Do you struggle with your time management? Then you need to read this. Here’s why you’re always late, and what to do about it.
What makes you chronically late?
Being late isn’t just a personality trait. It’s something that makes you come across as rude to others, as well as hurting yourself. Why turn up to the gym if it’s going to shut in ten minutes?
There’s three reasons why you may find yourself struggling with time management:
1. You find it hard to motivate yourself without a looming deadline, meaning that you’re working under immense pressure.
2. You over schedule your days, meaning that there’s never enough time to complete anything.
3. You’re easily distracted, so you can’t give priority to the tasks that need it.
Analyze what’s taking up your time
But you’re constantly busy, you can’t help being late, right? In fact, you may be paying too much attention to tasks that don’t really need doing.
To find out where you’re going wrong, try logging your time for a week. This guide gives you a time sheet and the detailed instructions on how to use it. At the end of the week, look at where your time is being used unproductively. If you’re spending time doing things that don’t contribute to your goals, they have to go. This advice is received from writer Harriet Bowman from Australian Help and it really helped her. ‘I saw I was wasting time on activities that weren’t helping me. I’ve dropped them and now I find it much easier to hit my deadlines.’ You can also use online tools such as Easy Word Count, as they track how much you can get done in a single session.
Ways to manage your time
– Set yourself deadlines for each part of the work
If you see your work as one, insurmountable whole, you’re never going to finish it. Instead, set yourself several, smaller deadlines. Then, implement ‘punishments’ if you don’t reach them. For example, writer Joe Bunting would have to send $1000 to a politician he detested, if he missed his third deadline. You don’t need to be that drastic, but give it a try.
– Complete your most important tasks in the morning
There’s a famous Mark Twain quote: ‘Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you all day.’ Essentially, if you handle the most important or unappealing tasks first, the rest of your workload won’t feel so bad.
For example, Roger Timpson has his well-tried dissertation writing advice which he use in his work. ‘I handle all the difficult parts first. Morning is the best time for it. Then, all I have to do is write in the filler around it.’
– Equate time worked with money
Work out how much you’ll earn for each piece of work you’ll do. You’ll be more motivated, if you can see how much that work is worth to you.
– Delegate if you can
If you’re trying to do it all, you’re not going to get it all done. Choose the ‘to do list’ items that feasibly could be done by someone else, and hand them over. You’ll free up much more time to handle the important tasks. For example, if you need content written for a website, have UK Writings handle it instead of struggling with it yourself.
– Recognise how important deadlines are
Most importantly, treat deadlines with respect. They are immovable, so work around them. Don’t make them work around you.
Put these tips to use, and you’ll find you suddenly have much more time to get everything done!
Author bio – Brenda Berg is a professional with over 15 years of experience in business management, marketing and entrepreneurship. Consultant and tutor for college students and entrepreneurs at Academized. She is self-motivated results driven individual who is encouraged to travel and share gained experience in career, business and self-development.
