Thrive Learning Institute - Time Management

H. Jackson Brown once said, "Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." How many of us would love to manage our time in such a way that would enable us to do everything we need to do and still have time left over for things we want to do. There are two categories of limitations in time management, the physical and the psychological.

Physical Limitations of Time

Obviously there are physical limitations to how much one person can do in any given day. One cannot create more time in a day just because they want to. However, a person can shift the hours of the day around to create more or less time for a given project. For example, the bartering of sleep for more time with friends as part of the expressed need for social interaction.

Try scheduling, it's a very proactive way to manage the physical limits created by time. You cannot stretch time or rearrange it in any fashion you want but you can stretch your abilities and rearrange your priorities.

Psychological Limitations of Time

Procrastination is a fearsome beast; we'll call it the devourer of opportunity. It slowly eats its way through any chance a person may have of success and decimates opportunities like the Bubonic Plague decimated the population of Europe.

Believe it or not, personality plays one of the largest parts of time management? Often times it is your personality that is the root of your time management problems. For example, can you make a decision when needed and then stick with that decision? Or, do you have problems making decisions and find yourself dwelling on the impossible, ultimately being the cause of your own time management downfall?

The Solutions

Don't worry; there are solutions to both the physical and psychological quandaries of time. Let's start with a few simple steps that may result in new windows of opportunity for time to be spent more affectively.

Step #1 Evaluate Your Time

If you find yourself with a shortage of time, could it be because you do not perceive its value? Take some time to write down everything you do in any given day. Will you be amazed by how much time you spend texting friends, watching television, or surfing the internet or will it come as no surprise that you give away several hours of priceless time to these often fruitless activities? Now look at your opportunity cost of spending so much time on these activities, what are you giving up?

Step #2 Expand Your Vocabulary, Use the Word “No”

Learn to use the word “no”. You have to be able to differentiate between necessary and unnecessary tasks. For example, you started up an internet based business, and there's work that needs to be done on your web page but your buddies just invited you to go play basketball at the court down the street. So, what's it going to be? Do you feel you have to say yes to every activity that comes along? If your business is more crucial right now you may have to learn the word no in order to get the full value out of the time you will never have again.

Step #3 Leave Time Open For Application

So, you're ready for the real world now, that's right, application. How on Earth is one supposed to know how to apply time management if everyone has their own method and must work out the logistics on their own? Realize that just like everything else, this step takes time. Take some time to figure out what's going to be most effective for you in time management and apply it.

Good luck to you. Time management really isn't as tricky as it seems, just follow the steps, value, vocabulary, and application. There are many clients and employees of Thrive Learning Institute who are working on time management. I know that there are hundreds of activities a day competing for your time, but I also know you can do it. Keep applying and before you know it you will have time management mastered.