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Understanding Time and How You Can Manage it

By: Anna Martin - Updated: 15 Oct 2012 | comments

When you really understand time you will be able to admit that a big percentage of your day is wasted doing unnecessary chores or tasks. Procrastination may also claim a sizeable chunk of your time. Acknowledging this will help you identify possible ways of working more productively and effectively.

Great Expectations

You may have an efficient way of completing tasks but chances are there is room for improvement. When pausing to think about the way you spend your time you may well discover that there are chunks of your day that are wasted doing low-priority chores. You also most probably spend a high percentage of your time working through a routine, which could do with an overhaul. Or perhaps you are prone to distractions and lack of concentration?

Acknowledging the way you work will give you the freedom to improve, enhance and adapt your time so that it works for you, instead of against you. Making any necessary changes will mean you manage your time more effectively, instantly.

What Your Time Is Really Worth

Estimating your financial value – by multiplying your annual salary by the amount of working hours – may leave you amazed by the realization that your time is not being used in a cost-effective manner. Once you have accepted this you will be able to start implementing changes that will help you manage your time better.

If you don’t do so already, you may decide delegation will help free up time. Routine tasks can be simply delegated to others, so is worth considering as a means of improving your productivity.

Time Log

The simplest way of working out how your time is spent is by maintaining a daily time log or timetable. Compiling a daily diary is an effective way of identifying areas where it would be worth your time to make improvements.

Start by dividing one day into 30 minute chunks. For instance, Monday 8.30 – 9.00 am, 9.00 – 9.30 am and so on. Once you have listed this you can fill in the areas with the tasks, jobs, chores etc that you fill your day with. For best results you may like to consider doing this over a whole week period.

Once you have filled your Time Log you will be able to analyse and assess areas that require immediate improvement, alongside chunks of time that can be adapted. Areas where delegation would net instant results will also become more obvious.

Review

To manage your time more successfully there are both short-term and long-term ways of reviewing your strategies:

Short Term

Create a daily To-Do list and up-date it continually.
Identify wasted time, in your day, and aim to fill it constructively – small chunks at a time.

Long-Term.

Check for any time wasting bad habits you may have developed over time. Once you have identified these you will be able to take control and remedy the situation.
Aim to set aside regular time when you are able to review your time management. Being open to a constant review of your working approach will enable you to work more productively.