Time Management Essential Skills

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Time Management Essential Skills

Time management training is essential because you don't have enough time to do everything for everyone; you only have time to do some of it.

Time management is about learning to do the most important things first, delegate the minor things, and ignore the trivial things.

Time management training, therefore, boils down to three essential skills.

• Prioritising - deciding which items on your list are the most important.
• Delegation - entrusting tasks to other people; the job still gets done, but someone else does it.
• Saying 'No' - avoiding jobs that do NOT lead to the achievement of your goals.

Prioritising

You need to prioritise your tasks and put them into order. There are two things to consider when prioritising:

1. The value of the task. Is the task high value or not? High-value tasks should be done before low-value tasks.
2. The urgency of the task. Is the task near its deadline or is there plenty of time? Urgent tasks need to be done before non-urgent tasks.

Prioritisation is one the most important skills you can learn.

There is a fantastic app available for your mobile device, that will help you to prioritise your tasks correctly: Prioritisation app.

Delegating

Delegating is when you entrust a task to another person. When you delegate a task, you need to ensure the following:

• They have a definite description of the task.
• They need the skills and information to do it.
• They need the resources necessary to do it.
• They need the time to do it.

If you want help to properly delegate tasks, then we have a terrific web-based tool which will help you to set goals and delegate tasks to others: Delegation tool.

Saying No

If you are doing only the priority tasks, then that means you need to say NO to those people who would take you off track.

Certain people want to fill your day with trivial, irrelevant, or distracting conversations. This represents a problem. The countermeasure to this problem is to:

• Say No to the trivial,
• Say No to the irrelevant,
• Say NO to the distractions.

Here is a formula of words you can use on these occasions.

"I know you have a lot you want to tell me. But right now, I need to focus more on this, because it is important I finish it today. So, would you please; leave me to focus on this?"

Summary

Time management training boils down to three essential skills:

• Prioritising. Link to our prioritisation app.
• Delegating. Link to our delegation tool.
• Saying No. Link to our one-day time management course.

Time Management Training

Time Management Training

Most people feel they need help with time management. How can you get more done in the same amount of time? How can you stop other people wasting your time? If you want to know how, then click here to find out more about our time management training course.

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Further Reading in Time Management

• Time management training - planning ahead
  Time management training - planning ahead Goals require plans All goals require plans that are capable of achieving the goal. If you set a goal, but you have no plans capable of achieving them, then you have wasted your time. If you have a goal AND you have a detailed, practical...
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• Time Management Skills: Planning Ahead
  Time Management Skills: Planning Ahead One of the best things you could do for yourself is to develop the discipline of planning ahead Planning ahead is the best way to improve your time management skills. Planning ahead is the best way to maximise your personal effectiveness. Planning ahead will allow you...
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• The Art of Planning
  People who have a purpose and a plan, are in a better psychological position than a person without a purpose or a plan.
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• How to prioritise your day
  In order to prioritise your work properly, judge every task against two criteria: the value of the task and the deadline pressure.
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• Why are some meetings a waste of time?
  Do you feel meetings are a waste of time? Here are some tips to help you decide whether a meeting should be held and an app to help you calculate the approximate cost of the meeting.
  Read Article >