It’s About Time!
What’s Time Management?
“Time management” refers to the way that you organize and plan how long you spend on specific activities. The benefits are enormous:
Mistake #1: Failing to Keep a “to do” List:
Failing to manage your time effectively can have some very undesirable consequences:
Mistake #2: Not Making Personal Goals
Do you know where you'd like to be in six months? What about this time next year, or even 10 years from now? If not, it's time to set some personal goals! Personal goal setting is essential to managing your time well because goals give you a destination and vision to work toward.
When you know where you want to go, you can manage your priorities, time, and resources to get there. Goals also help you decide what's worth spending your time on, and what's just a distraction.
Mistake #3: Not Prioritizing
Your assistant has just walked in with a crisis that she needs you to deal with right now, but you're in the middle of brainstorming ideas for a new client. You're sure that you've almost come up with a brilliant idea for their marketing campaign, but now you risk losing the thread of your thinking because of this "emergency."
Sometimes, it's hard to know how to prioritize, especially when you're facing a flood of seemingly urgent tasks. However, it's essential to learn how to prioritize tasks effectively if you want to manage your time better.
One tool that will help you prioritize effectively is creating a matrix, which will help you determine if a task is high-yield and high-priority, or low-value, "fill in" work. You'll manage your time much better during the day if you know the difference.
Mistake #4: Failing to Manage Distractions
Do you know that some of us can lose as much as two hours a day to distractions? Think how much you could get done if you had that time back! Whether they come from emails, IM chats, checking social media, colleagues in a crisis, or phone calls from clients, distractions prevent us from achieving flow, which is the satisfying and seemingly effortless work that we do when we're 100 percent engaged in a task.
If you want to gain control of your day and do your best work, it's vital to know how to minimize distractions and manage interruptions effectively. For instance, turn off your IM chat when you need to focus, and let people know if they're distracting you too often. You should also learn how to improve your concentration, even when you're faced with distractions.
Mistake #5: Procrastination
Procrastination occurs when you put off tasks that you should be focusing on right now. When you procrastinate, you feel guilty that you haven’t started; you come to dread doing the task; and, eventually, everything catches up with you when you fail to complete the work on time. For instance, one useful strategy is to tell yourself that you're only going to start on a project for ten minutes. Often, procrastinators feel that they have to complete a task from start to finish, and this high expectation makes them feel overwhelmed and anxious. Instead, focus on devoting a small amount of time to starting. That's all!
You might also find it helpful to use Action Plans. These help you break large projects down into manageable steps, so that it's easy to see everything that you need to get done, and so that you can complete small chunks at a time. Doing this can stop you from feeling overwhelmed at the start of a new project.
Mistake #6: Taking on Too Much
Are you a person who has a hard time saying "no" to people? If so, you probably have far too many projects and commitments on your plate. This can lead to poor performance, stress, and low morale.
Or you might be a micromanager: someone who insists on controlling or doing all of the work themselves, because they can't trust anyone else to do it correctly. (This can be a problem for everyone – not just managers!)
Either way, taking on too much is a poor use of your time, and it can get you a reputation for producing rushed, sloppy work.
Mistake #7: Thriving on “Busy”
Some people get a rush from being busy. The narrowly met deadlines, the endless emails, the piles of files needing attention on the desk, the frantic race to the meeting... What an adrenaline buzz!
The problem is that an "addiction to busyness" rarely means that you're effective, and it can lead to stress.
Instead, try to slow down, and learn to manage your time better.
Mistake #8: Not Taking Breaks
It's nice to think that you can work for 8-10 hours straight, especially when you're working to a deadline. But it's impossible for anyone to focus and produce high-qualitwork without giving their brains some time to rest and recharge.
So, don't dismiss breaks as "wasting time." They provide valuable down-time, which will enable you to think creatively and work effectively.
If it's hard for you to stop working, then schedule breaks for yourself, or set an alarm as a reminder. Go for a quick walk, grab a cup of coffee, or just sit and meditate at your desk. Try to take a five-minute break every hour or two. And make sure that you give yourself ample time for lunch – you won't produce top quality work if you're hungry!
$86,400
You have $86,400.00 to spend any way you wish. The only restrictions are that you cannot bank any money and if you do not use any of the money, you lose it. How are you going to spend it? What’s important to you? What’s essential?
That’s how many seconds are in a day. 86,400. You can’t bank those seconds, so if you don’t use them, you lose them. The saying “time well spent” exists for a reason. Think of the best ways to use your seconds.
Have a good TIME!
##gert ##
McHALE DESIGN CASE STUDY: MONSTERVERSE- THE LEGEND CONTINUES…
Build-A-Bear Celebrates National Teddy Bear Day with Donation to The Toy Foundation™
Toy Foundation Auction is Now Open for Your Bids
Bracelets, Stickers, and Viral Fame: The Story Behind Sky Castle Toys’ Sticki Rolls
Chrissy Fagerholt: Luck is when Preparation Meets Opportunity!
Book Review: Storm: Dawn of a Goddess by Tiffany D. Jackson
Book Review: Erno Rubik and his Magic Cube by Kerry Aradhya
Game Review: Trip Chaser
Learning Express Toys Hosts 25th Annual Convention & Toy Expo at JW Marriott Tucson
Submit Your LA Showroom Details for 2025 Toy Previews
Randy Klimpert Shares his Ukulele Collection
Steve Casino Peanut Art
Everyone's Talking about POP!
Princess Etch - a Multi-Talented Etch A Sketch Artist
Joseph Herscher of Joseph' s Machines.
Connie Vogelmann designed Apiary & Wyrmspan!
Bob Fuhrer... Is THE Crocodile Dentist!
Tom Dusenberry... Bought Atari, Wizards of the Coast, and Avalon Hill!
Matt Leacock created Pandemic... the game!
Scott Brown and Tim Swindle... are Launching a New Sport!
POPDuo: Richard Dickson, Mattel’s President & COO, and Kedar Narayan, Young Inventor Challenge AMB
POPDuo: Will Shortz and Josh Wardle
POP Duo: Elan Lee, Co-Founder, Exploding Kittens.and Jeff Probst, Host and Exec Producer, Survivor
POP Duo: David Fuhrer, MNG Director, Blue Sq Innovations & Shawn Green, past Dodgers & Mets MLB Star
POP Duo: Bob Fuhrer, Founder, Nextoy and Tom Fazio, Golf Course Designer