7 Effective Techniques For Time Management
April 13, 2007
Today marks the last day of lessons for this sch sem! Finally all my project deadlines and presentations are over.. Really a sigh of relief for me.. But not time to enjoy and relax though.. As it also signals the start of the study week.. Meaning to say my exams start in one week’s time! Time to panic for some.. But for me, I don’t have the habit of panicking b4 exams..
Nonetheless, this calls for effective management of my time so as to maximize my study week in preparation for my exams.
Have been listening to Dan Lok from Outsource & Delegate and he happens to talk about the 9 time management techniques that he uses. Dan is one of the most highly sought after business consultants on the Internet. Patricia also posted a time management post over at her blog too.. Hence, shall share some of the time management techniques that I learnt.
7 Effective Techniques For Time Management
1. Prioritize
With so many tasks on hand, prioritizing is an ultimate must. You can’t possibly accomplish everything within a day. Hence, you need to prioritize and work effectively. Effectiveness is working on things with high payoffs. You should always focus on objectives and not on activities. The most important tasks/activities are those that help you to accomplish your objectives. Hence, each day we should set one major objective and achieve it. Ask yourself these questions to see if you are prioritizing your time effectively:
a. What’s the most efficient use of my time right now?
b. What’s the payoff of this activity?
c. What objectives do I want to accomplish?
d. Is what I’m doing this minute moving me closer to my goals?
2. Have a To Do List
Having a To Do List has various advantages such as:
a. It helps us know the different things that have do be done so that we do not miss anything.
b. It is more dependable than our memory.
c. Once we have a written list of the things that we have to do, we can prioritize and decide which jobs should be done first.
d. It enables us to cross out the tasks which have finished doing and towards the end of the day when we see the list of things that we have crossed out, it certainly will give us a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
e. If anything remains on today’s list, it can be carried over to tomorrows list and that is excellent way of preparing a to-do list for the day, by examining the ‘to-do’ list of yesterday and carrying out any task that has been left without completion
3. Time Blocking
Set aside blocks of time for everything you do. You can even make appointments with yourself. Think about it, normally when you make appointments with others, you’ll tend to keep to it. However, when you assign tasks to yourself, chances are you might procrastinate. Hence, see your tasks as appointments with yourself and make sure you adhere to your appointments.
Try to schedule your time in smaller blocks. Most people schedule their time in one hour blocks. However, many tasks do not require one hour, hence it can be a waste of time.
Note: Bill Gates schedules his time in 6 min blocks. How about you?
4. Only check your emails once a day
I must admit I check my emails pretty often. And I believe most internet marketers also have this bad habit. I check my emails to see if there are new opt-ins, check to see if there are sales orders or affiliate sales, check to see if there are new comments on my blog and also check if there are new emails coming from the various internet marketers whom I subscribed to.
Honestly, this is highly unproductive. Hence, if you are like me, stop! And try to dedicate a specific time to check and read your emails, and only once or twice a day.
5. Create Your Own Productive Environment
You are the subject of your environment, therefore select the best environment which will move you towards your goals. Hence, in order to be a high performance worker, you cannot be interrupted.
In order to create a productive environment, it must be free from all kinds of distraction. Once you set out this block of time to accomplish a certain task, make sure you set your mind only on the task. Do not leave your MSN or TV on, which will only serve to distract you.
6. Become computer efficient
This is especially useful for internet marketers. Learning to type faster and using the essential shortcut keys will be able to help us save a great deal of time.
7. Stay Focused
Successful people are laser- beamed focus. In order to maximize your time fully, you just have to be super focused. Don’t jump from one task to another. Make sure you finish a task before moving on to the next one.
Having a productive environment will also help you to stay absolutely focused.
============================================
So there you have it! The 7 Effective Techniques for Time Management.
This will surely come in handy during my exams preparation as well as in the future. Hope this benefits you as well!
Meanwhile, if you would like to learn more about truly leveraging your time, check out Dan Lok’s Outsource & Delegate. It will certainly add a new dimension to your business.
Comments
11 Responses to “7 Effective Techniques For Time Management”
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
hi dear! Interesting set of time management skills which are really beneficial Especially #3 and #6.(That’s for me!), coupled with the resource that you introduced well, the excuse of “No Time” shouldn’t exist anymore!
But i particularly like how creative technique #6 is.. Haha.. being computer efficient. Well, I think I should explore my laptop and see what are the hotkeys that I can use to cut down time spent on the lappie. 
hee..
Hey Calvin,
Good luck for your coming exams!
Oh, hot keys on computer.
I just know not too long ago that Ctrl+Enter is really a useful shorcut to key in URL.
Instead of typing “www.calvinwoon.com”,
just by typing calvinwoon in the address bar and crtl+enter will add the www and .com automatically. Now I don’t waste so much time on typing URL and can shorten the process.
hey calvin! wa saw your testimonal in Dan Lok website.. you do JV everywhere in the world! how you manage to do that.. everytime i read your blog post or talk to you.. you tell me you JV with this guru.. with that guru.. you are one hell of a amazig guy.. ha
Hey darling!
yeah go explore that let us know all the impt hot keys ya? hee!
Hey Alex!
haha thanks for the hot keys tip!
I din know that either..
Yoz Ivan..
haha nah lahz.. wat’s so amazing abt doing JVs.. anyone can do it also. shall tell you how next time.
what will be amazing is when you create a product and get the gurus to be your JV partners. Coming soon!
the most common hotkeys i use in my pc is ctrl+alt+del. oh, and sometimes alt+f4.
haha yeah calvin.. Will be waiting for that day also! ha then Joel Comm can give me testimonal! haha..
one more effective time management technique: bullet time. very handy, especially when being held at gunpoint, or being chased by agents. need to make good use of the milliseconds of your time.
Hey Ivan,
don’t sit there and wait! make it happen! He will be coming for the world internet summit. So be prepared ya? I definitely will..
Heyz Munir,
woah bullet time sounds really effective. haha. i like the term!