Why Time Management is Difficult for You

Source: Freelancingandmore.com

Everyone knows that the level of your success and productivity in life and in all your endeavors is directly, and greatly influenced by your ability to manage time. It’s not just important to learn to manage your own time, but that of your coworkers, colleagues, friends and fellow students. However, you must know that time is a wild beast that can never be tamed. What I am saying therefore, is that it is impossible to ‘manage time’.

“You can’t manage time, you can only manage yourself” – Brain Tracy (from the book, Goals!). One of the greatest tools in managing time, as it were, is the tool of personal and life management. If you cannot manage yourself, you cannot manage your time. Even the Bible, in Proverbs 16 verse 32, helps us to understand that the man who can control himself is mightier than a strongman who takes a city. Self-control, self-discipline and self-mastery are very important tools in the quest to maximize time. This is because, there are general rules for time management but these rules vary, in application, from one individual to another. The way one person can practice and properly utilize these rules is different from how another person can. Therefore, the emphasis here lies on one’s ability to understand himself, his strengths and weaknesses, put them into cognizance, and then begin to plan the effective use of his time around these things.

Another important thing to notice in time management is the use of lists. In managing your time, it is imperative that you learn how to make a daily list. Start small, then you can get better from there. What I mean here, is that time management requires you to make a daily list of the things you want to achieve for each day (do this the night before). After making this list, rearrange it in order of priority, regardless of the time each task will consume. The most important tasks must come first on the list. After this is done, look at each task and, in front of it, allot a sensible time estimate to it. Be realistic. If there is a task on your list that cannot be completed in one day, indicate it on that list. Don’t assume. Every task on your list must have a timeframe in front of it.

When you’re done allocating timeframes, go over the list again to see if there are changes to be made. If there aren’t, then you’re good to go. From time to time, you may need to reorder the list, don’t worry, that’s part of life. Change is permanent in life. Remember to tailor the list to suit your level of personal effectiveness and management. What works for one person may not work for the next person. Moreover, as you practice these simple steps and as you learn more about yourself, with the view to improve your personal effectiveness, you will find that you are able to achieve more in lesser time.