Helpful Tips For Conquering The Five Surprising Time Management Myths No comments yet
Acclaimed author Stephen Covey told us that one of the seven habits of highly effective people is the ability to manage time correctly. No wonder there are so many misconceptions associated with time management as we all tend to look at the problem from different points of view. Here are some of the myths that we hear regularly, associated with time management:
1. The assumption that “plenty of time” is available and you can put something off indefinitely. This is never acceptable, as every block of time is equally valuable to you. If you have something to do and are assuming that you will have “plenty of time” left for this later, you may be forgetting to heed the requirements of “Murphy’s Law.” Always get something out of the way, if you have it scheduled.
2. Believing you can’t handle everything that you have to do. How is it that some people appear to breeze through everything that they have to complete, but that you have way too much “on your plate?” The answer is that you are not prioritising correctly and must organise your time much more efficiently. Everything will fit in.
3. Concluding that as you are so busy, you must reallocate tasks to a time in future. We all tend to live in the “here and now” and as such tend to subconsciously place additional value on the time at this very moment. In truth, each block of time available to you is of equal importance and you need to stop procrastinating.
4. Believing that we don’t have to do something now, as it is not important. Time management requires us to come up with a plan and to stick to it. Often, tasks may appear to be really trivial, but once your mind focuses on them, each task should be tackled and ticked off as you complete them, when such tasks are part of your scheduled and prepared plans for the day. Unless you do this, you just cannot be ultimately efficient.
5. Believing that it is impossible to reschedule. This is not true either, as there will, from time to time, be reasons why you should reschedule. An external event of some kind or additional information may come onto the radar screen and this may necessitate a reassessment of the project you are working on, while you get additional information to help you, or otherwise. You can always reschedule, but not if you’re just procrastinating, believing that it’s not as important to finish this task as you originally thought, and so on.
As such, online time management tools can focus your approach to achieving your time management goals. The highly effective people that we hear about are using time tracking software to ensure that they are “on point.” You will hear many myths on this subject to confuse you and should discount them. In our modern society, time management software will show you how efficient you are being in your daily life. When Covey talked about those highly effective people, remember that the key word was “highly.” Don’t do anything by halves, and certainly don’t do it with the management of your time.