Getting Started in Time Management

Kishore C.S. (June 2002)

Introduction:

Starting this article, there will be a series of articles every fortnight which will give practical steps and tips to improve time management skills. I will not dwell on lot of theory but concentrate on action and how to get going with this challenge of time management. I suggest you to follow these simple steps to your best ability and soon you will be in control of your life and time. 

Time Management is management of time to be in control of life. We all have challenges of 'doing this we have to do' against 'doing things we want to do'. 

Doing things we have to do is related to our responsibilities in life: work, family, society etc. And we all know responsibilities only increase and never decrease. There are always more things we 'HAVE TO DO'.

Doing things we want to do is related to things we LIKE doing. These are related to your hobbies, interests and taking care of yourself. Having a good time of your life and enjoying every day of life.

Since we are so busy with things WE HAVE TO DO we rarely get enough time to do things WE WANT TO DO.

Every one of us has same number of hours and no one can get more hours in a day than 24 hours. So how do we tackle this challenge.

By becoming more productive and efficient in managing our time, we can gain control of life. 

Tips I will be sharing in these series of articles will be of practical use. I will try to explain the benefits of each practical step as much as possible. I am sharing methods I have tried and used. I am not an expert in time management, but  I am gaining control of my life. 

One more thing you should remember is I am not doing this for any 'business purpose' and hence all things I say are mainly intended to HELP YOU and with no other motive. DO YOUR BEST. By following these practical steps start having time for yourself and gain control of your life. 

Enough of introduction and let us get to action

Tip #1: 

Maintaining a to-do list and keeping it handy is most important aspect of time management. 

Action items:

Take a new note book or a planner if you have one. 
Caution: Do not use loose sheets/pieces of paper for your to do list

If you are using a note book, open first page and put yesterday's date on top. Turn page and put today's date and continue to do this for next 7 days. 
Caution: Do not feel this a waste of time, I will explain why this is important. And also remember to put only one date per page. It is important. 

Then open first page with yesterday's date. List things you have done yesterday. It can be very small tasks or big tasks. Tasks can be 5 minute tasks or 1 hours tasks. Make a list by thinking hard. It is not easy to recollect what happened yesterday. Try to recollect your day by timeline. Ask yourself questions:
What time did I get up? What was the first thing I did? When did I reach office? What meetings did I attend? What milestones are done at work? Did I complete a proposal document or some other important task? What phone calls did I make? What was I doing between 10-12 pm? What was I doing between 2-5 pm? After going home what did I do? Did I handle any routine tasks like making a bill payment? How much time did I spend reading the book I have borrowed from library? etc. 

Try hard to list at least 10 items. 
Caution: It is easy to give up but try your best. I am sure your day was busy and you had lot of things to do. If you can't list things you have done, you will always wonder what did I do, where is my time gone?

Add time you spent on each task next to the item. It can be approximate time. This will help you understand where your time goes. 

Then go to page with today's date. List things you have already done today and things you plan to do today. 

Recollect things you need to do in next one week. Go to corresponding page and add the task on that date. 

Recommendation:

Make it a hobby to write these lists on every day. If you spend 5 minutes of your day in listing your list of things to-do, you will gain hours. Invest 5 minutes of time to gain hours during the day. Do it at any time convenient to you. You can do this when you have your morning coffee at home or 5 minutes immediately after getting to office. But do this before 9 AM/10 AM. Otherwise you will end up without a list for the day. 

A list helps us to get back on track if we loose control. This list acts like a map of what you have to do. Imagine you wanted to go a place and took maps. For some reason you got lost and map will help you get back on right route. To do list will help in same manner. During our day we get lost because of many interruptions we get and only way we can get back on track is by referring to this list.

Examples

I am sharing my own list to make it easier for you