Time Management Tips-

Planning Your Day Made Easy
Some people have a real knack for planning their time. Many do not. If you are among those who struggle, you may need to take a step toward learning the simple skill of identifying and prioritizing the most important things in your day. I would like to introduce you to one of our most effective time management tips, the three coaches.

The three coaches will guide you in arranging your daily activities and prioritizing your personal goals so you can get things done. They are: necessity, practicality and efficiency.

Necessity: These activities are locked in and are not changeable. Examples include: child-care, customer appointments, meetings, maternity leave, emergencies, etc.

Practicality: Practicality involves arranging activities to be accomplished at the best time of day for the type of activity. Examples include: medical appointments, school activities, volunteerism, convenience-on-the-job, time off, vacations, personal energy cycles, etc.

Efficiency: The most effective utilization of resources is efficiency. Efficiency involves: mentoring and delegating, continuous improvement and quality, teamwork, etc.

The following questions will help you effectively assess necessity, practicality, and efficiency in arranging your activities for the day.

1. Which activities are related to my goals?
2. Which activities are locked into a time that cannot be changed?
3. Am I allowing for personal centering/recovery time?
4. How much buffer time should I allow between activities?
5. Have I allocated time to respond to the unexpected?
6. Does my schedule align my most difficult tasks with those times when my energy level is highest?
7. What is the best time of day to do this type of activity?
8. Have I set appointments with myself to ensure that the most vital activities are accomplished?
9. Have I arranged my activities based upon the availability of others, if required?
10. Is my plan efficient and practical?
11. Can any of my planned activities be delegated?
12. If my activities involve other people will they be available?
13. Of my planned activities, which are absolutely necessary

Maintaining touch with reality by determining the necessity, practicality, and efficiency of your activities allows you to arrange and forecast sufficient time to accomplish your planned activities and increase your productivity. Of course these guidelines can be applied effectively only through a personal commitment to plan a daily strategy each and every day.

Having a time management organizer or planner like the traditional one offered by Day Timer may help put your tasks and priorities down on paper and remind you to set an appointment with yourself. Setting an appointment with yourself to plan or arrange your day increases your likelihood of success.

Conversely, one of the biggest obstacles to a high-performance day and one of the biggest barriers to work-life balance is not taking the time to plan a daily strategy. Just as it is advantageous to arrange your day based on the ways you do things best, personal management tools are also a matter of personal style and preference. If you want to find our more about our time management training courses, just click on this link or learn more about Day Timer organizer can help you manage your time effectively.