Time Management Principles

The most important thing during the work day is to accomplish your boss's tasks quickly and qualitatively. Time management seems to be a trifle and you have neither time nor strength for it. But this is not true. It is time management that will help to get rid of constant rush job and allocate your effort effectively.

The main principles of time management are simple enough for everybody. First, you should admit the necessity of time management during the workday.

In order to plan your work time you should draw up a written or electronic detailed plan for the following day. As a task is accomplished, you just cross out the corresponding point from your plan. If some tasks are not urgent right now, you cross them out too.

One of the main principles of time management is to set priorities. In order to use this principle, you should determine the most urgent and the most insignificant tasks. Then you perform them according to their priority, beginning with the most important task and finishing with a non-urgent one.

By the way the well-known Pareto principle is appropriate in this case. The principle states that 20 % of work give 80 % of results, the rest 80 % of work give only 20 % of results. It means that the most difficult tasks should be performed early in the day, no matter how unpleasant and undesirable they are.

According to another principle of time management you should set a deadline for every task. At the same time don't forget to split large tasks which take much time and effort into smaller ones.

When you plan your workday it is important to determine future tasks and aims accurately, to allot the exact period of time for every task. But don't forget that your plan should be flexible as it is impossible to anticipate everything. That's why it would be useful to leave some time for different unexpected tasks and circumstances.