Managing Your Time

By Scott Whitehead

Abstract: In our current society, people are constantly

struggling to attend to their duties and responsibilities
and find time for leisure, family, and self. Discussing how
to plan and schedule time this article explores the six es-
sential elements to time management and how to apply
them to yourself, your business or your studies. Manage
your time and manage your life!

Keywords: Diary, Goals, Management, Managing, Plan-

ning, Productivity, Schedule, Self-management, Studies,
Tasks, Time management, Time, Work.

Scott Whitehead is the owner and Introduction

manager of Compliant. Website, Time management is essential for maximum effective-
Nevadas premier website for website ness in both your business and personal life. This article
compliance. An expert in web design
and digital marketing, Scott has been
will help you manage your time better; the more you
building and managing websites for manage your time, the more you accomplish.
over twenty years, and lectures on Teaching you how to manage diaries, tasks and sched-
the subject of digital marketing to ules, this article is essential in teaching you how to get
MBA students at INSEEC. For more the most out of your day.
details and to get an accessibility
compliance audit for your website,
visit www.compliant.website. This Time Management
article is dedicated to my Mum and
Dad for their unwavering support, Showing Your Diary Whos Boss
my wife, and my daughter Emily. With
special thanks to my clients for their
support and appreciation, Andy Driggs
of Driggs Law Group for his insight
into business law, And Nigel, Scott,
Charlene, and all at Business Experts
Express. This is Scott Whiteheads first
book to be published with them, for
more books and expert insights visit
businessexpertpress.com

Expert Insights 1
 Managing Your Time
The time you spend on a task has a rela-
tionship with the quality of work you end
up producing. However, this shouldnt
mean that you completely forgo time for
yourself. Having some personal time is
important. Youll need to take some time
for yourself each week. Allow for unantici-
pated interruptions in your schedule. This
means leaving some empty spaces dur-
ing the day or in some way being flexible
enough to handle interruptions.
If the unexpected does not happen, time
is available to do something we were sav-
ing until the next day. Schedule time to
study early in the day so you can allow
for unexpected interruptions. Some days
may feel overwhelming when we look at
our schedule. If this is the case, it is helpful
to concentrate on one thing at a time and
avoid looking at the whole day. We will be
amazed how quickly the tasks of the day
will be completed.
Inevitably, you will need to make adjust-
ments to your plans and your time man-
agement habits. As you encounter time
troubles, keep in mind that some are pre-
dictable, some are not; some are control-
lable, some are not. For those that are not
controllable, keep your cool and get back on
track as soon as possible. For time troubles
that you can control, and particularly those
that occur predictably, deal with them di-
rectly and forcefully so that they dont pre-
vent you from achieving your goals.
Time management is an invaluable
skill necessary to live a quality life. In
our current society, people are constantly
struggling to attend to their duties and re-
sponsibilities and find time for leisure,
family, and self. To handle the demands of
life without going crazy, one should learn
the ability of management. However, what
is time management?
Before going into the six essential ele-
ments that comprise the time management
definition, it is important to know how this
skill influences an individuals overall qual-
ity of life. Time is one of the skills that an
individual has to learn to be productive. A
2 Expert Insights
persons productivity is measured on how
much he can do and achieve at a given
period. Personal productivity is one of the
vital elements of life management. If one
can master life management, one can live
life to its fullest.
Now that the relationship of time man-
agement, personal productivity, and life
management is made clear, it is time to
move on to the six essential elements of
the management definition.
Managing Goals
Goals are important in a persons life.
Without goals, one will wander aimlessly
through life, haunted by the feeling of not
accomplishing anything. Personal goals
will steer an individual in the right direc-
tion and will help this person focus their
strengths in achieving that goal. Thus, at
the end of the day, this individual will have
a feeling of self-accomplishment.
Managing Tasks
Every person tackles important tasks ev-
ery day. Accomplishing these tasks is im-
perative to make sure that an individual
does not end up with too many things to
do. Also, managing tasks will ensure that
a person does not forget any important er-
rands or miss any deadlines.
Prioritize
Learning to prioritize is also a good skill to
complement managing tasks. Since time is
very limited, it is vital that a person com-
pletes their priorities first before anything
else. That way, a person gets closer to ac-
complishing their goals every single day.
Prioritizing is simply knowing what is nec-
essary to finish a goal and knowing what to
do next.
Utilizing the Calendar
A calendar is important to manage ones
time fully. Whether it be a desk calendar or
an electronic one, it is critical that a person
has one. It is also recommended that if you
have multiple calendars (Outlook, mobile
 Managing Your Time
phone, PDA, desk calendar), all calendars
be synchronized so as not to miss anything.
Procrastination Management
Everyone has a tendency to procrastinate
and, for some, it is a feeling that is very
difficult to resist. However, for one to be a
successful time manager, one must learn to
resist the calls of procrastination.
Reminder Systems
A good follow-up system is necessary so
that old tasks or projects are not forgot-
ten. There are new things to do each day,
which might need much attention, and a
good reminder system will help manage all
of these tasks.
Time Management Requires
Self-Management
It takes time but after a short period of self-
management, time-management becomes
an everyday habit. Here are some tips:
Analyze the issues that affect your use
of time.
Identify the significant time problems that
impact your work.
Develop practical strategies for solving
these problems.
Use selected time management principles
to improve your effectiveness.
Establish goals that reflect personal and
organizational decisions about the benefits
to be derived from future action.
Set priorities more effectively.
Pay attention to how your time is spent.
Do not procrastinate on chores to be done.
Do not leave assignments and projects
until the last minute.
Schedule enough time in the day for doing
things you enjoy and for eating and sleep-
ing. Getting enough sleep is beneficial to
those with an active schedule.
Learn to delegate things that do not need
your attention.
Use your time wisely. If you take the bus,
plan to catch up on your reading while
traveling.
Expert Insights
Why do People Struggle With Time
Management?
Time management isnt just about plan-
ning your day and then trying to stick with
your plan. Without the knowledge and skill
of true time management, just about every-
one struggles to stay focused.
Why is this so? Its because when some-
one wants to get better at managing their
time, they will book into a one day time
management course that teaches them
how to set their goals, plan activities aimed
at achieving them, how to plan their week
and then how to plan their day.
They leave this course all fired up, with
all of this new knowledge and time man-
agement plan, arrive at work the next day
ready to implement their plan and find that
by the end of the day, they have struggled to
achieve anything in their plan. This keeps
happening all week, and by the end of the
second week, the plan and the course are
just a memory, and they are back to their
old habits.
Why does this happen?
1. Time management cant be learnt in
one day.
2. It is your thought patterns and habits
that need to change and very few if any
time management workshops focus on
this side of time management.
The two phases to time management
training:
1. Knowledge and process development.
2. The ongoing knowledge consolidation
and skill and habit forming process.
These Two Phases are Comprised of
FourKey Components
1. Planning
Time management is impossible if you
dont have a plan. The plan determines
what activities are important to you and
therefore have to be done first to achieve
your goals in business and life. With a
3