Time Management
Published: 2022-08-01 08:13:00

>“The most efficient way to live reasonably is every morning to make a plan of one’s day and every night to examine the results obtained.”

Alexis Carrel


**What is Time Management**
The process of planning your time around different tasks. I like to base Time Management around 3 key concepts:

- Prioritization
- Scheduling
- Punctuality and Discipline

Time management enables us to become more effective in our daily lives and also boosts our confidence and calmness.

**Importance of Time Management**

1. Brings confidence and calmness
When you are sure that each critical activity has an allocated time in your calendar, you are likely to feel more confident through your day.

2. Makes us more organized
Managing your time forms a habit of being organized that can extend into other parts of life.

3. Gives you more free time
After using time management you will certainly notice that you normally have more time than you think you  have. Not planning only creates an illusion that time is not enough.

4. Makes us more effective 

Properly scheduling an activity helps you identify hidden problems that you might not have seen otherwise. This way you can solve them before hand. The problems might include things like unforeseen expenses.
You are also able select the most appropriate time for the activity if you properly manage your time. This is quite important because you end up being more productive if you do an activity at the right time.

**An  Example of an Effective Time Manager in History**

> "What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent and What Is Urgent Is Seldom Important"

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7fecvh1efwmw0gtwdk5v.jpeg)
_Dwight Eisenhower 34th US President_

Eisenhower was such a strong time manager that one important concept "Eisenhower Matrix" is named after him.

**Important Concepts in Time Management**
Eisenhower Matrix


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/sw5k38b1s7ctdxj707a5.png)

It divides activities based on urgency and importance. From it we get the following:

- if an activity is both urgent and important - Do it now
- If its important but not urgent,schedule it
- if its urgent but not important,delegate the task
- if its not important and its not urgent, delete the task.

**Creative tools for Time management**

1 Google Calendar
This is my most effective tool for time management. The reasons are pretty straightforward:

- Its cloud based and so you can access it anywhere anytime and from multiple devices
-It has both phone version and Web version so i can use it on my computer and on my phone with no problems

2 Google Tasks
This is a simple task manager from Google. The reason i choose it is because integrates with the calendar and that's a good thing. If i schedule a task in tasks it goes straight into calendar.

**Important Concepts in Time Management**
1. Prioritization
To be a good time manager you have to be able to select the most important activity among a group of several and give it more importance. This is important to ensure that critical activities are carried out first.
2. Scheduling
This is allocating time slots for each activity you want to archive. The more you do it the more you get better at it.
3. Delegating
Giving tasks that do not require your expertise to people who would do it more effectively. This saves you time.


**Time Management hacks From personal Experience**

1. Always plan your whole week on Sunday. (it doesn't have to be Sunday, just find one day and plan 7 days ahead)
2. Be disciplined, just scheduling activities wont do the trick, you have to do the scheduled activities.

**Conclusion**

Time management is an important soft skill for each us. If one of your goals is being effective in anything, you cannot overlook time management. To be able to master time management we need to practice it, Just like any other skill. I hope i have impacted your life in a meaningful way. Lets meet in another article fellow time managers.