| Time management is really a misnomer. You may | | | | spend more time doing that and less time doing |
| think that you manage your time but in reality this | | | | unproductive things. |
| is rarely the case. More often, time manages you. | | | | - Leave things undone. This may sound like |
| Deadlines are imposed by events (your plane | | | | heresy! Lots of things that come across our path |
| leaves at a certain time) or other people (your | | | | can be safely ignored or otherwise left undone. |
| boss absolutely needs that report by tomorrow). | | | | Those emails will arrive whether you check them |
| So how do you set about managing your time | | | | or not. If it's truly urgent, someone will likely call |
| when so little of it is actually under your control? | | | | you rather than leave it to the hit-and-miss of |
| But there are some time management activities | | | | email. |
| you can use. See which works for you. | | | | - Television news will continue to happen whether |
| - Log where you spend your time. Note down | | | | you watch it for 30 minutes a day or not. You'll |
| every 15 minutes what you're doing. It may take | | | | find skipping the news has the side effect of |
| longer to do this but the exercise will highlight | | | | automatically cutting out lots of negativity in your |
| where you are spending most of your time. You | | | | life, killing two birds with one stone. |
| can then decide whether to change your time | | | | - Hire help! Whether it's a cleaner at home, |
| emphasis. | | | | someone to look after your garden or whatever. |
| - Apply the 80/20 principle. Typically 80% of our | | | | Delegate the less important tasks. Consider hiring |
| results come from 20% of our time and effort. | | | | an online personal assistant to help with jobs that |
| Work out where you're getting your best results, | | | | are "below you" but still need to be done. |