Be Efficient In Your Time Management

It will help you manage your time well if you find out where your time actually gets spent. One useful way of finding out your actual usage of time is to track your time. This is one of the most important part of effective time management. and is is one of the essential time management techniques that you have to use. The approach here is like planning a schedule, but it works in reverse. Instead of noting down the things that you are planning to do, time logging is a process of writing down the things that you have already done. Doing this is sort of a get- to-know-yourself exercise because this procedure will highlight many of your habits that you might unknowingly ignore at the moment. 

For example, some people find that every time they plan to do Physics homework they end up watching television. Instead of studying for that math test, they play Internet poker. Other people just don’t seem to follow their schedule until the week before finals.

Whatever your time habits may be, time tracking will help you adjust and fine-tune your time management habits. Having precise information about your time usage patterns can serve as an important point of reference for monitoring your progress. The following are a few ways to track your time. Take a moment to do this – it will really help you open your eyes and take control of your time.

1. Time tracking is fairly simple. At the end of every hour jot yourself a quick note about how you actually spent your time for that hour. The note needn’t be long - one sentence or less should do. If how you spent your time does not match an already planned activity, just enter a comment as to what you really did during that time. This way you will be able to reflect on patterns that emerge in your use of time and make the required adjustments to increase your productivity.

2. Some may find it useful to modify the planning page to facilitate tracking time. The modifications are easy enough: have two columns on your paper for each day of the week. In one column, write down the plan you are trying to follow; in the second column, make notes on what you specifically did with your time. The side-by-side comparison is very informative and is an excellent way to figure out where you’re not using time in the way you have intended.

3. Another great way to make changes and get results from your time management strategies is to summarize your time use according to time categories such as: sleep, study, work, travel, etc.

Estimate the amount of time you think you use for the various activities listed and enter these in the “expected” row of your summary sheet. Feel free to add further additional categories that might be helpful. Then log your time for one week on an hourly basis. When the week comes to a close, summarize your time by category for each day, add up the values for all seven days of the week, and record the totals in the “actual” row of your summary sheet.

Summarizing how you use your time enables you to discover the precise amount of time you really spend in the various areas of your life. It is almost certain that you will see a significant difference between the number of hours you expected to use in some categories and the actual number of hours you spend.

If you realize that you spend more time in one area than you desired, and less in another, the weekly summary of the use of your time clearly shows you which activities to cut down to find the extra time you need for that neglected area of your life. Indeed, you will discover that time tracking by activity will serve you well as one of the most helpful time management strategies that you can employ as you put it to use in your daily routine.