Time Management Activities

Many people feel like they don't have enough time and can't get enough done. Time management activities are available to solve this problem and can assist with eliminating procrastination, finishing the most important tasks, and having time for valued relationships. You'll need to begin paying close attention to how you currently spend your time if you want to create a more effective schedule.

Focus

• The biggest key to successful time management is planning your schedule and not allowing anything to disrupt it. This means ignoring the phone, turning off the e-mail notification, and not allowing distractions like a sudden desire to check your stock prices on the Internet.

Time Diary

• Make a diary of how you spend your time each day for a week. Every 15 minutes, write down what you've been doing. Note what time you started a particular activity and how long you continued it. For most people, this is an incredible eye-opener. The person who estimates that she spends 15 minutes on social e-mail throughout the day might discover that it adds up to an hour. Someone else may not realize how much productive time is lost right from the start of the day, as he boots up the computer, gets coffee, and chats with a co-worker.

Prioritize

• Once you have a week's worth of time diary, go through it and prioritize your activities. List them in order of importance for both work time and personal time. You'll see which activities you can jettison and which should be given more priority in your schedule. In order to have more time with your kids, for instance, you may need to spend less time in front of the television or the computer.

Productive Times

• Notice where your high and low productivity times are. If you're a morning person, that's when you'll want to schedule your higher-priority work, and the tasks you should do when you're at your peak. If you start slow and build in energy as the day goes on, then begin your work day with a few quick lower-priority tasks to warm up. However, don't fall into the trap of procrastinating on your high-priority activities. Tackle the high-priority items early in the day and complete them.

Task List

• Either at work or at home, when you have a large number of tasks to get done, make a quick list to prioritize them and then begin. Complete one activity before beginning the next. It is a proven time-waster to jump around between duties, because it takes time to make the mental shift. Reward yourself with a short break after completing each task.