The fundamental point of managing your time effectively is to get the results you want with the minimum amount of stress. It’s easy to be busy, to spend entire days in a frenzy of activity, only to find that you are no closer to achieving the results you want because you’ve been focused on the wrong thing. Time management is about achieving the results you want not about being busy.

The first step of time management is to decide exactly what it is you want to achieve. Once you’ve decided what you want and where you’re headed, you can work out what you need to do to achieve it. If you don’t set clear, inspiring goals, you’ll waste countless more hours in frenzied activity.

Goal Setting
Think about what it is you want to achieve in different areas of your life: in your business, your finances, your relationships, as well as your mental, physical, social, and spiritual health.

When you set your goals, choose outcomes that motivate you. Your goals need to be important and worthwhile to you. If the goal is too easy or too difficult, you’ll lose motivation and lack the energy to achieve it. Imagine having to explain to someone why you must achieve your goal and then write that down and keep it in view. If you find yourself faltering in your efforts, read it and remind yourself why that goal is so very important.

Your goals must be SMART, that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. Once you’ve decided on your goals, write them down (or type them).

Create an action plan for all of your goals, detailing what you can do from today to achieve them.

Prioritise
When you prioritise your day, you choose to work primarily on the important tasks, those that take you closer to your goals. Knowing what your goals and therefore priorities are keeps you on track and helps to minimise stress.

A crucial aspect of time management is understanding the difference between activities that are:

• Urgent and important
• Not urgent but important
• Urgent but not important
• Not urgent and not important.

To Do Lists

Write down all the tasks you need to carry out. Identify those that would come under the ‘urgent and important’ heading. They’re the ones that you need to focus your energy on and do first.

Make time during your day for non-urgent but crucial activities like planning, designing, developing, etc. When you’re confronted with non-important but urgent tasks, determine exactly how urgent they are. Often, their ‘urgency’ will dissipate under close scrutiny. Activities that would come under the heading ‘non urgent and non important’ are ones that need to be minimised (if not stopped altogether).

This kind of ‘To Do’ list means that you retain control of your time and energy.

If any of your tasks or projects appears overwhelmingly large, chunk them down into manageable pieces. Keep chunking them down until you have something that you can begin work on immediately.

Managing Interruptions
One way to minimise interruptions is to delegate tasks that take up your time but don’t take you closer to your goals.

Now Take Action
Of course, setting goals, scheduling, prioritising, organising and writing lists are only valuable if you take action and make use of the information.