Your time is important and how you plan, organise and manage it matters.
After all time is a finite resource. There are only so many hours in the day and how you spend those hours can be a challenge. With so many demands on your time, at work and at home, with family and for yourself … sleep … it
can be difficult to fit everything in. You end up exhausted, stressed out and running yourself ragged trying to do it all.
So often people know their time is really important but they struggle to manage it wisely. In business and at work it’s even more important and key to everything you do.
- How much time
you spend at work - too much?
- How much time you spending doing what you love - not enough?
- Time with family and friends.
- Time to focus on your own health and wellbeing.
I use ‘Time Management’ in this context as a general term to cover the ability to plan, manage and organise tasks and activities within the time available.
You can’t really manage time itself but you can manage the choices you make with the time you have. How you choose to spend the 24 hours in your day. How much time you have available to do the things you
want or need to do.
Good time skills ...
Good time (management) skills are essential if you expect to manage your workload, handle multiple priorities and projects, organise yourself and your team. They will enable you to:
- Work in a more productive and efficient way.
- Manage your workload and waste less time.
- Make better decisions about how and where you focus your time to achieve your goals and objectives and get the results you want.
- Increase your confidence when you realise you’re able to manage your workload or have better control of how much you can handle.
- Be able to adapt and be flexible when your priorities change or things get busy.
- Have good boundaries around your work and home life and more importantly be able to maintain and re-inforce
those boundaries when necessary.
- Create a better balance between work and home that gives you time for a life outside of work.
- Be more in control as you’re no longer constantly juggling tasks, changing priorities and working long hours.
Poor time skills …
Poor time skills have the opposite effect and end up in missed opportunities, poor self-esteem, low performance, frustration and stress.
And it doesn’t just affect you but the people around you too, who often
feel the impact of the lack of planning and organisation or end up picking up the pieces or taking up the slack.
I often see it as a reason people feel they’re being held back from progressing in their business or career.
- Missing out on opportunities because they’re too busy keeping their head above water
or spinning plates.
- Not getting the bonus or promotion they feel they deserve or worse still, losing their job or their business because of it.
- Ending up feeling constantly overwhelmed and stressed by their increasing workload and inability to manage multiple priorities and demands.
What about you?
Does any of this ring any bells? Just a quick question as you start the year, on a scale of 1-10 how good do you feel your time skills are? 10 being as good as they can be, 1 being - total chaos.
If they're between 8-10 - great! You're probably pretty happy with things and feel in control all or most of the time, with no real concerns. Less than 5 and you're probably struggling most or all of the time.
What are the areas you feel could be improved? I’ll give you a pointer - Goals and
Planning are the two key areas that come up most often where people need to focus and improve. Closely followed by Prioritising.
For a little more in-depth insight, instead of a less than subjective 1-10, you can get more detail along with tips and ideas to improve each of five key areas when you complete the full Time Quiz.
Making a change in one area can have a significant impact on ALL areas of your life as
things slip into place more easily and you feel more in control of the choices you’re making. Even making a few small tweaks and adjustments can make a real difference.
- Having clear goals makes it easier and improves your ability to plan and prioritise.
- Improving your planning allows you to organise, prioritise and
waste less time.
- Being able to prioritise means you can manage your workload and find time for what's important.
Don't leave it too long to make a change. Focus on the key areas and see what you can do to improve not only how you use your time but also the quality of your life
overall.
