Skills to Mastering Time Management

               We all know that the circumstances and commitments in life contribute to the business of life. Whether if you are a high school student involved in athletics, full time college student with a part time job, full time stay at home parent, or a full time working parent, life can be busy. We all only have 24 hours in a day and it never feels like enough. The Purpose Driven Life, author Rick Warren states, “Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can't make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. Your time is your life." With our limitation with time, how can we make the most of our time? How can we use our time wisely? In this blog, I will be providing 6 essential skills to mastering time management. 

1. Set GOALS

    Goal setting is one way to reset your focus and priorities. When we have our priorities straight in life, it keeps us more focus and we use our time more wisely. It's healthy to have long-term goals and short-term goals. If you only set long-term goals, it might be discouraging if no immediate rewards are coming in. I try to set realistic daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and every 5 years goals. Make sure you WRITE down your goals and put them somewhere you can see on daily basis.    

• Examples of Daily Goals: Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep tonight, Work out at 6pm, Study for Calculus for 2 hours, Play Board Games with the kids for an hour, Get to Work 10 minutes early etc., 

• Examples of Monthly Goals: Take 1 mini-vacation a month, Exercise 4x this month, Lose 10 pounds, etc.,

• Examples of 5 Year Goals: Graduate from College, Buy or Build a House, Get Married, Start a Business, etc., 

     Don't compare your goals to others. Everyone is in a different season in life. Write those goals down and place them somewhere you can read daily. 

2. Purchase a Calendar/Agenda

      

                           OR

        Once you've completed your long term and short term goals. Write your short term goals into your calendar. This helps you to have an outlook of what your day, week, and month is going to look like.

3. Schedule Time for Fun

        Too much work and no play will lead to burn out. Balance is a difficult, but yet crucial skill to develop in life. Schedule hang out time with friends, family and significant others. Scheduling time to "have fun" will help you not to waist time, stay productive, but still relax. Write these scheduled times into your calendar. 

4. Take Time For Yourself

   

        Taking time to one self is critical for self-reflection, self-growth and self-awareness. It's important to schedule time to yourself on a weekly basis, if even daily basis. I know some of you maybe a parent and scheduling time to yourself maybe a very difficult task. But if we don't take care of ourselves, we won't be able to fully take care of those around us. Whether if it's going on a walk, writing, playing an instrument or cooking, schedule time for yourself on a weekly basis. 

5. Focus 

     Some people dislike the word focus. They think focus is boring or is too hard to accomplish, but without focus, we can not have complete freedom. I've learned that the more focus I am in accomplishing my goals, the more freedom I will have to hang out with my friends and create time for myself. The statement, "Work hard now, so I can play later" correlates with focus. Focus on your weekly/daily goals, so you can have more freedom later. Staying focus also leads to more discipline.

6. Patience 

         Whenever one is trying to develop a new habit or a new skill patience is key! If you don't accomplish your weekly goals, don't give up. It takes 21 days to develop a new habit, whether good or bad. Continue to take time to write your weekly goals, due dates, deadlines in your calendar. Prioritize your goals and go after them. 

Celebrity Focus:

                                                     

    Motivational speaker Brendon is inspirational. His Youtube channel is powerful and challenges me on daily basis. His video on the topic of Time Management sums up the main points in this blog. If you're not much of a reader, then I encourage you to watch this video! I hope it ignites a fire in you like it did in me.

Much Love,

Titiana Ngongang

Life, Faith &Love™