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Who else thinks that 24 hours a day is not enough to achieve our goals during the day? Here is a shocker; Those that don’t make their day count because they think 24 hours isn’t enough time, will probably achieve nothing even if 48 hours are given to each day, the problem here my friend is proper time management. Ok, let’s take things slow here!
There is nothing wrong with the time.
After the day’s journey, are you often proud of what you’ve achieved, or you look back and wonder how your day was spent, pointing fingers, the issue here is time management.
For time to be effectively managed, it has to be learnt, that is a skill desired by a lot of persons, only a few possesses that skill.
The reason why we feel special time should be added to our day is because we are busy with numerous activities that shouldn’t bother us; things that are better off left alone without our attention. Most times these activities causes us to feel busy, but in the real sense, we are just “busybodies”.
Now the question is: How do we manipulate time to our advantage?.
Firstly, there is no spiritual hand or force dragging time space with you, this problem doesn’t require rocket science to solve. Anybody can effectively manage time if you follow this few steps closely, you will live your day, at least a step further to your long/short term goal as the case may be. This is the act of allocating time where it really counts.
BE CLEAR ON YOUR GOALS
The reason why we set goals is so that we focus our attention on relevant things and divert our minds from irrelevant activities and people. Your goals have to be achievable and measurable. To make this easier for you, try reducing your goals into milestones so that you have a set target for each day, week and month. Ensure you keep trace of your daily performance to see your progress.
PRIORITIZE IN ORDER OF URGENCY AND IMPORTANCE
Know which goals are important and needs urgent attention, and put them in ranks in order of importance. Some people may prefer going from the least important to the most important and urgent on the list, well I personally don’t think it’s appropriate, because what time management does is to help improve our efficiency, productivity, reduce our stress and pressure.
So when you go from the least important you begin to build tension knowing that the next task on the list is somewhat stressful and requires a lot of work, you begin to lose concentration and motivation. This is why it is recommended that you go from the most important and urgent to the least.
TAKE ONE AT A GO!
If you’ve been following my previous posts, you’ll remember where I highlighted the power of focus. This is where that power is unleashed. It is a personal race, you are not in competition with anybody to show off your achievements, remember it’s is not how far, it’s how well?. This is why you ensure that you focus on one goal a day, so that you can effectively carry out your mission for the day. Spend time with it! Let your day be centered around it.
SET TIME CONSTRAINTS
You don’t want to plan a goal that'll take you forever to achieve, this is why time keeping is important, it helps keep your focus and efficiency in check. Setting time limit for tasks helps you dictate problems and enables you figure out how to manage it within a desired time frame.
ALLOWING A DOWNTIME IS NOT A BAD IDEA
Lastly, have you even been into work so much that you begin to feel sick? This is why taking a break is important for improved efficiency. When we talk about motivation and hitting it hard on our goals, without rest or a break, it’ll be difficult to focus. So ensure you take some downtime between tasks, it is important if you really want to achieve your goals, we are humans not robots!.
There are lots of ways to help us manage our time, I hope this helps! Looking forward to your comments.