The best time management skills for success

The topic of managing time has been written about as much as anything we can think of. If you search the web you will find thousands of listings. But what it really comes down to is this.
Doing first things first and sticking with what you are doing.

In other words, having priorities and not being distracted from what you are working on.
Another handy phrase that has been used often is:
Plan your work and work your plan.

So the best time management skills for success are any skills that can help you from getting distracted. There are many tips, skills, tools, phrases, reminders and systems. We will look at a few. But If you keep the essential point of not getting distracted in mind, you will have a head start.

As we begin to explore time management what we find is that it is more than managing schedules, you also have to manage pirouettes, or what’s important. Dealing with priories should really come first because it really does not matter how focused you are on something and how distracted you are, if you are not working on the right thing, it is not going to move you forward to where you want to go.

There are a lot of ways to “get things done”, some are better than others. Like many things, the best way probably takes longer to learn than simpler ways. What is to follow may not be the absolute best way, but it is a very good simple technique. A method that is powerful and effectiveand can be presented and learned in a few minutes. You can start doing it tomorrow and it would be contributing to bad habits

1. OK, get a piece of paper or your favourite screen tool. Now think of the current major goal or outcome you want. Picture it in your mind. What it looks like, how you will feel when this goal is achieved, who you will be.
2. Now think of the steps or tasks that must be completed in order to reach this goal. What is standing between where you are now and where you want to be? What’s in your way? As something pops into your mind, write it down. Just write it down, don’t think about how to do it, just write it down.
3. Now repeat step number two, repicture your goal, what it looks like, how it will feel when you get it, who you will be. See it as completed as much as you can. Now again think of what needs to happen to go from where you are now, to where you want to be. Write it down. Do this until you have 7 items on your list. 7 is a good number, it’s not a magical number or anything, it’s just a good number of items for this process.
4. Now look at your list, just look at it for half a minute. Now cross off the least important item.
   Then cross off the next least important item, do this until you have three items left.
5. Now arrange these three items in the order of most important, what you know you should do first, second and third.
6. Now get started. Work on number one. Just number one. If something comes up that prevents you from continuing like you have to wait for someone to respond, or you have to wait for parts to arrive then move on to item number two. Just Item number two. If something comes up that prevents you from continuing, then start working on item number 3. Go back to item one as soon as you are able. You get the idea.
7. One thing at a time. A much as is possible do one thing at a time.

The thing is, you have to train your mind. You have to developed discipline, to stay focused. This is a good way to train yourself. Tools, software, devices and gadgets can help, but ultimately you have to develop habits that move you forward. “Good behaviour” has to become habitual, automatic, second-nature, who-you-are. And it will if you stick with it.

Now let’s take a look at four elements that operate in two dimensions that may help you refine how you use your 7 item list over time. One dimension is “ Importance” and the other dimension being “ Urgency “. Some things are important but not urgent or not time-critical. Some things are time-critical, but not important.

• For instance, paying your insurance premium is important, but if it is not due for 9 months, it is not urgent. You certainly don’t want to forget it, but it does not need to be a distraction today.
• On the other hand, a ringing phone or email notification has urgency, but may or may not be important.
• So we have things that are urgent and important, the insurance or mortgage payment due today.
• We also have things that are not important, nor urgent which we will should probably just not relate to at all.

The best time management skills for success

But what is important?
That is going to depend on exactly what is going on in your business or life at any particular time. But somethings to keep in mind that may not seem important, mostly because they are not urgent are sometimes strategic elements. Things like:

• Relationship building
• Research and development
• Long-term marketing goals
• Strategic planning
• Yes, it is true there are a number of factors to consider:
• Prioritizing what you should do and when you should do it.
• Scheduling when you will work on which tasks
• Scheduling how long you will work on which tasks
• Not getting distracted while you work on the particular task at hand

Start with a calendar

As already mentioned there are thousands for books about time management and scheduling. One of the simplest things that can be easily overlooked is just a calendar. While there are many sophisticated tools that will help you manger time, if you don’t have any system right now, just a simple calendar, paper or electronic is a good place to start.

This is a big topic that quickly gets mixed with both project management and strategic planning. Once we start looking at things like project management there are dozens of tools, and I have used dozens, even created some for clients long ago. But a very good one that has an amazingly full free plan is Trello. This will help with time management, and project management and we even use it for strategic planning with some clients.

To repeat what was said earlier about the best time management skills for success,

• Stick with what you are doing without being distracted,
• Do the most important/productive thing at any given time
• Do one thing at a time.
• Make it a habit.

To follow are some internal links to pages that talk more about these items:

The best time management skills for success

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Originally published at https://prosperityconsulting.com on September 16, 2020.