Time Management: The Irreversible Treasure of Life

Irreversible Treasure Of Life

"I have no time!" or "I am too busy" are two sentences I often heard from my peers. It is true that we cannot bring back time, but we can use each second ahead of us to its best. Today's posting I would like to share with readers how do I manage my time using several books I read.

Sunday night is the time for me to sit for about 30 minutes to manage my schedule for the following week. First, I setup objectives for the week (the lesser the better). From those objectives, now I follow five steps.

Five steps to setup a schedule: 

listing, ranking, separating, plotting, and reorganizing.

Listing

Listing is the process of noting down everything I think it is required to achieve the objectives. In this process, I keep on writing rather than trying to figure out if they are important or not.

Ranking

Now, I have my list but I don't know which one is important. The next step I do is to categorize the items to each objective and see if they will lead to the objectives. The purpose of ranking is to put number in front of each item in the categorized list according to its importance.

Separating

I would have a cleaner list that will lead me to the objectives by now. This step is the most challenging among all because many people cannot separate between "action" and "activity". Action will lead me to the goals, and activity will make my life easier to achieve the goal. However, I am looking for "action" rather than "activity". I put activity items aside and focus on action items.

Plotting

Plotting involves a two-dimension graph. On x-axis labeled "least important" and "very important", and y-axis labeled "least urgent" and "very urgent". Simply plot down the action items from the list and I see what should I concentrate on for the following week.

Reorganizing

Just before packing up and get ready for Monday, it is a good idea to look at the list and the graph again to make sure I understand everything correctly. Sometime I have to readjust and reorganize the items (often because there are too many of them).

Remember that this method works for me but it may not for everyone. After all, we are humans, we cannot work more than our body and mind can. If it is too much to handle, it is always a better idea to hand some works to your colleagues or put them down for now.

This method can be done in day, month, or year scope as well.

I hope this technique will help manage your time.

"Shaping The Future of Business"

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