Time Management 101            

By Project Success    

Our theme for today is our most valuable asset on this earth. So today it’s all about time! In this article we will assist you achieving the best benefits of your time by planning a time management system, in order to cope with your self-development wishes. The idea is to combine daily routines with daily goals, weekly, monthly and your ultimate goal.

The Immense Benefits Of a Time Management System

  1. Productivity- You are more efficient and productive with your time. As a result, you simply achieve more daily.
  2. Clarity- You think more clearly; You know exactly what to do.
  3. Enjoyment- Surprisingly, you enjoy more your free time: It’s a pleasure watching some stupid comedy show after a whole week of work and self-development.

The principles of time management

  1. Knowing your ultimate goals- The time management allocates time for self-development tasks which should lead to the accomplishment of these self-development goals. So as a first step, the individual should write his desired goals. Reasonable goals might be for example one of the following: Learning a foreign language, improving our cognitive skills, improving our financial knowledge etc.
  2. Consistency-The plan should be followed consistently. Always remember, only your consistent actions will provide you the progress which you seek.
  3. Flexibility- Although you should do your best to keep the schedule alive, at times unexpected events occur. Here the flexibility comes into play. Just because at a certain point of time, the exact schedule cannot be followed, doesn’t mean the consistency should be compromised. Even on those rare occasions your toolbox might have some solutions. Always be flexible, an ultimate time management is not strict but flexible. As you know, we are not living in a perfect surrounding. Something can always happen which might disrupt your schedule. Therefore, the willingness and ability to modify briefly the schedule in a short-term notice is essential.
  4. Discipline- A key principle which is essential while following a system. You should enjoy the ordinary, enjoy the daily small steps as if they are endless while knowing deep inside that success will come at some point. Since you have already been disciplined to read up until now, from now on, you should learn to enjoy the smallest things.

Building The Schedule

Once you know your ultimate goals. You should devise the daily and weekly time requirements for an efficient development. For example, for foreign languages, Project Success (We!) suggest investing 20 minutes a day and additional one hour on the weekend. Hence you create a list of assignments for every wished field. Keep in mind that your plan should be feasible, i.e., your time is limited and only a certain bunch of assignment can be completed daily. The next step is documenting the constant unfeasible time. Usually, these time slots should be the sleeping time, eating time and working time. Finally, in the last step the required tasks should be added to the free time slots.

Example

The following schedule I have used as a student in Germany for the four weeks Christmas vacation for preparing myself to the exams period and improving my German knowledge.

Foreign Student Schedule during Exams period:

Ultimate goals:

  1. Learning German as a foreign language.
  2. Studying for six exams.
  3. Keeping myself fit.

The Weekly Plan

Week1- German learning and Courses: Reading, creating notes and performing a first memorization round for courses 1-3.

Week2- German learning and Courses: Reading, creating notes and performing a first memorization round of courses 4-6.

Week3- Second memorization round for courses 1-6.

Week4- Previous exams training and time management.

The Daily Plan

Weeks 1-2

Mon-Sat:

Sun:

Week3

Mon-Sat:

Sun:

Week4

Mon-Sat:

Sun:

Adaptations

The idea of this schedule can be easily modified. Every situation has advantages and disadvantages in terms of time. For example, an employee doesn’t need to study for exams but must work 8-9 hours a day.

Similarly, one can adjust the schedule to a typical employee; Simply take out the academic assignments, add nine hours working time, add one hour (or any other value) for transportation, add vocabulary list reading during the drive to work (or lunch break while eating) and 10 pages reading of a book a day. In addition, one can allocate time for free time without feeling bad about it. You can plan one weekly nightlife/ social event, and daily free half an hour for TV/movies. On the same fashion this schedule can be modified to freelancers, business-owner, parenthood etc. The idea is always to consider the possibilities, sticking to a self-development plan, enjoying the free time of a hard day work and being proud of it. And finally, consistency is the key!

Final Thoughts

An effective flexible planned schedule can make the difference between procrastination and valuable work. I believe it is one of the technical keys for completing tasks with the vision of achieving a valuable goal. I would suggest any aspiring individual to consider this tool and incorporate it in his daily life.