5 Result-Getting Time Management Tips

How often have you tried to manage your time in more productive ways, and found the process to be difficult and confusing? Perhaps you simply gave up on the idea. As one friend said, "Time management takes too much time!"

These tips will simplify time management with five important steps that can bring remarkable changes. They will allow you to easily customize a plan that will fit your specific objectives. Each action in your plan should support one of these five steps.

1. Prioritize Objectives and Actions.

Place a level of importance on each project or goal. Decide which actions are the most important for reaching your top-level objectives. Then spend the necessary time on those objectives first. That might seem obvious, but it requires thoughtful planning to prioritize time expenditures. It requires discipline to stick with the schedule.

Setting priorities also allows the mind to focus on desired outcomes. Time spent prioritizing projects, actions, and time expenditures is a wise investment of time.

2. Balance Time Expenditures.

Balancing time expenditures reduces stress. It brings success and fulfillment to careers and personal lives. Consider all the important areas in your life, and your values for each of them.

Consider areas such as family, health, career, relationships, spirituality, and relaxation. Take into account your responsibilities and activities within each of these areas. Balanced living brings contentment that is often absent in today's fast moving world.

3. Visualize Your Outcome and Feel Gratitude.

You've prioritized and balanced your time expenditures. What results did you want to achieve from each time expenditure in step one? Why are each of those results important to you?

See those results in your mind's eye each day. Then create the unmistakable feeling that those results have already been achieved. Most importantly, create a strong, silent feeling of gratitude that you have already received each result that you visualized.

4. Measure Results.

The only way to know if your efforts at time management are working is to measure the results. If you continue to feel stressed or do not see tangible changes taking place, it's time to re-evaluate what you are doing and make changes.

5. Adjust and Repeat.

Time and its winds of constant change are sure to bring surprises that intervene in your initial plans. One of the most frequent mistakes in managing time is neglecting to fine tune. First attempts at prioritizing and balancing often need a second look. If your results are less than you wanted, return to step one. Fine tune your schedule to make it more functional.

Time expenditures will always need to be reallocated periodically. Goals, needs, values, commitments, and responsibilities change. New projects and objectives will enter the picture. Unexpected events and new relationships will require flexibility.

Increase Productivity and Satisfaction

Daily actions that support each of these five steps can bring more work productivity and personal life satisfaction. With a schedule that must be flexible, I check and adjust my time expenditures weekly. This insures that my actions are supporting my career and personal objectives. These actions for effective time-management can support your objectives also.

Stop and think of a top-level objective that you want to reach. Ask yourself this question:

"If I could choose only one activity today that would take me closer to this objective, what would it be?" You've just started the process with step number one.

Keep practicing each of these five time-management steps by applying them to your situation. You will be pleased with the results.

© Copyright 2005 by Steve Brunkhorst. Steve is a professional life success coach, motivational author, and the editor of Achieve! 60-Second Nuggets of Inspiration, a popular mini-zine bringing great stories, motivational nuggets, and inspiring thoughts to help you achieve more in your career and personal life. Get the next issue by visiting http://AchieveEzine.com

---

Time Well Spent

It is common knowledge that creating and living according to... Read More

Four Steps To Make Your Day Dynamic!

There are two ways to start your day. The first... Read More

Save Your Time - Delegate!

Frustration is when an obstacle blocks your ability to achieve... Read More

Managing Worry: Productivity Tips for High Achievers Who Worry

Are you a worrier? Do you frequently spend time and... Read More

Looking At Time With A Capital T

I keep a fossil on my desk at all times.... Read More

7 ways To Win The Time Crunch

Are you working a "day job" while building your home-based... Read More

31 Ways to Get An Extra Hour Out of Each Day

How can you get an extra hour out of each... Read More

Spend Less Time at Work and Get More Done

Sounds too good to be true?It really isn't!In fact, studies... Read More

Living on Purpose: Achieving Balance Between Work And the Rest of Your Life

Many of us get so caught up in day-to-day pressures... Read More

If Only Your Brain Was the Size Of That Of an Ant You Could Easily Implement Habits

A year and a half ago I was introduced to... Read More

Time Management: A Non-Renewable Resource

Benjamin Franklin wrote: "If you want to enjoy one of... Read More

Achieve More With Less Through Proper Planning

One question a lot of people ask me recently is:... Read More

Let Someone Else Do It

When you decide to become self-employed, you automatically become the... Read More

Time Management

Isn't it amazing that some people can produce huge results... Read More

Shifting Priorities Are The Norm

Years ago when I started in this business, it seemed... Read More

The Ultimate Time Management Tips: 5 Steps To Reaching Your Goals With Minimum Work

Would you like to know how to get 10 times... Read More

Time Management: Set Yourself Up For Success

Any habit of mind or body that interferes with taking... Read More

Vilfredo Paretos Principle: The 80-20 Rule: 80% of Results are Produced from 20% of Efforts

Vilfredo Pareto's Principle, or The "Pareto Principle," is more commonly... Read More

Webmaster or Web Slave? Time Saving Tips for Cyberpreneurs

Time is money in your online business, just as in... Read More

The Kaizen of Goal Setting

There is an old way of goal setting and a... Read More

You Cant Buy Time

Our daily lives are inundated with a crammed to-do list.... Read More

Do You Put a Value on Your Time?

As a small business owner, does the following paragraph sound... Read More

Living Life In A Time Starved World

Recently I saw an advertisement for a time management booklet:... Read More

Prioritize Your Life for Success

Today, it is hard to open an e-mail newsletter, a... Read More

How To Manage Your Time

I would like to touch upon a subject that it... Read More

Plan Your Day and Stick to Your Plan

How many times have you remarked to someone that there... Read More

Sprint Through Your Workday, Even if Youre a Marathoner

Whenever you have projects that can't be done in one... Read More

How to Minimize Trips to the Grocery Store

Still awaiting the birth of my baby (I am overdue),... Read More

Work at Home Moms: Time Management Tips

"How do you DO it?!" If I had a dime... Read More

Time Management: How to Stay Motivated and Get More Done

If you can motivate yourself at will to get any... Read More

Boost Your Productivity with Sixty Minutes A Day

How you spend the first sixty minutes of your day... Read More

Time Management For Home Business Owners

As each day passes, and more and more things need... Read More

6 Time Management Tips for Moms

Many of you have expressed the challenge of not having... Read More