Time Management - You Can't Do It All

Time management. Even the words evoke a response. How can we manage our time? Time passes, whether we manage it or not, and along with it our lives. You may want to "do it all", but really, you can't do it all.

Doing it All

Most people in today's busy world are so full of options on how to spend their time, even at their workplace, that choosing what to do, and how long to do it often ends up in not doing it at all. No one can do it all, so it's all about priorities.

Setting Priorities - Time Management's Key Secret

If you wish to properly manage your time, you will need to sit down and write out your life's priorities. Make this the Red List. These are the essential tasks you must do. Next, make the Green List. These are the tasks and actions that your really want to do. Then, make out the Yellow List, of low priority tasks. Finally make out the Black List of things you should NOT do.

With your priorities set, its time to move on to determining your available time.

Available Time

There are 24 hours in the day. With Time Management on your mind, you need to understand how many of those are available to you. Obvious you must allocate the hours of sleep first. Some people need more or less, but if it's time management you are seeking, we suggest you follow Napoleon's guide to sleep

He said, "men need 6 hours sleep, women need 7, children and older people need 8".

So, if you are man, you seem to have 18 hours of available time at your disposal. You must subtract from that essential tasks such as eating, washing, grooming, and so on, On the average, your available time is about 15 hours a day.

Time Segments

Working with your available time, you next need to divide those up into segments. If you are in a standard job, you need to segment your job time and travel time (to and from work). This will no doubt be close to 10 hours. There fore you have segments of travel, work, travel and so on.

A large segment of time left to you is your 5 hours free segment. Here is where you apply as many items from your Red List as possible. Finishing the Red List, you can add items from your Green List.

The Weekend

Here is your magic period. You have a full 48 hours to plan out and fulfill as many planned and necessary tasks as you need to. Never waste your time! It is life's most precious commodity.

Plan out your weekend as you do your week. You do not have to be a robot and work like a computer, turning on and off at specified time periods. However you need to know how much time you have to accomplish what needs to be done. If you manage time well, you can become very productive, and really, quite content.

Achieving your goals on the three lists will make your life more fulfilling and certainly more productive. Never waste time.

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