Do you have big time management problems? Do you spend your days struggling with your to do list and wonder why you never get finished?

Time mgt skills are really important for business minded people who have several vastly different things to do each day. Here is a quick article with our Top 10 Time Management Tips to help you boost your productivity ten fold and finish all your tasks – on time!

1) The Time Management Myth.

There is only24 hours in a day no matter how organized you are. Time never changes. All you can do is to make the best of the time you have, no one else can gain an advantange, you can not create more time, you can only use it better.

2) Where are you Wasting Time?

Figure out your bad habits.

Do you spend too much time checking emails, browsing the Internet, making phone calls you don’t need to? Do you waste time chatting around the office?

Start to track your activities to gain a clear picture of your daily activities – so you can then axe the ones which are cluttering you up.

3) Write Your Time Mgt Aims

After removing all of your personal time wasters you need to set new, and more efficient goals.

For example; a goal not to take personal phone calls while at your desk. Or to only use the Internet during office hours to read the news on a morning and do your work – the more specific these goals the better.

4) Start a Detailed Time Management Plan

Carrying on from number3: Yourobjective is to change your behavior so much that you will reach whatever goal you have set yourself e.g. Increasing your productivity / eliminating stress your stress. This involves not only writing down your aim, but mapping them out over time, to ensure you have stuck to them, write a full timetable of your activities if need be.

5) PRIORITIZE

At the start of everyh day you should  prioritize the tasks for the day. look at what you have to do, what you are getting behind on and write a quick list, for the order that things should be done in. How many tasks are critical – set those first, and do not move on to another task until the more critical one is completed.

As you commplete them you should tick them off, not only will this help you stay organized, you will feel a sense of acomplishment and be spurred on mentally to the next task.

6) Outsource or Delegate

Are you a control freak? Are you performing unrequired admin tasks, which could be performed by someone lower down the chain? If so then delegate these tasks, and free up your time for more critical business decisions, or more important tasks. Get some help, your time is valuable, so outsource admin, and other tasks which are not the best use of your time

7) Develop a Routine, and STICK TO IT

Simple – You will be 100x more productive if you can follow a strict routine during regular hours, getting your tasks done will feel natural, as you will do them over and over.

8.) Set a Time Estimate For Each Task

Do you spend too long on some things? One of the main time killers in the modern office is reading and answering emails – why not schedule 1 hour every day at a certain time for reading and answering all of your emails?  (And STICK TO IT) You should use this principle for all your tasks, it will help improve your efficiency dramatically if you think at first “How long should this task take me?”

9) Get Your Systems Organized.

Take some time to get your systems – whether computer or physical – in place before you begin. You can have an excellent time management plan, but if your records, files, and systems are all over the place they will slow you down and cause costly delays.

10) Never Just Wait

Sometimes it is hard to avoid waiting, but as much as you can don’t just sit around staring into space – at the very least use waiting times – bus journeys, traffic jams, dentist waiting rooms to read up on improtant subjects, or expand your mind – always have something to do if you get caught up unexpectedly waiting, whether it is a book, an audio cd, or a blank pad of paper to plan with.

Time Management is not a natural skill, it is something that you (that ANYONE can learn) and the above 10 tips are the foundation of effective time management – implement them today and take control of your time, productivity, efficiency, and your LIFE!

This article was brought to you by Real Subliminal – Try our subliminal time management album to help align your mind to your conscious goal of improving your time management and disolve the unconscious barriers to your success.

In the last post we showed some examples of setting goals, and hinted at setting them in the present tense. What we mean by this is that even though it is a goal you are aiming for 3 months into the future, you write the goal as if you have already achieved it, and you are talking about it at the time.

So instead of:

I want to lose 15lbs, and I will be eating healthy food and vegetables every day.

Your goal will be:

I have lost 15lbs, I eat fresh fruit and veg every day.

The reason that you do this is for the subtle but significant difference it will make in your mind. With the first example when you read your goals it is always in the future tense, you can always put the task off, and it does not seem real, there is always more time to tackle the problem.

However with repeating the goal to yourself in the present tense your mind is ever so slightly “tricked” into believing it to be true. Rather than being in the future your mind interprets it to be happening now – eating healthy is not something that you will be doing in the future, it is something you do now, which will help you even more to achieve your future goal.

This is a basic principle of NLP – to state things in the positive, and to create affirmations / goals as if they have already been acheived – it simply sets you up for success.

All of our subliminal cds and mp3s work on these principles and contain positive, and “future based” messages, which go directly to your subconscious mind to help you to achieve your goals.