6 Tips For Managing Your Time

Until about two years ago, I never would have told you that I was good at managing my time. Then recently I realized that I was doing things and operating in a way that most people aren't able to. I had a number of different people ask me how I was able to do so many different things and seem to have time for all of them. I am a husband, a father to two you boys, I hold a full time job, I was going to school full time to get my masters degree, I am an acting elder at our church, I am operating a successful home business, and yet I find time to read about 2-3 books per month and exercise almost every day and the kicker is that I never really feel overwhelmed. This may seem like an impossibility to you now, but I promise if you put these six small items into practice, and you make them habits, you will find time to do things that you never thought you could. Everyone has the same 24 hours every day. However, some people seem to do so much more with those hours than others. Time management is a skill and just like any other skill, the more time you practice it, the better you get at it. Let's dig in.

Tip #1: Use A Calendar - Most people have much more free space during a week than they realize. The problem is most people don't plan their time. Most people simply take what comes, when it comes. Have you ever asked someone to do something and they said something along the lines of, "That's too far away, I don't know what I'll be doing then." Chances are they don't use a calendar. That's what calendars are for. If you are disciplined to write down your commitments, you will find that you have much fewer of them than you thought and much more free time that you realized.

Tip #2: Plan Your Day - This is similar to tip #1, but here you are looking at on a smaller scale. You should have a plan of attack for each and every day. Make this plan either the night before or the morning of, and write it down. This doesn't mean that you plans can't change, but too many people spend too much time worrying about what will happen next or trying to decide what to do next. That is time and energy that you don't need to spend if you simply write down your plan for each day. You will also find that if you do this consistently, you will be much more likely to accomplish the things in your plan and gain a greater feeling of positivity and fulfillment.

Tip #3: Take Care of Your Health - If you don't have a daily habit of exercise and you aren't in the pattern of eating a healthy balanced diet and supplementation, you need to start. This, in my opinion, is a non-negotiable. The benefits of exercise and proper diet have been studied to incredible extent and not enough good can be said. You will live longer, healthier, and happier if you do these things. Studies show that people who exercise regularly earn more money over the course of their lives than those that don't. What other reasons do you need?!

Tip #4: Force Yourself To Take Development Time - If any of you have read the book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Steven Covey, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't specifically schedule time for personal development, you will never find it. Maybe nobody has ever told you this, but it is okay and necessary for you to put this type of thing on your calendar. This includes things like reading, journaling, listening to podcasts, or talking with mentors. Jim Rohn is famous for saying that, "Formal education will make you a living but self-education will make you a fortune." Setting apart time to develop yourself is absolutely critical. And even though it may, at first, seem like another thing to add to your schedule, you will find that the more time you spend doing this, the more time you will seem to have.

Tip #5: Allow Yourself To Rest - I was recently reading a book called "Leading With A Limp" and the author, Dan Allender, stated that, "Busyness is the moral equivalent of laziness." How true this is! Too many people do things that are unnecessary and unproductive simply so that they can appear to be important or needed. When you put your commitments on your calendar, make sure that each one is either necessary or enjoyable for you. If it doesn't fit one of these two criteria, chances are you need to cut it out of your schedule. The benefits that you will experience from true rest (this doesn't mean just laying on the couch, although it can.) are incredible.

Tip #6: Develop Your Priorities - This may seem like strange wording to you. People usually tell you to define your priorities or list your priorities. That implies that these are static things that don't change over time and that you actually know what they currently are. I find that most people have spent so much of their schedules putting out fires and dealing with emergencies that they don't really have a good understanding of what their priorities are. This tip here will help you identify what things are you schedule need to stay, and what things you may need to cut out. No one person can do it all, and no two people will do everything the same. You need to learn what your priorities are and then develop a plan to stick to them.

I know that's a lot of information, and each one of those six tips could be a full blog by itself. Time management is hard, there's no question, but walking was hard when you first tried it as baby and now you likely do it without even thinking. If you will discipline yourself to practice each one of these tips, you can develop your time management skills you will find that you are accomplishing more in less time than you ever thought possible! Good luck and let me know how these work for you!