Time management is important. A vital success skill even. If you aren’t working on it, you are spending more time to get something done than you need to.

And why would you ever want to spend more time on something than is necessary? This article will show you the quickest way to avoid that problem. Read on.

Rapid Improvement

The key to rapid improvement starts with the old engineering dictum:

“What gets measured… improves.”

If you want rapid results, start here. Find a way to track your improvement in time management. Let me explain.

Reading about time management is one thing.

Applying it to your life is a whole ‘nother animal.

This is what will motivate you to do just that. Before beginning any study of time management, start here. Or you’ll likely end up with 1/10th of the results. Why?

Your motivation will fluctuate and you’ll end up forgetting about doing it. (Sound familiar?) You only get results when you apply it to your life. Keep reading to learn how to fix that motivational leak.

Keep in mind. This article is not about a quick-fix for time management. It’s much more valuable than some quick tips back-to-back. It’s about how you can improve your time management skills as quickly as possible. There’s more.

It is recommended that you do this in conjunction with studying time management as a whole. Here’s what you need to know.

How To Do It

Start keeping track of your time wasted each day. Here’s a simple way to do it (it’s recommended that you use a spreadsheet for this. But if you don’t work at a computer, a notepad will do).

Create a spreadsheet with the following information. In the top left corner, put the time you started working. Below that, put your first task for the day. Next to it, record the current time. Then get started.

Once you finish the task, take note of the current time. Subtract the time you started the task from the time right now. Put this in the cell next to the start time. This next part is important.

Think about what happened during that task. Were you 100% focused? Did you stare into space for a little bit? In the cell, to the right.

Put how much of that total time was actually spent completely focused and working. It doesn’t need to be perfect. A rough estimate will do (be honest with yourself. If it took you 60 minutes but you stared into space for 20m of it – put 40).

Keep repeating this process. For each task, keep track of how long it took you and how much of that time was spent completely focused.

Once you finish for the day, record your end time in the bottom left corner (the time you finish work for the day). Now, here’s the most important part.

Calculating Time Wasted

At the end of the day, subtract your start time from your end time. Then subtract the duration of your lunch break. This is the total time you spent working. Next.

Add up the results producing time column. Subtract it from the total time you spent working. This is how much time you wasted for the day. Let’s be honest.

It’s going to be painful at first. Seeing how much time is wasted each day. But forgive yourself. And focus on improving that metric as your knowledge of time management grows.

All the Best,

Dante Romero

Effective time management takes more than information. It takes a lot more. There isn’t room here for everything, but you can get more here: Techniques of Time Management [http://hiddenconstraints.com/qdqa/techniques-of-time-management/].

Author: Dante Romero
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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