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In today’s busy world staying on top of things and being able to successfully manage your schedule is essential if you want to remain stress free, a schedule is all about planning your day more efficiently which ultimately ensures that you get everything accomplished that you wish to. The most efficient way to do this is to list your time and tasks in order of priority and determine what top priority is and to set out goals in your life that you want to accomplish.

Determining goals and priorities

In order to be able to manage your time more efficiently and get the most out of your day you must be able to be in control of your life and decide exactly what it is that you want out of life and what you need to do in order to reach what you want. The next decision is managing your priorities efficiently; you do this by determining what is more important to you. The next step is analyzing what you do with your time by finding out exactly how much time you spend on a particular task in life, a journal will help you greatly with this part and you should make a list of your schedule and daily life and determine exactly how long you take on certain activities. Activities you should include could be working, studying, exercising, sleeping and relaxation, once you have done this you can then go on to evaluate the use of your time and determine the best schedule for making better use of it.

Matching available time with your priorities

In order to best manage your time and make your day more efficient you need to take a look at the detailed list you prepared and use your time to match your priorities. As well as taking into account the amount of time you actually spend on each task you should also ask yourself if you are spending enough quality time on a task. A good example of this would be that if you studying then are you studying when you are likely to take in more information or is studying fitted in whenever you can, if you are leaving studying until the end of the day then you are likely to be tired and wont concentrate as well as you would earlier on in the day.

Tips for managing your time more efficiently

•    Break down large tasks into smaller ones and tackling each individual part one at a time can ease the stress considerably than facing one larger task

•    Get rid of routine tasks, if a task is done just out of routine instead of necessity then eliminate it if possible.

•    Look at your habits to see if they could be changed, maybe you could do certain things different ways and save yourself some time in the process.

•    Evaluate yourself to determine if you are a morning person or night person and organize tasks to use whatever time suits you best.

•    Learn to say the word “no” when asked to do something for someone, don’t be continually put upon by others who know you cannot refuse them, its ok doing favors but it can take considerable time from your day.
 

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The secret to managing time successfully is being able to manage yourself, although we often think we don’t waste a minute of our time in reality this is far from true and there are many ways which we can manage ourselves more efficiently which ultimately leads to more successful time management. In order to successfully manage time there are strategies which you can use to stay more in control and relieve stress which plays a big factor in successful time management.

1.    Attempting to do too much – in today’s busy world many people want things done yesterday and this only leads to rushing around and not doing a task properly, it also leads to mistakes and half-finished work with no real feeling of having accomplished anything with your time.

2.    A lack of priorities – this is the single biggest cause of time wasting, in order to successfully manage time we have to know exactly what our priorities are for the day, by not prioritizing we spend too much time on the minor things and not enough time on the important ones.

3.    Interruptions – we all get interruptions in our day, this could be someone dropping in and asking if you have a minute to spare, which usually turn into a half hour or more. Knowing how to successfully deal with interruptions in your daily life is essential to time management.

4.    Procrastination – thinking about what you have to do instead of actually getting on and doing it is one of the biggest time wasters in your day, reduce the amount of time that you spend thinking and this leaves you more time for doing.

5.    Learn to say “no” - many of us just cannot say the words “no” when asked if we mind doing something, this is usually out of fear of upsetting the other person, but if you are taking on the responsibilities of others then you are taking time away from your own workload or tasks and essentially robbing yourself of that precious time which leads to stressing you out.

6.    Clutter – look around your desk or workspace, do you know where everything is? If you are asked for a file can you lay your hands on it or do you have to go rummaging to find it?, a cluttered desk or workspace is a time waster. 

7.    Set deadlines for yourself – work out a reasonable deadline for a particular project and make sure that you stick with the deadline.

8.    Manage your e-mails and phone calls - where possible manage when you read your e-mails and take phone calls better, this was you are not continually breaking off to answer a call or reply to an e-mail. Set aside certain times when you check your e-mail and reply to them, the same applies to phone calls, it is surprising how much time can be wasted throughout a day by stopping and starting a project or task.

9.    Use an activity planner – setting your day out in a planner can help you save time, a planner will allow you to allocate tasks to time slots and this way you can plan your day out and maximize your time more efficiently.

10.    Avoid multi-tasking – starting many different projects at the same time is not a very efficient way of managing time, try to complete one project before starting out on another, this gives you the satisfaction of seeing the project complete and knowing you have accomplished something with your time.

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Having a sense of purpose in your life goes a long way to helping you feel confident, secure and happy. A sense of purpose can be brought about by anything in life, it can be related to your career, bringing up a family or doing voluntary work. It is all about fitting in and feeling you are making a difference in life, that you are achieving something and getting somewhere.

If you have a sense of purpose in life you have something to look forward to everyday, a reason for getting up out of bed in the morning with a smile, it makes you feel good on the outside and so good on the inside. It leads to a more confident person who is happy with their position in life.

Younger people very often have no problem developing a purpose in life, they are just starting out and the majority of them have exams to pass, careers to start building, meeting the opposite sex, dating, marrying and eventually starting their own families. The majority of the younger generation has a lot to look forward to and so have a sense of purpose in life.

However the older we get, uncertainty can set in and we can start wondering about our purpose in life. Perhaps the children have grown up and are no longer dependant on you. Relationships break up or we reach retirement age and no longer have our work as a purpose in life.

The older generation then has to develop a new sense of purpose in life, luckily there are many ways you can achieve this, and here are some of the more common ones.

• Take up a new hobby and do something you have always wanted to do but have never had the time before. • Join a social club, there are many social clubs which let people of the same age group meet on a regular basis and enjoy coffee and chatting. A lot of these groups have activities you can take part in and outings to attend. • Join an exercise group either locally or at a gym, there are various types of exercise you can take part in without being too strenuous. Swimming meets are a great idea for the older person. • Take up a sport such a tennis or bowling e.t.c. • Visit family and friends on a regular basis and have them come over for dinner • Take up some voluntary work for a few hours every day, it gives you a sense of purpose and gets you out of the house. • Take a part time job that you can adequately cope with for a few hours per week. • Take a walk in the park and say hello to passers by, very often you will meet other people who are in the same boat as you; you can make new friends just about anywhere. • Visit a dating agency and get back into meeting the opposite sex again, it’s never too late to start a relationship.

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