Efficient time management tips
It’s about time that we realise that time management is not about time…..
Time management is, in my opinion about activities and reality checks.
Most of us make our Things to Do lists (endless lists), we prioritise and possibly list a time when we are going to perform the tasks on the TTD list. Fascinating, but that usually doesn’t work.
After a day with a TTD list that is too long, we are feeling left deflated, incompetent and unsatisfied.
We did not achieve what we set out to do. And then….. we do the same thing again the next day.
Efficient time management tips
The planning doesn’t work out, most of the time, due to:
- Overestimating the available time, underestimating time needed – often we think we have more time than we have, and at the same time we think that activities take less time than we actually do.
- Not allowing for unexpected events. If a planning is based on the perfect situation, it is bound to not work out; a delayed train, an unexpected phone call, or a domestic issue that needs to be sorted are all part of normal life.
- Incomplete planning. We plan a meeting, but don’t plan the preparation and the follow-up for that meeting, which changes a 2 hour meeting into a 3 hour activity. If that last hour is not planned for, but it still takes place, where does that come from?
My two tips for anyone who struggles with time (and who isn’t) is planning with gaps:
- don’t plan back-to-back
- plan one hour of ‘open time’ every day
This applies to work, but of course it also applies to a domestic situation and to a personal situation.
