situation. The following free time management tips provide a systematic basis for applying time management tips intelligently.

Gain time awareness: The first free time management tip is to undertake a critical analysis of how time is spent. Without such information, making a determination of which work habits and patterns to change is difficult. A common way of finding out how much time is consumed on various tasks is to keep a time log. This procedure involves maintaining a diary of actual time-use for several days. Each hour is divided into 15-20 minute blocks, and a record is made of the activities for each interval. Several days of such recording can provide you with a sufficient number of observations for analyzing how you are spending your time.

Identify time robbers: The second free time management tip is to identify your time robbers from your time log. For doing this, you need to ask yourself:

1. Which timewasters stem from my own style of working?

2. Which timewasters are caused by others?

3. Which can be eliminated or controlled?

You will be surprised to see that you own cause most of your time problems. Such time robbers include procrastination, lack of self-discipline, and the failure to plan and to delegate.

Set goals and list priorities: From his or her list of time robbers, a person should select five to six that he or she wants to correct and prioritize them. Results-oriented goals should be established for each. A person should attempt to deal with these timewasters one at a time. Trying to change too many bad habits at once can lead to frustration and failure.

Formulate action plans: next, a supervisor needs to prepare a list of tasks necessary for goal accomplishment. Called an action plan, it acts as a map to the desired results. Action steps should be set, and a deadline for completing each step should be specified that can produce a measurement of progress.

Keep a pocket diary with you: this surely beats jotting notes on scraps of paper, three-by-five cards, or paper napkins from a restaurant.

Don’t start off a call with, ‘Hi, Joe, How are you?’ this is an invitation to a long conversation on current events, family life, golf, vacation and so forth. A better start might be, ‘Hi, Joe. I know you’re busy. I have just one question.’ Learn how to terminate conversations. Consider the telephone as a message machine and get off the line promptly.

Some of the free time management tips also include:

• Always put the schedule in writing;

• Focus on key objectives and priority items;

• Assign long periods of continuous time to major tasks;

• Schedule important or difficult tasks early in the day;

• Block out time for creative planning, preparation and overhead activities;

• Group together related kinds of work to save starting and stop spending;

• Allow sufficient time to do each task;

• Don’t over-schedule;

• Reserve an amount of time for unanticipated crises;

Let your subordinates (or family members in case of people working at home) know that there are certain times in day when you don’t wish to be interrupted.

By applying these free time management tips, you will do well to manage your time effectively and efficiently. One thing we must remember is that: time is equal for everyone; it’s the same for a top notch executive and a small worker. It’s how you manage your time is important.