Tips to Help With Time Management

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Time Management

photo_10630_20091216 As most bloggers know, time is money. For me, it’s no different. My work weeks are very busy. It’s almost a science for me to schedule real Life work for two part time jobs, Freelance work, meeting with clients, advertisement outside of the web, meeting with clients, blogging time, personal time with the wife, school, working out, and a social life. After several months of struggling, for the New Year, I decided it was time to start over, get things sorted out, and be more productive.

Tip 1:

Get a schedule! I can not stress this enough.  If you do not have a schedule and stick to it, you will fail. For over a year I have been working a part time job and doing freelance whenever I could the work. At first this was easy, I only worked several times a week and could schedule around a set schedule. But as time went on, things got a bit busier and I had a hard time remembering appointments (mostly personal, never work related).

About two months ago I started using a day planner, pda, and outlook calendar to set my work schedule. This seemed to work for me. But I did not schedule time for school, personal, and social time.  I still had issues with finding enough waking hours to get my work completed. I was averaging about three to four hours of sleep and it was tearing me up.

So last week I started to schedule in everything. I schedule everything I do from the time I get up in the morning to the time go to bed. I plan this out weekly. Everything is open to adjustment, but if an adjustment has to be made I fix it as soon as I get home. I am still adjusting this schedule, but so far, I seem to be getting more sleep and my productivity levels are rising.

The reason I use multiple ways to schedule my life  is for several reasons. The first reason is, the more I look at my schedule, the easier it is for me to understand and remember what I have to do on any given day of the week. Second, I can not carry a day planner everywhere I go. The planner mostly stays at home at my desk, so my wife can check my schedule or add things to it as needed. I carry my pda almost everywhere I go. Some will say, if you have smartphone or a Blackberry, I can have all my information in there and not carry a pda. That works as well. But I tend to loose my phones. I do keep my life in my smartphone, but that is only a backup. The reason I carry the pda is I almost never take it out unless I am updating, or turning off an alarm. Once I am done with it, it goes back on the built clip or sits in the cradle on my desk. Using this system, I almost never misplace my pda. At the end of the day, I sync my devices, update my planner, and back up everything. This works great for me, but for others, this may not work.

Tip 2:

Stop playing those stupid Facebook App games.  One of the easiest ways to burn up a time is playing games on Facebook or other social media sites. If you must play those games schedule accordingly and never spend more than 30 minutes a day on it. If you need more time, try playing during your lunch time or your scheduled break time. But NEVER sacrifice your work, social life or family life to play these stupid, useless waste of time games. I use to play these games all the time. I use to spend several hours a day playing.  I would spend about an hour in the morning and then several in the evening. After a while, I slowed it down to about 30 minutes a day. Now I almost never play. I choose to spend my free time with my wife, real life friends, blogging, and playing video games.  As for video games, I rarely get to play these. I love video games and miss them, but I simply do not have the time anymore. If do get the time, I generally head over to a friends house play multiplayer games or check out what they purchased.

Tip 3:

Get off the couch and turn off the television! Another easy to waste time is getting to comfortable on a couch while the TV is on.  Sitting on the couch is not that big of deal, if the TV on, you can distracted, next thing you know, you burned up two hours of your work day. So leave the TV off and get off the couch. The couch should only be used if you are working late and you are spending time with the family after your normal work hours. For me, the couch is to tempting. Early in the morning, I sit on the couch only to check my email and work on non related work items. If I stay on the couch to long I get tired quickly and I get tempted to take a nap that could lead to half the day wasted.

Tip 4:

Do not do work in the bed. Working in the bed or near bed might seem like a good idea, but its not. If you spend time working in the bed during the work day, the brain associate’s places by what it used to. The brain thinks that when you are in bed, the body should be sleeping or preparing to sleep. If you work from the bed, stop it. This is can slow you productivity down, and even tire you out. If you have an office that is also a guest bedroom, you should either move your office or move your bed to another room if it is possible. Just having the bed in the room, can be distraction that can be costly.

Tip 5:

Organize your workspace. Studies have shown that people that have a cluttered work area is less productive than those that are neat and have a well organized work area. I truly believe this theory; I generally have a cluttered work area. At first of the year, I organized my office to be more productive and get rid of useless junk. In the few weeks that I have kept organized I have seen an increased level of productivity. When the area gets cluttered, I get less productive. When this happens, I noticed I spend more time looking for documents and other items when they are not put away in their proper spaces and less time when everything is put away and well organized.  Also noticed that I tend to get tired easier and annoyed a lot faster. So I try and clean up  my office at the end of each work day and at the end of the week I clean up and get rid of anything that I do not need.

