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Time Management Horse Sense
Every horse race has a first place winner and a runner-up, second place contender. It is notuncommon for the first place horse to earn twice the prize as the second place finisher. Curiously,the number one horse did not have to run twice as fast or go twice as far as the competition to gettwice the money. It only had to be a nose ahead of the competition to reap twice the rewards.Time management, personal productivity, and success in life are a lot like the horse race metaphor.To get twice as much in life, in any of our many dimensions, health, family, financial, intellectual,professional, social, and spiritual, we do not have to double our effort and input. We only need toget a nose ahead of where we are now to realise significant increases in our results.Five suggestions, when applied, can help us to get a "nose ahead."First, plan your day, every day, preferably, the night before. Then, when arriving at work, there is aplan of action to direct us forward. Without a plan, temptations may draw us into unproductiveavenues where we may serve the loudest voice that demands our time rather than dealing with themost productive opportunity.A simple plan consists of a list of all the items we ideally might want to accomplish during the nextday. Prioritise those items in order of their importance. (#1 for most important, #2 for next mostimportant, etc.) Begin the most important item first, then go to the next most important item, etc.Typically, it is unlikely that all items on the list will be completed, but that is fine. Success has littleto do with how much was left undone at the end of the day but, rather, what was actuallyaccomplished. We will always leave undone more than we do get done simply because we all havemore to do than time permits which says a lot of good things about how good we really are, tohave so much entrusted to us by so many!Second, over plan your day to take advantage of "Parkinson's Law" which teaches that, "a projecttends to take the time allocated for it." If you give yourself one thing to do during the day, it willlikely take all day to complete it. If you give yourself two things to do during the day, you will likelyaccomplish both. If you give yourself twelve things to do during the day, you may not get all twelvedone, but you may complete seven or eight items. Having a lot to do creates a healthy sense of pressure on us to naturally become better time managers. With a lot on our plate, we tend to bemore focused, we tend to suffer interruptions less so, and we delegate better.Third, work with a clean desk and work environment. There is truth in the saying, "Out of sight; outof mind." Equally true is the reverse, "In sight; in mind." When items are in our field of vision, wecannot help but be distracted and pulled in the wrong direction where we may major in the minors,busy all day long, but accomplishing little of significance.Fourth, restrict meetings. During any typical business day, there are reportedly 17 million meetingsbeing conducted in the United States. A meeting is two or more people getting together toexchange common information. Simple enough, but probably one of the top institutional timewasters. Always ask, "Do I contribute anything to this meeting?" and "Do I get anything of valuefrom this meeting?" If the answer to both questions is "no," try to find a way out of attending themeeting.Finally, handle paper just once. Get out of the "shuffling blues" when paper is looked at andrelooked at again and again while deadlines slip through the cracks as we get buried under ablizzard of paperwork. As you encounter each new piece of paper, if it can be responded to quickly,in a minute or less, respond then and there. If it will require a longer effort, schedule it for a timewhen you will get to it and then put it away.Reproduced with the kind permission of Dr. Donald E. Wetmore Professional Speaker from thewebsite
www.balancetime.com
. To read more about Dr Wetmore and other contributors please visitthe article 
Time Management Contributors
.
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MANAGING TIME FOR PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS: ACHIEVING GOALS WITH LESSSTRESSBetty C. Carlson, Ed.D.
As we begin the last year of the 90s, many of us have promised ourselves "this year I am going tostay on top of things and not fall behind like I always do, this year I am going to accomplishsomething, this year to "do better", with hoped for outcomes such as higher productivity, reducedstress levels, and more positive relationships with colleagues, coworkers, and family members.This is a good start; saying we're going to do better is the first important step - verbalizing intent isnecessary for change to take place. However, saying we are going to change is only the beginning.Self-talk is not the same as action - and action is what is necessary to move from intent toimplementation. Most of us do want to be more effective and efficient in our use of time. We wantto be more organized, more accomplished, and feel better about how we manage time, one of our most precious resources. We want to move away from missed deadlines, late nights trying to finishthings we have procrastinated about for months, lost opportunities, and strained relationships withpeople we care about. Instead, we want to move towards outcomes that are life enhancing andresult in lowered stress: achievement of valued personal and professional goals, an improved self-image, and positive relationships with colleagues, family members, and friends. The good news isthat acquiring time management skills and putting them into practice can be learned.The following steps for effective time management can provide a guide for putting your intentionsinto action, lowering your stress, and helping you achieve your goals.
1. Identify your personal and work-related priorities.
This is a key step in the process. Think carefully about outcomes that are important to you. Writethem down, being as specific as possible. Specify exactly what you want to accomplish and bywhen. If you have multiple priorities in the same area (personal or professional), try to select onlyone or two initially, or try to rank them as to importance. Trying to work on too many at the sametime will increase, rather than lower, your stress level.
