Thomas Jefferson once wrote, "Lounging our time away, doing nothing, and having nothing to do. It gives me great regret to be passing my time so uselessly when it could have been so importantly employed." Time management is about taking control of one of the most valuable resources we have: our time. Without it, we could not function at our optimum levels of productivity, which leads to unnecessary amounts of stress. This behavior often leaves us feeling overwhelmed and confused.
There are several facets of time management such as, goal setting and prioritizing tasks and implementing your new time management program into your daily routine. Let us look deeper into the art of understanding time management and discover how we all can become more efficient with one of our most precious resources, our time. Setting personal goals in your life for work, family, or individual needs, is the key to success. Setting targets and priorities involves a three-step process. .
Determine what you want to accomplish in life, professionally and personally. This is called a goal. Once the goal has been determined, making time management work for you will be much easier to achieve.
- Establish priorities for your goals. Organization is very important. Without it, you could potentially give a task precedence over another, which was the more important task to have completed.
- Determine and implement those activities required to achieve your goals. .
- Remember, your lists of goals and tasks are not carved in stone. .
- Review and change them as necessary. .
- Place your list in some important place, such as the kitchen refrigerator, where you will see it often. This list should be an up-to-date representation of your life's goals. Often discussing your goals with your spouse and children will help ensure that you will have to follow through with improving your time management" Gautschi, Ted. Time is Perishable. Design News 55/7 (2000): 122.
