Time Management > Importance of Time Management > Learning Time Management Skills

Step One to Learning Time Management Skills - Ditch Those Bad Habits!

Photo by Sarah Ross Photography. (See footer for photo credit links)

Why is time management important? It is one of the most important life skills you will ever learn. Time management allows you to live a balanced life. There is a common expression regarding time management - If you don't manage your time, it will manage it for you.

The first step to learning time management skills is - ditch those bad habits. Bad habits are things you do that take up a lot of time but you don't really benefit in any way. Here are some common bad habits, do you do any of them?

Multi-Tasking

Very, very common. Multi-tasking has been proven again and again, to be inefficient way of managing your time. There has even been a few studies showing multi-tasking drops your IQ further than smoking pot!!

Can you be found on the phone, eating lunch, typing an email and trying to find the phone number for the dentist? You are a multi-tasker.

A huge action step towards learning time management skills is: ditch the multi-tasking!

Not Handling Interruptions

Interruptions can really break your flow. It can be hard to get back on task after being completely distracted by someone or something interrupting your train of thought. What can you do to reduce interruptions?

Turn your phone off during work time (or any other time that requires your full attention).

Don't leave msn, facebook or twitter alerts on

If you work from home, make sure your friends and family are aware of this. Ask them to call after a certain time if they want to contact you.

Disorganization

How does being disorganized affect learning time management skills? Simply put, being disorganized means you spend a good amount of time looking for things, or following things up.

At home do your keys have a set spot? Or is there always an inevitable family scramble to help you find your keys? Do you regularly run out of a staple pantry item like milk or bread? Spending time regularly at the corner store picking up basics? Both of these situations can be eliminated with a little organization.

Three quick tips to better organization. Have a place for everything, menu plan and don't let things pile up.

Procrastination

Procrastination is probably up there with multi-tasking for how common it is. Basically everyone procrastinates about something! (even me...)

The key to overcoming procrastination is working out what you procrastinate about and why. A quick tip for beating procrastination - set a timer for a short amount of time and just get stuck in. You can do almost any task no matter how unpleasant for 15 minutes (or 5 if you are really dreading it!).

Where to Next?