Four Time Management Techniques

Four time management techniques to boost your time management skills and reduce stress. These time management lessons give you different time management strategies to take control today.

Do you want to take charge of your time management?

If you feel you have too much to do and not enough time then these 4 time management techniques are beneficial to you.

My clients have told me that these techniques have helped them to organize and plan their day, stay focused on priorities, and minimize disruptions.

Objectively track and analyze your time

Do you feel busy and overwhelmed and know that something has to change but you just don't know what?

This is a very common time management problem.

Typical symptoms may include only getting through half a 'to do' list each day, or feeling pressured and stressed by a lack of time.

Often, trying to fix a time management problem without objective data is like 'pinning the tail on the donkey'.... a hit and miss affair.

One time management technique is to collect objective data on your time usage.

This helps you to identify any time-wasters and ways in which you can use your time more effectively.

The proverb that 'You can't fix an issue until you identify the problem' is true of time management also.

Fill out a time management log or download free time tracking software to collect objective data on your time usage.

Prioritize and do first things first

It is not unusual to feel overwhelmed.

Perhaps you have too much to do and not enough time. Or are there so many things to do that you don't know what to tackle first?

My clients often report that on any one day they may work on a report, visit a client, have meetings, and organize an event.

If things are hectic and your to do list is as long as your arm then take charge.

You can't possibly to everything so you are going to have to organize your time and prioritize your tasks.

Prioritizing your work is one of the most important time management techniques.

There are a number of ways to do this and all involve planning.

The question is, "What type of planning?"

There is project planning that can be aided by project planning software.

There is also long-term planning such as personal goal setting.

But probably what is most helpful in the short-term is a weekly plan that funnels down into your daily to do list.

I sometimes use this weekly planner or just use a personal organizer.

What is important is that you have a snapshot of your week on paper!

Having a weekly plan helps you know where the bottlenecks of activity are and allows you to organize your time and resources.

Importantly, by drawing up a weekly plan you also develop a time management schedule that boosts your time management skills.

On Sunday night, or on Friday afternoon, plan the things that you need to do this week and then funnel this down into a daily prioritized to do list.

Make sure that you are doing the highest priority tasks on your to do list.

The importance of delegation

Do you have too much work to do?

Often my clients tell me that that they have too much to do. When I ask, "Well, why don't you prioritize?" they respond, "Everything is important!"

If I was to freeze time, the average worker would have about 300 hours of incomplete tasks to do.

This means that setting priorities is critically important to your effectiveness.

One technique that can help you to focus on your priorities is delegation.

Delegation is a time management technique that is often talked about but rarely used effectively.

Delegation not only frees up your time but, if done well, can be a great training opportunity for your employees!

Here are some tip on how to delegate effectively.

Getting things done

Do you have so much to do and don't know where to start? Do you feel overwhelmed with everything that you have to do?

Here it is important to apply the 'Getting Things Done' time management technique.

For something like this I find a good thing to do is to get everything down on paper.

Get all the ideas that are floating around in your head, all the emails, and all the other things that you need to do into one list of things to do.

Just getting it all out of your head and onto paper can be a big stress reliever.

This time management technique is one aspect of 'Getting Things Done', a comprehensive workflow management system. By putting things down on paper you get them out of your head and in doing so, become more energetic.

Set aside a good portion of the day to do this.

Once you have your list, from doing shopping to planning your holiday or painting your house, you can put these into an project list that can be incorporated into your planning.

From these projects you can identify your very next actions.

By getting the ideas out of your head, identifying the next actions, and putting them into a system that you trust, you can reduce stress and increase efficiency.

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