As you carefully read this article you will find that it goes to the very heart of mature Time Management.
It covers things that absolutely anyone can do and takes no time at all to learn because you can already do it easily.
Can you think of anyone around you that needs this?
But before I reveal to you the most overlooked and most vital recommendation for time management, consider this...
There are three categories for Time Management.
Below are three excellent and highly recommended techniques for time management that I use all the time.
And if you pay close attention you will understand why techniques for ALL three 'ranges' of time are vital for an optimized approach to time management.
TECHNIQUE 1: Short-range Time Management: Daily 10-Minute On-track Review
The 10-Minute On-track Time Management Review is one of my favorite daily techniques.
In just 10 minutes we can jot down most of the things floating around in our mind and take a strong grip on them by seeing them written down.
At times we get off track, whether practically, or with our efficiency, or emotionally. When that happens I usually realize I have not done a 10 minute 'how is it going' self-review, so I do it then and things seem so much clearer and in my grasp.
Whenever you feel overwhelmed, try it, just jot down those buzzing thoughts, and you'll immediately feel in far more control.
And if you already know this; if this already seems terribly simple to you...
..Then I beg you this question:
How consistent are you at doing it as part of your regular Time Management operations? If you do it regularly, then that's awesome.
But I wonder if you have got the 2nd Time Management technique in place too?
TECHNIQUE 2: For Long-range Time Management: Weekend Review
Take an hour or so every single weekend to review the past week and plan for the coming week.
I confess, I myself find this difficult to stick to, yet it's so so so important for total Time Management.
Don't let your brain trick you into missing this. It can be extremely hard work to think of all the messy details of how things are going and attempting to put it all in order. But don't let your brain get away with chickening out.
"Brain, for the next hour, it's you and me bucko!"
The Weekend Review is much like the 10-Minute Review, but the Weekend Review should include 'everything' in your life.
If you've never done this before, then it'll be a bumpy roller coaster the first time you do it.
Have you got the guts? Have you got the foresight that it is well worth doing?
Dedicate an entire afternoon (maybe it will take a day), perhaps with a friend, to individually do a 'mind-dump' of everything important and significant in your life.
This will help your time management drastically because it will push your mind to be aware of projects, responsibilities, and desires that you could, should, are, or want to ultimately be doing.
And you can't apply yourself to the very best possible time management if you are not staying optimally mindful of things, right?
Write down all the big important things in your life, present, and desired, and at the weekend check how things are going in relation to your Time Management 'Master List' that you update and review at the weekends.
So now we need to fill the gap between the short term 10 minute time management and the long-term big life vision time management.
TECHNIQUE 3: For Medium-range Time Management: Current Project List
Key Principle: Time Management works via taking future envisioned results, identifying their steps of achievement, scheduling them, and then acting on what is scheduled.
So technique 3 is this:
Maintain an active list of all your current projects.
This should be a list of every single active project or responsibility you have got going in your life.
It will include repeated responsibilities you have got such as the weekly shopping spree, because writing those things down will push you to fit them efficiently into your time management schedule.
You can't have optimum time management unless you include everything you need to have time management for, right?
To conclude: There are 3 ranges of our life thus we require 3 core techniques of time management.
Always remember those three requirements.
Oh, and I promised to reveal the most overlooked yet greatest time management secret.
It's implied in the above 3 techniques and it is this:
Write things down; don't just let things revolve around your head.
"Don't just think it, Ink it!"
This is the number one priority I want my clients to learn from me for their Time Management success.
Do you know the following fact established by Brian Tracy?
Writing down the things we want to do, have, and become, moves us to the top 3% of the population in terms of life success.
So fancy being among the elite of men and women?
Take pen to paper regularly and get things committed to clear precise orderliness on paper (or computer).
That really is the overlooked secret to all of Time Management.
