Business Management Tips - The 5 Keys to Proper Time Management

"This constant, unproductive preoccupation with all things we have to do is the single largest consumer of time and energy" Kerry Gleeson
 
This is not a definitive list nor is it the only list of its kind that I have written.
 
It does however give you 5 excellent concepts that you will need to assimilate into your day-to-day operations if you wish to improve your quality of life, reduce your stress level and get control of your time. The list is in order and does follow a flow of thought and activity on your journey to proper Time Management.

1. Acceptance

Accept that achieving control over your time is the basis from which all future achievement and success will flow.
That is a very powerful statement. It is one that I personally believe in. Do you? This is the start-point of making changes in your life that will have a profound impact on the rest of your life.

At some point you will make a personal choice based on the material we have here. You will decide that proper Time Management is the means to get the things you want in life. It is not a matter of us trying to sell you something or convince you of our way of thinking; it is a simple meeting of the minds. We are "selling" a way that you can rearrange your life through proper Time Management and, in doing so, get a lot more of the things you want out of life. Once you have "bought" into our concept, you have taken the first step in changing your life for the better.
  
It will be impossible for you to make any positive changes in the results you are getting until you accept that there is some dissatisfaction on your part. If you are happy, content and everything is going well in your life, then why are you here? Clearly, almost all if not all of us could do better, be better, and get better results. Having said that, are we concerned enough to do something about it? Only you can answer that and the way you do is to realize there is some dissatisfaction and you are prepared to do something about it.

Activity

If not Time Management, what? It's fair that you may disagree with my approach, but what will you replace it with? Spend some off-peak time, when you are working out, driving to work, waiting for someone, and work through in your mind what area/areas you will work on to improve your quality of life. Consider the topics we cover here and work on developing your own game plan and system.

2. Realization

It's a Life Style Change.

You have accepted that you are not where we want to be in life and want to be somewhere else, preferably somewhere better. The next logical step is to realize that, in order for that shift to happen, we have to change your habits, the way you do things, the way you think about things, pretty well a total Life Style change. That sounds overwhelming and, taken all at once, it is. We have a saying, "How do you eat an elephant?" The answer is: one bite at a time. The same applies here. Once you realize there will have to be changes, no one says they all have to happen at once, least of all us. In fact the reverse is true. Start slowly, take small bites, go at your own speed, but do something, anything, to start the process.
 
Small, seemingly unimportant changes that you make can have a profound positive impact on you for the rest of your life if they are made as a permanent way you do things, a permanent Life Style change. How you address and deal with your emails seems a simple task. However, done incorrectly, they are a huge hindrance to your productivity. Done properly, it is a savings to you of hundreds of hours each year. A small change in how you manage your scheduling of appointments, saving you just 30 minutes a day, will result in you gaining more that 100 more productive hours each year.
 
The same old way of doing things gets you the same old results. You have to enter this new phase of your life prepared to do things differently to get different results. Depending upon your commitment, how quickly you want to see change, how aggressive you are willing to be, all of these factors will determine the scope and impact the changes you make will have on your life. Change is good and also imperative if you want to make real changes in how your life will turn out from this point on.
 
Activity
 
Start to make a list of some of the activities and habits you now do that you feel you will have to change in order to be more successful. If you don't have a day planner, you may think about getting one and use this planner to start this list in. At this time you are not looking at getting too specific, you want large stroke topics and suggestions. You are looking at getting a list together and then narrowing that list down to 2 or 3 key activities that you will want to zero in on and make these a focus. Part of the changing process is to see how big or how small the eventual job will be, this helps you to see what kind of challenge is ahead of you.

3. What Do You Want To Accomplish?

Get It Out Of Your Head And In A Schedule

Two concepts are at play here, getting all the things you want to accomplish out of your head, and get them down in some sort of written form. A large part of getting organized is getting all the various bits and bites of our lives in one space, and then getting that space in a written format.
 
Lets deal with all the things we want to accomplish in our lives. They range from making that important phone call to a supplier in the next 5 minutes to learning how to sky dive before your 65th birthday.
 
That's a massive, all-encompassing task. If you truly want to get a handle your life, this is an absolute irrefutable, this is of paramount importance.
 
When you are attempting to write down everything you want to do, need to do, want to accomplish in your life, this task ranges from the immediate, to the things for next week, next month next year. In order to do this, you have to have a system specifically for this, a place to put your stuff, so to speak. This brings us to our next point.
 
Activity
 
We touched upon this in the previous point but it more relevant here. You need a place to put your Time Management tools. We are referring to your list of activities, goals, and jobs, aspirations you want to do and achieve in your life. These HAVE to be written down so you can manage and work with them. Without this Day Planner, you will be facing a massive up-hill battle, unnecessarily.
 
Start today, with any of the ideas, suggestions, tools, and systems. Use them; they will make you more productive, happier, more successful and a lot less stressed out. Then remember to look back and review your goals and ideas with employee evaluation tools to find any gaps and points that may need more attention and then continue towards improvement. What do you have to lose?

Bryan Beckstead is the creator and developer of the Power Time System and the Power Productivity Maximizer and has been involved in the Self Improvement and Self Empowerment industries for almost 35 years. His aggressive, in-your-face approach has earned him a reputation as someone who will give you the facts without the usual sugar coating. If you are really serious about improving your quality of life, visit him at http://www.powertimesystem.com