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One of the essential aspects of time management is scheduling.
In spite of increased automation and other high-speed devices,
we still seem to be having so much to do and so little time
left. But effective people know how to manage their time and
achieve their goals with minimum of stress. The ideal way to
make the most of your time is to schedule your activities and
maintain them.
In order to draw up a realistic Schedule for all your
activities, you have to first be clear about your immediate or
short, medium and long-term goals. The goals would cover all
areas of life - career, social, family, physical, religious or
any other areas. Once these are clearly outlined, you will have
to accord these goals priorities in terms of short, medium and
long. This calls for a lot of realistic understanding of the
existing situation and your personal commitment to achieve the
same.
Based on the goals, you can then schedule your activity. Your
broader goals should be assigned a clear time frame and you have
to then plan your action that will take you closer to achieving
them. The most common feature found in many of our daily
activities is that we spent 80% of our time on non-essentials,
while only 20% is accorded to the most vital jobs. This results
in non-achievement of our goals and a sense of frustration and
stress at our inability to attain the same.
You have to form To Do Lists for your daily activity and set
priorities for them. It is essential you assess the nature of
job and assign those work that can be delegated or outsourced to
others and concentrate on the vital areas that require your
personal action. Successful leaders always know when and how to
delegate or outsource jobs, while leaving them to concentrate on
the most critical areas of action.
Another very important element of Scheduling is blocking
appropriate time for any contingencies. With practice you will
learn how much to set aside for these. There are always some
unexpected elements that will demand more of your time than
originally envisaged. Of course you will not be able to guess
when interruptions will occur, but by giving space in your
schedule, you will give yourself the flexibility to react
effectively to issues as they arise, even as you maintain your
overall time schedule.
Thus an effective Scheduling would be one that is based on your
personal goals - short, medium and long - and To Do Lists-
daily, weekly, monthly - based on priorities. When both these
elements are clearly covered, you will have a well-set Schedule
for you to follow.
Needless to say, there are great varieties of diaries,
calendars, organizers, PDA or a software package like MS Outlook
or GoalPro 6 and the likes. However, a simple Mind Maps will do
the job of all these put together. That is because Mind Maps
provide a wide scope for inputting your goals, To Do List, Time
Schedules and much more all in one comprehensive Mind Map. You
could then create separate Mind Maps for Goals, To Do List, Time
Schedule Lists, etc.
Apart from providing you a complete picture, such Mind Maps
provide a sense of motivation and purpose behind your actions.
These Mind Maps thus serve as a record and mark your progress.
They help in providing connectivity amongst your varied goals
and actions and pave way for applying creative solutions and
approaches for achieving them. It is the simplicity and
vividness of Mind Maps that makes them such a useful device for
plotting your life and actions. You will learn that being
successful often means working smarter than just harder. Using
Mind Map technique not only takes you nearer to your goal but
faster and easier. Try it to know its effectiveness.
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