There are few careers and lifestyles out there that are without their stressful phases… therefore, it’s vital to understand the importance of time management. Having a managed, stress-free schedule can make a huge difference for your personal finances. A lot of similarities can be drawn between managing money and time. For example – always wondering where it went!
Improving Time Management Benefits Your Finances!
Effective time management is an essential skill for any successful human being. Successfully managing one of these aspects gives us the ability to transfer our resources into the other. On a daily basis, we face a multitude of time pressures. Time management is about taking control of your available time – before it takes control of you!
Streamline Your Priorities!
Many people fall into the trap of completing tasks as they pop up… or focusing on doing the simple tasks first because they’re easier. Unfortunately, this can lead to time-sensitive or urgent tasks being overlooked; creating far more work pressure than required. The most effective method for overcoming this? Determine your priorities. It’s simpler than you think; especially if you follow our advice and create a daily to-do list.
Being able to prioritise stretches everything further. By prioritising tasks, you intend to accomplish your tasks in order of their hierarchical importance. Prioritising and completing tasks that matter more also creates a better sense of personal success. Having a clear focus on your time and money goals will make it easier to stay on track. A focus on goals will also help you with the prioritisation of what matters most.
Time Management is as Easy as A, B, C!
For a very simple way to prioritise your tasks, try thinking about each of them on 3 levels of priority: A being the most urgent, B being relatively time-bound and C as being something you can postpone tomorrow without any negative effect.
The Difference Between Priorities and Goals
Think of goals as being part of the ‘bigger picture’; tangible milestones that you’re trying to achieve (e.g. saving for a house deposit). Priorities are the things that you’ll need to say yes or no to in order to reach that goal.
For example, in order to pay off your mortgage faster, your priorities need to be making your money work harder for you.
Develop a Routine
Having a routine will cut down the amount of time spent on decision making each day. Albert Einstein owned several variations of the same grey suit, which he wore every day. He reasoned he could use the extra brainpower and time for more beneficial purposes, instead of deciding what to wear.
We recommend creating a simple to-do list that you can follow each morning and afternoon.
Example Routine/To-Do List
Morning
- Turn on the computer and make a coffee
- Check email and respond to urgent ones
- Review to-do list – adding non-urgent emails
- Review lesson plans for the day
Afternoon
- Send emails as needed
- Tidy any mess from the day
- Write a to-do list for tomorrow
- Prepare materials for the next day’s work
Don’t Freak Out!
If you don’t meet all your time management goals straight away, don’t expend energy on stress. Building resilience is all about making ongoing progress in time management. As long as you’ve done your best, there is simply no point in adding stress to your to-do list for tomorrow.
No matter how hard you work to manage your time, there are still only 24 hours in a day to get it all done. Spend a while observing your day to day work as objectively possible to identify areas where improvements can be made if you feel you need to.
