Time Management

Every day has 24 hours. How do you manage your time effectively?

Do you ever wish there were more hours in the day?

Every day has 24 hours. You can't do anything about that, but if you manage your time effectively, you will accomplish more and feel happier.

What are the steps to follow to manage time?

When you learned about goals, you learned about prioritizing. Time management is another type of prioritizing.

When you have many things to do, start with the most important tasks first. Then you can find time to do the smaller, less important tasks later.

Ask yourself, how important is this task? How soon does it need to be done? Follow The 4 Ds of time management:

• Do it — Important and urgent; get it done right away.
• Defer it — Important but not urgent; decide to do it later.
• Delegate it — Urgent but not important; it would be better for someone else to do it.
• Dump it — Neither important nor urgent; forget about it.

What are time wasters?

These are little things that are often hard to identify, but they eat up many minutes of your day. Once you figure out what they are, try to get rid of them.

• Procrastination — "I'll do it later." You keep putting things off, not because you have decided to defer it, but because you don't really want to do it.
• Poor planning — "I can't find it." Stay organized so you can find things when you need them.
• Interruptions — "What do you want now?" Don't let other people or things distract you.
• Not delegating — "I'll do it myself." You can't do everything by yourself. Ask for help.

Next Steps:

• Complete this worksheet to help you find ways to overcome the obstacles keeping you from completing your career or education goals.
• Look for resources to help you manage your time and achieve your goals.