2.Translate your priorities into concrete goals, with component activities.
Break each goal into its component activities; identify what steps are needed to achieve the goal.Identify the requirements and resources you need related to each activity step. This helps youorganize for success and have what you need to move forward towards goal attainment.Pinpointing resources is especially important if accomplishment of your goal requires thecooperation or assistance of other people.
3.Identify deadlines/intermediary time frames related to each activity step and goalattainment.
These could include deadlines for personal goals (sign up for an exercise class by March 1) or work-related goals such as report deadlines (gather needed data to complete quarterly report byMarch 30). Write these activities and their individual deadlines on your calendar; scheduling themgives you a direction and affirms your commitment to carry them through, step by step. If you needaccess to libraries, media/computing centers, or other resources, find out their availability beforeyou need them. Plan time in your own schedule to access these resources in advance; don't waituntil the day before a deadline occurs.
4.Consider your monthly calendar or planning notebook a timesaving device.
Keep it with you and use it to schedule important activities, due dates, deadlines, andappointments. Consistent use of your calendar will provide you with a visual reminder and help youkeep track of your commitments. Periodically review your calendar to assess your progress inaccomplishing the steps to your goals. Highlight important dates with a marker; this will keep themvisible and can serve as a colorful reminder of your planned steps towards goal attainment.
5.Learn to say "No" to opportunities and requests that take your time and don't move youforward towards goal attainment.
To the extent feasible, saying "no" is an important safeguard of your time. Doing so with courtesyand conviction will make it easier to say "yes" at a later date and simultaneously affirm your 
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commitment to yourself to follow through on your scheduled activities.
6. Identify your own barriers to effective use of time.
If you find you tend to procrastinate (join the human race!), overbook yourself, or "forget" to use aplanner or calendar, do some thinking about why. Discovering the motivation for your resistance totime management may assist in understanding your behavior, or lack of it. Is the task to be doneboring? Do you really want to do it? Do you feel "too controlled" by the use of a calendar or planner? Reflecting on your own thoughts and feelings about using time may help identify areasyou may want to explore further, especially if you aren’t satisfied with your achievement of personalor professional goals.
7. Strive for a balance between "doing" and "being."
Remember to plan some "fun time" in your schedule. With better time management strategies, youcan be more productive, experience improved relationships, and enjoy more "good times" with aminimum of anxiety and stress. Doing "more" is not the ultimate goal of effective timemanagement. More is not necessarily better, and cramming your schedule full of "to do" itemsdoesn’t necessarily lead to higher life satisfaction. Effective time management is a tool to assistyou to achieve meaningful life outcomes, not merely "more" outcomes. Use the steps presentedhere as a guide to your own journey of meaningful accomplishment. Good luck!Some Time SaversBy: Dr. Donald E. WetmoreIn my Time Management seminars which I have conducted for more than 100,000 people fromaround the globe, I show people how to get more done in less time, with less stress; to help themhave more time for the things they want to do in their work and business lives.If you can recapture a wasted hour here and there and redirect it to a more productive use, youcan make great increases in your daily productivity.Here are
five
of the techniques I share in our Time Management seminars, each one of which willhelp you to get at least one more hour out of your day of additional productive time.1.
Maintain Balance
. Your life consists of Seven Vital Areas: Health, Family, Financial, Intellectual,Social, Professional, and Spiritual. You will not spend equal amounts of time in each area or timeevery day in each area. But, if in the long run, you are spending a sufficient quantity and quality of time in each area, then your life will be balanced. But ignore any one of your areas, (never mindtwo or three!) and you will get out of balance and potentially sabotage your success. Fail to taketime now for your health and you will have to take time for illness later on. Ignore your family andthen may leave you and cost you a lot of time to re-establish relationships.2.
Get the Power of the Pen
. A faint pen has more power than the keenest mind. Get into thehabit of writing things to do down using one tool (a Day-Timer, pad of paper, Palm Pilot, etc.) Your mind is best used for the big picture rather than all the details. The details are important, butmanage them with the pen. If you want to manage it you have to measure it first. Writing thingsdown helps you to more easily remember all that you need to accomplish.3.
Do Daily Planning
. It is said that people do not plan to fail but a lot of people fail to plan. Takethe time each night to take control of the most precious resource at your command, the nexttwenty-four hours. Plan your work and then work your plan each day. Write up a To Do list with allyou have to's and all of your want to's for your next day. Without a plan for the day, you can easilyget distracted, spending your time serving the loudest voice rather than attending to the mostimportant things for your day that will enhance your productivity.4.
Prioritize It
. Your To Do list will have crucial and not crucial items on it. Despite the fact mostpeople want to be productive, when given the choice between crucial and not crucial items, we willmost often end up doing the not crucial items. They are generally easier and quicker than crucialitems. Prioritize your To Do list each night. Put the #1 next to the most important item on your list.
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