Time management has been talked about for years and yet many of us still struggle to find enough time. People want to use time management to become more successful and happy but many of us feel inadequate and frustrated as we wonder why there never seem to be enough hours in the day.
We know there are lots of time wasters in our lives. At home it could be watching TV all evening, surfing the net, or having long conversations on the phone. At work you might be using time on an unproductive phone call, wading through 100s of emails a day or not giving, (or receiving), clear instructions.
If we reduced the amount of time we spent on our time wasters we'd all have more time for the fun things in life. But I question whether we should think of time management as a way of saving 30 minutes each day or whether we should focus on what we really want in life and save years? Are we born to stuff as many activities as possible into our already busy 24hours and yet lose whole years doing things we do not enjoy and will not help us achieve success in our lives?
The inspirational part
What do you really want in your life? Knee jerk answers often include a maid, a chauffeur, a pay rise, and a holiday. I believe that, until we really do know what we want, time management is simply a question of clawing back 30 minutes here and there throughout the week. Though those extra minutes are useful they simply help us manage our over stuffed lives and do not help us find the life we want.
What do you want in your life? One way to find out is to imagine you are very old and know you are near the end of your natural life. A writer who wants to write about your life comes to interview you. What would you like to be able to say you have been, done and had? What do you need to do to make this come true? If your answers bear no resemblance to what is currently happening in your life what changes do you need to make?
The practical part
There are only 24 hours in a day. What each of us can do is make an active choice on how we spend our time. Time spent planning our lives can save a huge amount of time in the long run.
A useful time management tool is to consider how important tasks are, (do they need doing at all), and how urgent they are, (when do they need doing). We should aim to do tasks that are important before they become urgent and avoid doing tasks that just aren't important. This may sound obvious but many of us doing fritter away precious minutes every day doing tasks that really make no difference to how well we do our jobs or how much we enjoy them.
To find out more about time management please read the full report on my website athttp://www.crossroadslifecoaching.co.uk/beingbusy.htm
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About the Author
Helen Miller is a life coach based in the UK. Her website,http://www.crossroadslifecoaching.co.uk is packed with free useful ideas to keep yourself happy, healthy and motivated.
