Maximum Time Management
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Time Management - Start Here!

Work Smarter. Take Control of Your Workload.

Personal time management skills 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 exceptionally well, even under intense pressure.

What's more, as you master these skills, you'll find that you take control of your workload, and say goodbye to the often intense stress of work overload.

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're not concentrating their effort on the things that matter the most.

The 80:20 Rule

This is neatly summed up in the Pareto Principle, or the '80:20 Rule'. This says that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results. This means that 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 that it is the norm in many situations.

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.

Time Management Tools

In this section, we start off with simple and practical techniques, so that you can get off to a quick start in taking control of your time. The articles on Beating Procrastination and Activity Logs help you quickly eliminate the most common time-wasters, while the articles on Action Plans and Prioritized To Do Lists teach simple techniques helping you focus on the most important short-term activities.

We then move onto the really powerful and life-changing technique of goal setting, and then look at the important, well-known, and usually-neglected technique of scheduling, which is fundamentally important if you're going to take control of your workload. (You can learn 14 more, equally powerful techniques in our members area, the Career Excellence Club.)

So follow the links below, and start learning!

• Discover the tools that can help you - How Good is Your Time Management?
• Manage time. Get things done - Beating Procrastination.
• Finding out how you really spend your time - Activity Logs.
• Tackling the right tasks first - Prioritized To Do Lists.
• Deciding your personal priorities - Personal Goal Setting.
• Planning to make the best use of your time - Effective Scheduling.

Learning about time management is just one of the ways that you can use MindTools.com to build your career. If you've found this article useful, why not subscribe to our free career skills newsletter, and learn new skills like these twice a month? When you do, you get a free copy of our Mind Tools Time Management Toolkit, worth US$9.99. This explains six powerful time management techniques that will help you take back control of your working life.

Sign up by entering your first name and email address below. You'll have the Time Management Toolkit within minutes!

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Extension Resources (Not included in the Mind Tools E-book.)

* Shows articles available in full only to Career Excellence Club members.

Locke's Goal Setting Theory - Understanding SMART Goal Setting
Golden Rules of Goal Setting - Five rules to set yourself up for success
Backward Goal-Setting - Using backward planning to set goals
New Year's Resolutions - Planning for a year of achievement
Prioritization - Making best use of your time and resources
Action Priority Matrix - Making the most of your opportunities*
The Art of Filing - Managing your documents... and your time
The Urgent/Important Matrix - Using time effectively, not just efficiently*
Treasure Mapping - Visualizing your goal for greater achievement*
How Good is Your Time Management? - Discover tools that can help you*
Pickle Jar Theory - Make your schedule work. Leave time for fun!*
Managing Interruptions - Maintain focus. Keep control of your time.*
In Flow - Maximizing productivity through improved focus
Costing Your Time - Understand the real value of your time*

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