Tim Ferris once said that a lack of time is actually a lack of priorities. When you don’t have your priorities set, you end up being less effective in how you use your time.
3 Goals for Effectiveness
Instead of finding free time, learn how to be effective to make the best use of your time with the best use of your abilities. Focus on three goals:
1. What you’re good at
2. What you can delegate
2. What can be let go.
Secret Strategies for Time Management
Keep track of how you currently spend your time. Evaluate what activities, systems, or tools bring the biggest results.
Get rid of busy work and time wasters.
Focus on the most important things in your personal, home, and business life. Let the rest go or delegate them out.
Flesh out your task list as such. First, declare your life goals. Break those into priorities. Form your to-do list based on the priorities you want to accomplish. Proceed with tackling your to-dos.
Reduce the number of meetings, events, and projects you take on. Minimize time spent in the ones you’re obligated to continue attending. A key to that could be streamlining the meeting agenda.
Delegate.
Hire a helper to work on less critical yet necessary tasks. Outsource to an assistant the business tasks that don’t make the best use of your time. Also, hire outside help to tackle chores around the house and seasonal tasks.
Mindless TV-watching, social media surfing, and Googling everything that comes into your head sucks away productive hours from chipping away at your to-do list. Cut your time down on these activities to a few minutes a day.
Get organized.
Knowing where everything is at makes it much easier to find what you need when you need it. This includes but is not limited to: seasonal items, clothing, tools, cleaning supplies, computer files, and even email messages.
Streamline and automate wherever possible.
Set up systems and use templates. Do you type emails to your clients every day? Cut out major time by saving a boilerplate document that you can cut, paste and customize to your audience.
Take advantage of your free time.
When you’re waiting in line or at appointments, fill the time with something you enjoy doing. Learn something new. Read or listen to a podcast with your headphones on.
Create a plan for each day.
A plan keeps you focused on getting done what you need to do. But also leave room for the unexpected.
Be effective.
Your effectiveness each day in managing your time begins with using your skills, abilities, and resources in the best way possible. There are many ways to be effective to have more time in your day. The key is to take advantage of resources that help you get things done efficiently and quickly. This frees up time for you to do other things that are important in your life.
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