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10 effective time management tips for success

Time management skills are an important personality trait of successful people. People who manage their time effectively generally get better results.

Time management does not mean that you should work round the clock to achieve your goals. It means that most of your time is spent focusing on the goals rather than on less productive activities.

Time management is about receiving more value out of your time and utilizing it to improve the quality of your life. The key to successful time management is planning and then implementing the same plan.

Time management helps each of us to look up and be more productive and efficient. It is about finding ways to do the same task in less time while maintaining and/or increasing the quality/ standard.

Changing bad time management habits to good ones takes time and effort. The following tips will help you amplify your productivity.

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Illustrations: Uttam Ghosh

1. Learn to prioritize

There is a major difference between tasks that are urgent, important and not-so important. Prioritizing your responsibilities and activities is very important.

You can use the ABC technique to divide your tasks in these categories. Group A includes task that are urgent, Group B includes tasks that are important and Group C includes the not-so important ones.

You can do the tasks according to their priority. Always remember 80 percent of the rewards come from 20 percent of the activities that you do.

Another important facet of prioritizing is learning to say 'NO'. In order to get the most important tasks done, you may have to say no to the less important ones. Avoid over commitment of your time.

2. Plan your day

Failing to plan is planning to fail'. Plan your day on paper well in advance. Doing so shouldn't take more than 20 minutes a day.

It can significantly lower the time spent on wasteful activities. Mention an estimated time frame for each task that you are going to be doing and stick to that allocated time.

3. Start your day the right way

Being busy all day means you are constantly frazzled and rushing to complete tasks, which wreaks havoc on your ability to manage time and, consequently, your productivity.

Take 10 minutes to sit in silence each morning. During those ten minutes, breath deeply and plan for your day.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier

4. Multi-task

Another suggestion is to combine several activities into one time spot. For example: when traveling to work, read your newspaper.

You will have more time in the day if you do multiple activities at the same time.

Remember, not to degrade the quality of your work when multitasking because that makes it pointless.

5. Use the 'Two More' rule

If you are overwhelmed by the tasks of the day, think them over and then focus on the two most important tasks (the ones you'd take care of if you couldn't take care of anything else). Once those are completed, settle on two more.

6. Avoid procrastination

Procrastination is the mother of all time related issues. If you're going to manage your time efficiently, you need to learn how to minimize procrastination.

The reason people procrastinate is because they don't like doing that particular activity.

In order to avoid procrastination, you can break that same activity into smaller parts and do it one at a time. By doing a little at a time, eventually you'll complete the activity.

7. Manage information

In this information age, there is so much of knowledge that it becomes difficult to manage it. The information which we are exposed to is just incredible.

Learn to get organized in your approach to manage information. It's much easier to accomplish tasks if your information is organized. Documentation is also a good way to manage information effectively.

Make sure the retrieval of information is also an easy task, otherwise you will be wasting a lot of time in the same.

8. Learn to delegate

If you don't learn to delegate the less important task, you are likely to be very busy, frustrated and heading for burnout. Don't try to do it all yourself. Assign jobs to others.

To get the work done well from others, make sure you communicate the tasks well.

9. Take breaks

Set aside time for breaks during the day to refresh and recuperate. Time management isn't always about working more in less time. It is about working efficiently and productively.

There is more to life than just increasing its speed. If you don't take enough breaks, you could be heading for a burnout.

Make plans to get out of the house on weekends and stick to them. Go to a movie, meet a friend or take a walk.

10. Get enough sleep

Although it's tempting to work long hours in the night, it is not advisable to do so as it takes a toll on your health and productivity.

Without adequate sleep, you'll feel lethargic during the day and won't be able to focus on the responsibilities at hand.

Time is precious and its management can help you be more dynamic, victorious and less stressed out. The key to time management is harmonizing your activities so that your life is not all work and no play.

These time management tips will assist you to get more tasks completed and really feel happy in your life.