Using and managing my time effectively plays a huge role in implementing and finishing projects. I would imagine that you feel the same way. I mean everyone has had an experience where they wished that there was more time in the day to get things done. If you haven’t, just live a little longer…I promise your day will come. 
Unfortunately for me it took many days of ineffectively managing my time for me to realize that I had to do something. That is how I came up with the following 3 quick steps. These 3 steps will assist you in being more efficient throughout the day.
Step 1 – Write down your every move.
This step was created to determine where you are wasting time within your day. You will need to take 30 minutes to an hour and write down what you do from the time you wakeup to the time you go to sleep. For example, do you wash your face; brush your teeth, shower, etc after you wake up? Do you have to get children ready for school? Do you have a job? Do you have daily chores? I think you get my point.
Once you have written down your daily activities, try to determine an approximate timeframe for each activity. It is important not to leave anything out because you will need this information in step 3.
Step 2- Highlight the time wasters
In this step you will view your activities and determine where you are wasting your time. Are you watching too much TV? Do you take to much time make trips to the grocery store (instead of planning and buying everything you need in one visit)? Whatever it is you will need to either make adjustments to reduce the time wasted or remove it completely.
Watching TV, for example, will probably the ‘top dog’ of time wasters. In the US alone (according to Nielsen), Americans spent 143 hours a month watching TV in 2010. That breaks down to 4.7 hours a day. That is an incredible amount of time being wasted watching TV. Now I know we all have our favorite shows to watch. However, your time can still be reduced in this area.
If you are watching 3 hours of TV a day and you reduce it to 1.5 hours then you have gained an additional 45hours a month in time. This is time that you can spend with your family, on your business, etc.
Step 3 – Creating a timeline
Now that you have determined your activities and highlighted the ones that can be removed or reduced you will create a timeline. In your timeline you will break down every single activity that you do throughout the day and put a time beside it. For example:
This is an old timeline that I used. It gives you an idea of where you can go with it. You can add or decrease to your liking. The main objective is to lay out your activities and allot time slots for them so that you can create more efficiency within your day.
Another thing you can do is create a time slot within a slot. For example, during my office time I would decide on what tasks I was going to work on within that time frame. If it was a task that was going to take a few days to finish, I would set a time limit of an hour and then move on to something else. This would keep me focused on one project at a time instead allowing my mind to multitask. In which usually results in multiple open projects without a finish date.
These steps are effective if used properly. If you have any questions or want to add any additions to how we can use our time more efficiently, please share with us in the comment area.
Thanks for reading. I look forward to your additions
