Powerful and effective time management is One of the most effective skills you can have in life. If you’re not managing your time well, there’s no way you’re going to reach your goals
Time management will be an uphill battle if you don’t take your time seriously; and the process of achieving the goals is difficult.
The truth is that time is the greatest equalizer in life.
Regardless who you are, your age, income, gender, race or religion, you have the same amount of time. Whether you are rich or poor, your time is the same.
It’s not about how much time you have. It’s about how effectively you manage your time.
One of the biggest problems that most entrepreneurs have isn’t just in how they can get enough done in such a demanding market, but also how they maintain some semblance of balance without feeling extreme fatigue.
This isn’t just about achieving goals; this is also about quality of life.
Balance is the key. If you lack balance in your life, you’re going to feel stressed out. Even if you’re able to effectively juggle your responsibilities, without proper balance you’re going to eventually reach your breaking point.
It’s important to not only follow a system that will help you get things done, but also one where you prioritize personal and family time.
Don’t forget to do things like take a walk in the park or just sit and listen to your favorite music with headphones on, or paint a picture. That’s more important than you can think.
What are the best tips for managing your time?
- Set goals the right way
There’s a right and wrong way to set goals. If you don’t set your goals the right way, then you’ll lack the proper targets, which will force you to fall off track. But when you set them the right way, the sky is the limit. When you do set those goals, make sure you have powerful deep down meanings for wanting to achieve them.
- Find a good time management system
One of the tips for managing your time is to find the right system to actually do it. The quadrant time-management system is probably the most effective. It splits your activities into four quadrants based on urgency and importance.
Neither (quadrant 4) are the activities that you want to stay away from, but it’s the not-urgent-but-important quadrant (2) that you want to focus on.
- Audit your time for seven days in a row
Spend seven days straight assessing how you spend the time you do have right now. What are you doing? Record it in a journal or on your phone. Split this up into blocks of 30 minutes or an hour. What did you get done? Was it time wasted? Was it well spent? The results might shock you.
- Follow the 80-20 rule
Another great time management tip is to use the 80-20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle.
This rule states that 80% of the efforts come from 20% of the results.
In sales, it also means that 80 % of the sales come from 20% of the customers.
What is the trick? Identify the 20 % of the efforts that are producing 80% of the results and scale that out. You can do this with tracking and analysis.
- Schedule email response times
Turn off your email throughout the day. When your email is pouring in, it’s easy to get distracted. Schedule time to read and respond to emails. If there’s something urgent, someone will call or text you. But when you have your email open, those distractions interrupt your thought flow and it’s harder to get back on track.
- Eliminate bad habits will help you to manage your time
One of the biggest time-wasters we have is our bad habits. Whether it’s watching Netflix, surfing social media, playing games, going out frequently with friends, or so on.
Those bad habits take away the precious little time that we do have. Use your time wisely by eliminating your bad habits if you’re serious about achieving big goals in life
- Take frequent breaks when working
One study suggests that you should work for 52 minutes and break for 17 minutes. You might not have the luxury to do that. But you should take frequent breaks. Keep your mental, emotional and physical states at peak levels by breaking frequently.
- Meditate or exercise every morning manages your time in an unexpected way
You might not think that this will help to better manage your time, but meditating and exercising every single morning gives you balance.
- Make to-do lists in the evening for the next day
Every single evening before bed, make a list for the next day. Look at your goals and see what you can do to help move you closer. This doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. But by making to-do lists, you’re effectively setting goals for the day. Daily goals are easier to achieve while helping to move us towards the longer and bigger goals.
- Find inspiration when you’re feeling lackluster
Find an inspirational source you can turn to when you’re lacking inspiration. It’s hard to stay on track with your time when you lose that drive inside of you. Find ways you can turn the fire back.