Follow Us on Facebook
Follow Us on Twitter
Follow Us on Linkedin
Follow Us on Google+
Rss Feed
Spend your time wisely.
© iStockphoto/v_rybakov
This section discusses personal time management skills. These are essential skills for effective people.
People who use these techniques routinely are the highest achievers in all walks of life, from business to sport to public service. If you use these skills well, then you will be able to function effectively, even under intense pressure.
At the heart of time management is an important shift in focus:
Concentrate on results, not on being busy
Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activity, but achieve very little because they are not concentrating on the right things.
This is neatly summed up in the Pareto Principle, or the '80:20 Rule'. This argues that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results. The remaining 80% of results are achieved with only 20% of the effort. While the ratio is not always 80:20, this broad pattern of a small proportion of activity generating non-scalar returns recurs so frequently as to be the norm in many areas.
By applying the time management tips and skills in this section you can optimize your effort to ensure that you concentrate as much of your time and energy as possible on the high payoff tasks. This ensures that you achieve the greatest benefit possible with the limited amount of time available to you.
By the end of this section, you should have a much clearer understanding of how to use time to its greatest effect.
This site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful career; and this is just one of many tools and resources that you'll find here at Mind Tools. Click here for more, subscribe to our free newsletter, or become a member for just $1.
The Mind Tools Club gives you many more resources than you get here on the basic Mind Tools site, including these 4 free workbooks.
You'll find training, help and ideas to boost your career.
Find out what you getLearn new career skills every week, plus get our Time Management Toolkit, worth $19.99, free when you subscribe!
With the Mind Tools Club, you get much, much more than you do here for free.
And we'll give you the 4 workbooks above when you join!
Find out what you get
PUZZLED about where to find content for your learning program, portal or LMS?
Get 1000+ management and soft skills training resources from Mind Tools Corporate.
Find out more
Time CAN be on your side! Discover the 39 essential tools needed to map out your goals, maximize your effectiveness, and win control of your time and your life.
Find out moreLet us know about anything wrong, or anything you don't like about this site, and you could win a US$50 Amazon voucher!
Click here
This ensures that you don’t lose your plan.
Please enter your username or email address and we'll send you a reminder.
Your log in details have been sent to the email account you registered with. Please check your email to reset your login details.
Learn a new career skill every week, and get our Personal Development Plan workbook (worth $19.99) when you subscribe.
Please check your Inbox, and click on the link in the email from us. We can then send you the newsletter.