I find I don't use my time very efficiently. Anyone have a busy life with some tips? I work 9am-10pm and I'd like to cut down on the hours if I can be more efficient.
I go swimming in the summer i also go for walks. I make up a sandwich and a bottle of pop and go for a walk. Or read a book or draw or paint.
That would be less efficient. I was hoping for time management tools. Guess I'll just have to hire an assistant.
I find it helpful to keep a planner/diary and plan ahead as much as possible (at least for the next 2-3 days ahead). I also plan the stuff I want to do after work before my actual daily work, that way I know the free time will be there just as long as I get my actual work done quickly (more motivation). I guess everyone is different though.
Understand the priortity of what you have outstanding to do, organising your time around these activities and then focus on them is key to time managment. Most time management issues are around deviating from your short term goals/targets i.e. spending most of your day on tasks that are not essential to the day. Then at the end of the day having to make time to get these complete. Priotise these targets first, organise your remaning time around the medium-long term targets and you should see a reduction in working hours. Not knowing anything about what you do I can't give any more ideas, but the above work ethic helps me. - I still do 12 hour days but I have a lot of work to do and manage a small army which means organisation kind of goes out the window very quickly!!
I take it day by day. Take an outlook on what needs to be done in the future and when the due date draws near, its priority goes up.... It's been getting me through college, but I've been loosing out on sleep (but make it up during the weekends).
If you want to effectively use your time my first suggestion is to never go to any internet forum ever. But on a more serious note, it's really, really hard (impossible?) to offer suggestions unless you can tell us what you do, or if you work for yourself. If you're self-employed, welcome to the world of being self-employed. You're always on the clock.
Well you're running a business, right Kev? I could add that you could try to hold yourself to a set schedule, try to get everything done that you would normally do in a 12 hour day into an 8 hour day. When you're the one in charge, it's really easy to justify working extremely long hours. So instead try treating yourself as an ordinary employee, as in you come in at a certain time, leave at a certain time (when possible,) have lunch at a certain time, etc. So it comes down to how well you can plan things ahead of time, in order to cut down your work hours, stress levels, etc, and like LuckyToe says cut out the stuff you don't really need whenever possible. Things like don't schedule more than one important event per day, stuff like that.
