Time Management – How to Plan your Day?

Have you ever wondered how do we start our day and spend the rest of it? Time management helps you complete your tasks on time and utilizes your time more productively. It helps you to identify the useless activities which can be avoided and time can be saved.

It helps you give proper time to a task and perform the task more efficiently. Most of the time, when we go to bed and we look back at the day, we have this feeling of not being able to do an important task and the burden of still needing to finish it the next day.

All this happens because we do not plan our day in advance and execute it accordingly. So, plan your day in the morning. Planning helps to establish a set rhythm to tasks helping you complete and achieve a productive outcome. Time Management is important because it helps to prioritize your work.

Case Study

Maya has recently completed her software engineering degree and is working with a multinational company.

She is also pursuing her Master’s in Business Administration through distance learning and is living away from her family in a rented accommodation. She was managing everything well in the beginning but, the trouble started when she had to prepare for her exams and submit assignments.

She has to juggle between work, studies and managing home. She remains stressed, always in a hurry and often forgets to complete her important tasks. The only problem is that she is not planning her work on daily basis.

Introduction

All of us have 24 hours in a day. But, some of us make use of this time very effectively and others always struggle to complete their work. The difference is time management and one of the most effective ways to manage our time is to plan and organize things before we start.

We can plan our day in the morning before we start with our daily routine so that we are clear about what and how we are going to do. If you follow these simple steps, you can save a lot of time and can also do many more things effectively in that limited time frame only –

• Get up ten minutes early so that you can make a planner or to do’s list for the day. These ten minutes will go a long way in managing your time effectively.
• Always put important work first on your to do list. Prioritize and plan accordingly. Also try to complete your work in order of priority.
• Set a fixed time frame for completing each task. Also keep some margin of time so that if your work takes more time, your plan does not get affected.
• Set practical goals for yourself. Just because you are planning does not mean you can plan without practically thinking of implementation time.
• Always keep some time for yourself. In this busy schedule, keep some time to relax or do something that you like or enjoy doing. It will help you in staying active and you will feel refreshed.
• If you have the tendency of forgetting things, try to prepare and put sticky notes on your desk, on the drawer or any place that you often see. It will help in reminding and re-reminding you of your to do’s.
• Always keep some space in your time table for some unplanned events or tasks as there is huge possibility that something unexpected may come up and it may disturb your whole schedule otherwise.
• Also remember the fact that you may not be able to complete all your chores and some may remain incomplete. Plan your next day with some space for the completion of these incomplete tasks.
• It really does not matter if you do not succeed in your first few attempts, keep yourself motivated and value your efforts. Remember, keep trying.

Conclusion

It is really important to do things in a planned manner on a daily basis. It helps us in being better organized and also saves our time. If we plan, we can also track our progress. It does not matter if you are a homemaker or a working person, planning is important for everyone to do their work effectively.

There is a popular saying that ‘the past is dead and the future is unborn.’ There are no tomorrows and yesterdays. It is ‘today’ which is important. Time is very powerful. It has more power than the mightiest of monarchs. For they come and go, but time remains forever, without an end or a beginning.

Time management is not an instinct, and instead, must be learned.  There is a Chinese proverb that loosely translates this saying ‘no amount of gold can buy you time.’ Time ticks away regardless of whether you like it or not. Time can’t be managed, time is uncontrollable we can only manage ourselves and our use of time.!!