Take Control with These Time Management Activities

Take control of your time with these time management activities. These time management activities will boost your time management skills, reduce stress and increase productivity.

Do you feel that you are pulled in different directions with competing priorities?

Perhaps you feel that no matter how hard you work, you just can't get everything done?

Are you frazzled at the end of the day and know something has to change?

If so, then you are not alone!

One of the most common causes of stress is not having enough time.

In my private practice I have used these time management activities with professors, students and business professionals.

Our clients tell us that these activities make a big impact on their use of time.

Time Management Activity 1: Can you spend your time more effectively?

When you want to save for something, what do you normally do?

If you are like me, you probably draw up a budget of the things that you spend your money on and identify where you can trim that expenditure to save for the thing that you want.

Well the same principle applies to time.

A first step to better time management involves collecting objective data on how you spend your time now.

To do this, download your time management log and for the next 5 days keep track on your time.

Note down the time you start your activities, what you are doing, and the time that you finish.

The 5 minutes that you put into this each day for a week will pay off big dividends in your future time use and allows you to set time management goals.

Are You Proactive or Reactive Are you Proactive or Reactive? Answering this question is important for your stress. People who are proactive in their time management ensure they get their top priorities down with less stress. If you are reactive, then you are more likely to be controlled by the tyranny of the urgent, finding yourself putting fires out every day. Examine your time usage through the lens of the time management matrix. Can you get the right things done with less stress?

Time management Activity 2 - How much time is spent on your top priorities?

Examine the time log that you kept in activity 1.

Put a star next to your top priority items - those tasks which were most important to you.

Perhaps it was spending time with your family, working on that proposal, or the quite time you spent by yourself.

Once you have put a star next to your highest priority items, add up how much time you spend per day on these most important activities.

For the next week, try to spend more time focusing on the activities that have most value for you.

By focusing more on the activities that are important to you and less on the low priority stuff, this time management activity can help you to live more effectively.

Time management Activity 3 – Plan your work and work your plan

List all the activities that you have to do over the next week.

Now put an A, B or C next to them. The A’s being your most important activities, and C being your least important activities.

Looking at all of your top priority items, now put them into a weekly calendar and schedule a time for them.

Look at the things that you have done (in activity 1) if you need help in determining how long different tasks took you.

Block these most important times out in your diary – this doesn’t mean you can’t change them – but at least you have a plan and a direction for the next week – which can always be adjusted.

When doing this here is another time management tip.

Try to identify periods of time in which you are likely to be full of energy for your high priority items – there is no use in being half asleep on your most important job.

For me, I am a morning person, so I try to schedule my most important activities in the morning – before 11am.

What this activity does is it harnesses the 80/20 rule, ensuring that you do you spend your high energy time on the most important activities.

The 80/20 rule comes from an Italian economist, Pareto, who observed that 80% of results come from 20% of our activities, and conversely that 20% of our results come from 80% of our activities.

So to maximize your results, this time management activity and these time management techniques ensure that you execute your top priority tasks first.

Time management Activity 4 - Practice the Primodoro time management technique?

If you have a to do list as long as your arm and things are falling through the cracks, then a time management system may be useful for you.

There are a number of different time management systems that you can use, such as David Allen's 'Getting Things Done' (GTD), Franklin Covey's Putting First Things First and the Pomodoro technique.

The potential for a good time management system is that it can systematically manage and schedule tasks, using your time more effectively and reducing stress.

The Pomodoro time management technique was developed in 1992 and is deceptively easy and quite powerful.

With this time management activity you will need a kitchen timer (or stop watch).

Your job is to tackle each item on your to-do list for 25 minutes (a Pomodoro).

Download a to do list template and when you have finished one Pomodoro mark the item with an X.

Also mark down with a (') how many times your were interrupted in your 25 minute of concentrated activity.

At the end of 25 minutes give yourself a 3-5 minute break before commencing your next Pomodoro.

This time management technique helps you to stay focused over the period. You will also start to notice distractions in your high concentration period.

Do you have a great time management activity? Please share it!

Do you have a great time management activity? Please share it!

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