Time Management Tips For Newbies

by Dean Caporella

Getting organised and staying focussed may seem a daunting prospect for many people but in reality, once you develop a daily routine and refine your time management skills you'll be amazed at just how much more efficiency you can achieve. Juggling too many things in an unprioritized fashion can literally drive you insane but by adopting some sound time management tips 101 and applying them, you'll "kick yourself" for having performed tasks in a disorderly fashion for so long.

By adopting some or all of the following simple time management tips, you can begin to get your lifestyle back into some sort of order.

Planning Your Day

This sounds straightforward but be honest, do you plan your day... really? I'm amazed at how many people actually don't plan the following day. Many will tell you they know what they need to do but in most cases, if you check with them 24 hours later you'll get any number of excuses why they didn't accomplish what they set out to do.

There are two ways to plan your day. Either the night before or first thing in the morning. Don't just write your tasks down; prioritize them in order of importance. This is vital. Without following an order of importance list there are two things likely to happen: tasks will be completed haphazardly and you are prone to procrastinate or, nothing will get done at all.

Commencing Your Tasks

A great way I've found to get going with my list if it's a long one is commencing with the most difficult task first. As a web publisher, if I have a list of topics I need to write articles about I do them in order of the toughest first with the more familiar ones last. Why? Because writing is difficult at the best of times and with your mind and creativeness usually being at it's best first thing in the morning, then I find the words and ideas seem to flow much more fluently. This is a great time management tip because by the time you get to the topics you are more familiar and comfortable with later in the day, despite tiredness creeping in, and the creative juices starting to dry up, the words and ideas don't seem as difficult to produce to paper simply because you know the subject matter.

Over-Committing

This is an area a lot of well meaning time management students struggle with. Over-committing can have the same affect as procrastination. When you "put too much on your plate" it has the effect of diminishing your enthusiasm. You are likely to throw your hands in the air and decide to get back to it later. But of course you never do. Projects are left half finished and your mental state is one of under achievement. Remember, there is always tomorrow. You don't have to get everything done today! By managing projects a step at a time you'll not only get them finished but the work will usually be first rate. Getting a week's work done in a day is not an effective time management tip.

Finally, don't go unrewarded. Organise a small reward for yourself with each finished task. This can be anything you like but this has the effect of giving you something to work towards or strive for. Rewards should be kept to the major completed tasks; it could be something as simple as taking time out to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee, but it must be something you enjoy in short bursts.

The bottomline is that with a little preparation and manageable to do list, you can get the most efficiency out of your time everyday instead of looking at it as an impending burden.

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Dean Caporella is a professional broadcaster.Learn these excellenttime management tipsand improve your efficiency at:www.timemanagementsite.com