“We don’t really manage time but rather we manage ourselves in the amount of time we have.”  – Rex Allred

My life often feels like the never ending battle with time management. “How can I get everything done?” “How can I find enough hours in the day to get everything done that I need to?”  And then there is the constant feeling of never getting through as much as I needed to each day. I can work my guts out all day long only to get to the end of the day and find that I’ve barely made a dent in my huge list of to-do’s.  I can’t imagine I am the only person in the world who feels this way…

On days I’ve felt especially discouraged I try to read the advice of others who have learned how to deal with a similar problem. Today I read an article written by Rex Allred titled – Personal Time Management: One Key to a Leader’s Effectiveness. It had some awesome reminders on better ways to tackle time management. And I loved the fact that it reminded me that it’s not my time I need to better manage it’s managing myself better in the time that I have.  I summarized some key points from the article that I loved:

1. We don’t manage our time, we manage ourselves in the time we have.

2. Stay constantly focused on results rather than activities. Don’t focus on doing things, focus on getting things done.

3. Access how you are spending your time: Log your time in 15 minute increments every day for a week. At the end of the week look back and see where you really spent your time. Determine what changes you need to make in how you are using your time.

4. Properly set and pursue priorities. Constantly ask yourself: “What is the best use of my time right now?”

5. Keep a running list of everything that needs to be done and at the start of each day prioritize which items you are going to accomplish first, second, etc.

6. Control interruptions. Lock yourself away for a set period of time each day without your phone, without letting anyone come in, and without looking at incoming emails so you can have a completely uninterrupted time each day to focus 100% getting things done.

7. Simply and reduce wherever possible – ask yourself “Does this need to be this complicated?”

8. Can I kill two birds with one stone by combining two of my tasks into one block of time? An example might be holding a call while driving to a meeting (using your Bluetooth of course 🙂 ).

9. Delegate more. If it doesn’t absolutely have to be done by your personally then delegate it to someone you trust to follow through.

10. As we take on more responsibilities in life the need to better utilize our time grows larger and larger which means the smartest time to master the skill of managing ourselves is right now.

Without question our time is our most valuable resource we have in this life. And with every day that passes by me I become more aware of how truly important it is to better manage ourselves in the time that we have…especially if we want to accomplish all that we are meant to before our precious time in this life comes to an end.

~Amy Rees Anderson