How Can Effective Time Management Strategies Provide Stress Relief?
Many successful time management strategies combine organizing techniques and time-saving tips along with improving planning and goal setting skills. We have sat through time management seminars, read books, seen videos and visited web sites in order to learn how to do things better and faster. We have bought more efficient planning tools such as day planners or
electronic organizers, to better manage and control our time
. And what happens? We still need more time. We still feel rushed, with no time for ourselves. Friends and family still want more of our time, but there is no more to give. And we still feel guilty and desperately need stress relief! Is there a solution out there??
Good news!!
It's time to stop running on the proverbial "tread mill" on your way to nowhere. The three aspects of time management listed here are to(1) set your priorities, (2) plan strategically, and (3) avoid time wasters. With good
time management strategies
you are in control of your time, your priorities and, your stress levels. If you practice these effective time management strategies, you can maintain a
balance between your professional and personal life.
Well designed time management strategies give even busy over-committed women enough flexibility to respond to surprises and/or new opportunities. Try this exercise about your life balance, by completing the
Wheel of Life exercise
included here.
Setting Priorities are Essential Time Management Tools
If you are not careful, everything appears to have a sense of urgency and you will spend time putting out "fires" without much productivity at the end of the day. Many people have a daily to-do list which they use to prioritize what work is most important. Know what is important and write down the key goals you are working towards. These goals should apply to all parts of your life.
Setting goals
gives direction to what you are striving to accomplish and allows you to delineate what is important. Goals can be long range and can be short range. For example, a long range goal may be a 4-year plan designed to help you complete your batchelor's degree. Within that long range goal you have many short range goals such as purchasing a safer and newer car so you can drive to the college campus, or re-arranging your child care schedule so that you can take a night class. Even completing a course and each of the class assignments would be examples of short range goals. Setting goals is an essential ingredient for effective time management because it gives you a sense of direction and scheduling your time based on that direction helps you prioritize the use of the time.
When creating goals, priorities and schedules, use a day planner. We recommend the momAgenda Day Planner Products : Home Organizers  with its wide variety of formats and styles.
Solid Planning is a Great Stress Reliever
Did you know that for every minute you spend planning, you can save 4-10 times that amount in execution. Finding an extra 30 minutes per day is equivalent to finding 22 eight-hour days per year. That is one extra work month per year!
The best
time management strategy
for planning is on a weekly basis. Once a week, write your goals for the upcoming week. Whenever the time required accomplishing goals is more than the time available then the plan can be revised. When planning, start by asking this checklist of questions:
**What has to be done?
**When should it be done?
**What priority should it have?
**How much time will it require?
If you find that you have a lot of
stressful situations
piling up in a given time period, think of ways to spread out the events. It may a beneficial time management strategy if you can postpone some stressful events to another day as long as you don't fall into the procrastination trap. Each life stressor is additive, and the more stressors in your life,
the higher is the level of stress
. Planning ways to spread out the stressors in given days and weeks is a good time management strategy and stress reliever. Planning allows you to schedule quality thinking-time to focus on the important but not urgent things in your life. Many have found that spending the last half hour of their work day reviewing the day's schedule and adjusting the next day's schedule is both efficient and effective as a time management strategy.
Time Wasters
1. Indecision
2. Inefficiency
3. Interruptions--getting side tracked
4. Micro-management
5. Procrastination
Time Management: Take Control
1. Plan and
set goals
2. Communicate your goals and plans
3. Schedule your priorities
4. Track and measure your results.
Crisis Mode Time Management: A Bad Habit to Practice
Urgent-do it now! Immediate attention must be given to this event, person or thing, with no consideration of its priority in your schedule.
1. Handle it first.
2. Manage your time second.
3. Communicate what you are doing third.
Effective Time Managers Know How To:
1. Handle interruptions quickly
2. Take advantage of personal peak working times (when you work best)
3. Delegate effectively whenever possible
4. Make time plans based on defined objectives and goals
5. Focus on their highest priorities
Handling Time Management and Stress
Magnum's Stress Reducing Time Savers
Time and Stress Management: Finding that Extra Hour
Return to Stress Management Home Page
New! CommentsHave your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below.
|
