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Time Management: Controlling Time

How many of us could use some great advice on how to develop great time management? OOH… MEMEMEME!!! How many of you feel that is never enough time in the day? That you are just trying to stay above water? Well here are a few things that you can do to improve the time you utilize throughout the day.

• Determine the daily events that are absolutely necessary. Start by picking the absolutely necessary things that need to take place. First start by looking at the process as a whole; ex., getting ready for work in the morning, your work day, preparing dinner, paying your bills, family time, doing your homework, and so on and so forth. For example sake, lets use “getting ready for work or school” as our prime example.

• Examine your process for each event. Again lets use, “getting ready for work or school.” Think about the time necessary between getting up in the morning, and out the door to work or school. What action steps are involved in this process? Eating breakfast? How long does that take? Brushing your teeth? How long does that take? Taking a shower, how long does that take? Take down time frames of how long it takes to you to complete each action step.

• Determine which action steps are unnecessary or can be sped up, and adjust accordingly. For example, I noticed that it took me 20 minutes to take a shower in the morning (including shaving), and 15 minutes without shaving. I also noticed that I linger in the shower for about 5 minutes. That is 5 minutes of wasted time!! So now I make a more conscious effort of my shower time and make sure not to linger… it saves me 5 minutes every morning! I also used to try to check my email in the morning, but once I was online, I would end up checking more than email, and I wasted 5-10 more minutes every morning before heading into the office. I now check my email when I get to work, because it is a work related event anyway. I am sure you will find at least one process that you could move to a more strategic time of the day or do without all together!!

• Revise your schedule and implement! Once you have made changes in your time management plan for those events or days, it is time to implement them. Do exactly as you set out to do, and don’t fall into your old routine! This leads me to the final step…. Keep it up until it becomes your new ritual!! Time management (like anything else) takes practice. Once you have a routine set in place, you need to be consistent with your follow through of that routine in order for it to become a ritual.

Now is the time to take control of the time you use. Don’t forget, these tips will inevitably help you to find extra time in your day as well, which is something I know a lot of us could use… perhaps just for some R&R for ourselves. After all, we deserve it!!

William Martinez
william@longislandexchange.com
March 07, 2006 2:48 PM Eastern

Advice Column