What do you do for time management?

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About James

James spends most of his free time using social media and loves to teach others about design, web development, CSS, SEO, and social media. He is addicted to Wordpress, social media, and technology. You can reach him on his, personal website, Do not forget to follow him on Twitter @element321

Comments

  1. Great tips! The biggest thing I do for time management is use a PDA. I keep all my appointments and tasks in it and I keep track of how use my time so that I can see if I am being effective or not.

  2. Hi Kevin, thanks for stopping by and commenting. I haven't thought about using the PDA as you. Mine is pretty old and I won't be updating it anytime soon. What PDA and programs do use to help with your time management?
    My recent post Blogging Tips # 2 – Blogging Advice from a Pro

  3. It a nice experience testing myself against each of your tips. Very sad, I failed on most of them!

    Anyway, I'm going to build up a schedule right now and follow as you do.

    Shared this post on reddit, facebook, twitter and digg. I'll share it on other networks too if I get more time.
    My recent post Element's 5 Tips on Time Management

  4. Interesting read – I know how time flies when u get comfortable on the couch with the TV remote in your hand!!! If you value your time Tip 3 is a must for implementation.
    My recent post 1886 PCI/PNP Error!! No DMA available

  5. Thanks for these tips. Time management is really important when you have to self-manage your work, especially if you're not accustomed to it. I have a blog that I've always intended to update regularly but by the time I get home from work and take care of everything else I need to do, I rarely get myself to actually write a new post. You're right about having a schedule, though, that's really the best way to organize your time. -Mark
    My recent post Somerset County Movers

  6. Very good tips, particularly for someone working at home. When I had a job, i did schedule my day. At home it is very difficult to block out units of time for different tasks. I tend to start something that has an infinite potential – like visiting and commenting – and then letting it get out of control while I don't work on must-do tasks that aren't urgent. I need to organize my workspace too. I need a secretary.

  7. I couldn't have said it better – I used to be hooked on the Sims – you can really get sucked into those games so deeply that you lose total track of time – I just don't have that kind of time to waste. Maybe if I didn't need sleep I could partake in those frivolous activities. I'm so glad you mentioned that here – I just wish all the people in my Facebook stream would take a moment to read this 🙂 But their probably to busy playing games or sending me virtual drinks and hugs.
    My recent post How much do I tithe? How much do I offer my church?

  8. I find emails and stats are the big one for me. They are so distracting and I just have to stop and make a mental note to not check them – otherwise it get's out of hand!
    My recent post January Blog Statistics – Month 1

  9. Love your tips – hopefully this keeps working for you!

  10. Good list! Just last night I was staying up late figuring out what the ^%^^%$# is the problem with all the goals I got that aren't getting done! Schedules are a creative persons best friend!

    Thanks!
    My recent post Just Rewards: Are Design Contests Paying Off?

  11. Technology really has become completely integrated to our existence, and I am fairly certain that we have passed the point of no return in our relationship with technology.

    I don’t mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside… I just hope that as technology further develops, the possibility of uploading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It’s one of the things I really wish I could see in my lifetime.

    (Posted on Nintendo DS running [url=http://will-the-r4-r4i-work.wetpaint.com/]R4i SDHC[/url] DS SPPost)

  12. I use my Outlook calendar at work quite a bit but I don't use it at home. I've never played online games. I used to play cards a lot but now I don't even know where my cards are. I really like how you let your wife have access to your schedule and add things to it when necessary. You are a very wise man!

    Thanks for the tips, I'll try to incorporate them.

    @Ileane
    My recent post WordPress.com is Still The Bomb!

  13. Agree with tip 4, i used to work on bed every night cause i was alone and i was thinking i will be more creative, but working in night creates more pressure and also stress in my whole day. Now i stopped late night work now feeling good and also do productive work. Nice post.
    My recent post Famous Advertising slogans

  14. James — thanks for the post. I have been struggling with time management a lot in the last year. I think one of the biggest issues is actually sticking to the schedule. It’s so easy to create one and even easier to let the distractions side track you into non-productivity. Thanks for the motivation to get on track, clean up, and focus.

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  12. […] It’s great to go through Element’s recent post ‘Tips to Help with Time Management’ on his bog. After reading, I remained startled, and tested myself on each of his tips. I’m […]

  13. […] I Do, I Do Not Have the Time To Comment?In reality everyone has the same amount of time, it just time management and how busy your life is. For me, this is a big problem. I spent some time figuring out my time […]

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