Common Time Management Mistakes To Avoid

Common Time Management Mistakes To AvoidShow more

Hi its John Borthwick here , Founder of the Personal Development Guild . Within the Guild we talk about a number of areas of development including the principles of success, the power of resilience, your mind set and many other areas related to Personal Development. One of the areas that the Guild covers is what this set of videos is about and that is the importance of managing your most valuable asset and that is - TIME

Welcome today we are going to talk about about issues which all to often comes up in discussions and workshops that I run about time management

Common Time Management Issues

How well do you manage your time? If you're like many people, your answer may not be completely positive! Perhaps you feel overloaded, and you often have to work late to hit your deadlines. Or maybe your days seem to go from one crisis to another, and this is stressful and demoralizing.

Many of us know that we could be managing our time more effectively, but it can be difficult to identify the mistakes that we're making and to know how we could improve. When we do manage our time well, however, we're exceptionally productive at work, and our stress levels drop. We can devote time to the interesting, high-reward projects that can make a real difference to a career. In short, we're happier!

Common Time Management Mistakes to Avoid

Not Planning Your Projects: When we run short of time, we often put planning by the wayside. Getting right down to business seems more productive than spending time figuring out what needs to be done, right? But doing that is actually quite counter-productive and will have you doubling your workload – at the very minimum.

Not Having a To-Do List: Those that rely on their memories alone tend to waste the most time, especially when it comes to complex projects that split into various different branches. Not keeping track of what you need to get done through a detailed to-do list will have you spending more time trawling emails, trying to read over your sketchy meeting notes, and asking colleagues the embarrassing question of what you’re meant to be doing.

You’re Not Delegating: Stop trying to take ownership of every single task on the project you’re working on. It’s not an efficient use of your time. If you want to stop burning the midnight oil, delegate tasks to others in your team. Do you work on your own? Consider outsourcing.

Being a 'Yes' Person: Are you the type of person who just takes on extra work no matter what? Then you’re probably also the one who calls home to say you’ll be late for dinner, the one that has to miss your child’s birthday, and the one who keeps on turning up to work looking like a zombie due to lack of sleep. You get the idea.

Being Obsessed with Hours Spent Rather than Work Done: The office lifestyle of the modern rat race has convinced many of us that it’s all about the time we spend working, rather than what we’re actually achieving. Don’t obsess on whether you’ve spent 10 hours behind your desk or just 3 – as long as you’re ticking off the items on your to-do list, that’s what you should really be worrying about.

Taking Care of the Small Stuff First: No matter how hard-working, focused or dedicated, most of us tend to fall to the temptation of procrastination. A symptom of this work-killing affliction is fretting about small tasks and putting back what really needs to get done.

Not Taking It One Job at a Time: People feel more productive when they’re stressed and doing lots at once. We hate to break it to you, but multitasking just isn’t an efficient way of doing business. You’ll end up giving jobs too little attention, each one will only be partially complete, and you’re still going to feel like time’s running out.

Skipping Breaks: Your body is just like an engine and it needs to be treated properly. Rest allows for replenishment, giving you the energy and calm you need to tackle the next task at full capacity. Instead of getting more work done, your body will start shutting down, your focus will dwindle down to nothing, and jobs will only get half-done. Even if you think you can’t afford it, treat yourself to a few breaks every day.

Conclusion

It’s not because we have less time; it’s that the demands on us these days are so great, we have difficulty in identifying the best use of our time, and often submit to the ‘busy’ rather than the ‘effective’.

Of course, the best way to determine where your time is going is to record what’s happening each day. If you find some of these problems are affecting the day-to-day management of your time, think of what could be done to overcome them.

That way, you will make less time management mistakes and improve poor time management issues.

You can get more tips and how to manage your most valuable asset by clicking on the link below

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Until we meet again enjoy your journey of personal discovery