as Mutaz E. G. Alhawash, I have decided to continue my journey by getting a masters degree in psychology (MSc. Psychology) at Liverpool John Moores University.
in this article, I am sharing some of the tips giving by UNICAF in their Induction Module. to help me manage my time. as I have already had an experience of being messy when it is related to controlling my time. as well as having fair research about the topic in the past I am sharing these tips with you to help you managing your time to ensure success in your life.
Time Management is one of the essential keys to achieve success. a common thing among all the successful people in business, education, and any other aspect of life.
why is it that important?
- it makes you work/study more efficiently.
- be productive or increase your current productivity
- be stress-free (relatively)
the following; are 6 tips that would help you do your work, accomplish your duties regarding your education, business, family, and friends. as well as enjoy the rest of your time to stay connected with your surrounding.
1- set goals
goals are what control you in your mission, to achieve the vision that you have. which may sound very simple at the very first glance! though, it is not that simple. these goals to be efficient must be SMART goals. and by SMART we Indicate to :
- Specific (simple, sensible, significant).
- Measurable (meaningful, motivating).
- Achievable (agreed, attainable).
- Relevant (reasonable, realistic, and resourced, results-based).
- Time-bound (time-based, time-limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).
Some times, you need to expand your base and go SMARTER. by adding Evaluation and Reviews to the equation to become
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
- Evaluated
- Reviewed
Click here if you need checklist guidance helping you set your SMART goals
2- prioritize wisely
set a list of tasks to achieve each goal, do not forget to mention your sub-tasks. better to be listed as a checklist to be ticked once accomplished and completed or skipped. this would help you measure your SMART goals.
after determining these individual tasks/sub-tasks. it crucial now to prioritize these tasks
3- plan ahead
Work Smarter, Not Harder.
Feeling Lost without having a solid ground to start a day, without having a single clue on what you need to do is one of the worst things to start your new day with. give yourself 5 - 10 minutes to plan ahead your day. it is surprisingly much more efficient than getting down to business (unless it was pre-planned from the day, a week before).
this would help you focus on accomplishing one task at a time rather than wasting your time and energy jumping from one task to another.
TIP: use sticky notes to plan your tasks for today.
4- eliminate distractions
Try - as much as you can - to avoid the interruptions and distractions if someone, something is interrupting you while doing your current task. even these self-induced (personal) interruptions, such as paying attention to your mobile phone, social media posts engagements, and notifications, sexual behavior, and Masturbation. these are on the top list of the highly addictive interruptions that we enjoy and might be dragging you down from achieving the goals you have set.
5- track your time
one of the most effective ways to develop your skills. enhance your abilities is to know exactly how much time does it take to accomplish a certain task. or how many tasks you could accomplish in an average day.
considering that not all tasks are the same, do not belong to the same category, and do not belong to that same criterion of work. please consider keeping updating your tasks (point number two) with more efficient ways to suit your tasks and their priority as well as an explicit estimated time to accomplish
this would help you consider your development curve when doing a repetitive task through the journey of achieving a goal. and of course, do not forget to be fair enough with yourself to start eliminating the distractions that did not allow you to achieve the task as you have already estimated.
6- take time for yourself
being motivated and passionate about what are doing is very important when achieving your goal whether it was related to business, education, and personal goals.
try to give some free time for yourself to do the things that you love, east your favorite food, have a ride, contact a friend or a relative, be with your family or beloved ones, get in touch with higher perspective self through meditation or praying or any other means that would help you achieve that. last but not least.
do not forget to enjoy the distraction and the interruptions that you are trying to eliminate.
Finally, I hope that this article was helpful enough for you to start determining your time as a very important asset in your life that has a one-directional flow and you need to have a supernatural power to have full control over its stream. though, you could give these points some time and step by step go through them.