Saturday, January 31, 2015

How to use your time better this year


Safeguard your time jealously. Minimise any unscheduled activities as these will eat away at your precious time. Some things are not useful and yet take up quite some time. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP 
By IRENE NJOROGE-KRISTIAN
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Time management skills are some of the most important to have, as any business trainer will advise.
It is easy for those in the corporate sector to develop these skills because of the structured ...................
environment in which they operate. For those in the jua kali or freelance sector, it is a different story.
A lot of time is wasted due to a lack of structure and an ad hoc approach to business. It is not difficult to start developing time management skills. Here is a beginner’s guide that everyone can use to improve immediately.

Write things down
This is a basic tool to guide you in planning your day. Write down the things you plan to accomplish on a given day.
A diary or planner will help. This way, you will keep in mind the things that are yet to be done as you go about other tasks.
If you are prone to wasting time, give yourself a certain amount of time to do things. For example, you may indicate: washing and dressing up – 30 minutes, cleaning up – 30 minutes, etc.
Try not to exceed the time you have indicated for these tasks.

Become time-conscious
Learning to keep time is one of the ways you can master and control time.

Avoid time-wasting activities
Safeguard your time jealously. Minimise any unscheduled activities as these will eat away at your precious time. Some things are not useful and yet take up quite some time. For example:
 Phone calls – do not speak for more than one minute if it’s not important.
 People stopping you for a chat – If you are extremely busy, keep it brief.
 Lying in bed – break this habit by sleeping early to ensure that you sleep properly. Scientists have discovered that the more hours you manage to sleep before midnight, the more rested you feel in the morning. Try to be in bed by 9pm if you wish to be active the next day.
 Housework – If you are overwhelmed by housework, seek help so that you can utilise the time you spend doing it on other more productive activities.

For the self-employed freelancers
It is very important to have a to-do list for daily activities. Arrange this list in this order of priority:
 Urgent – These are the tasks that cannot be postponed.
 Important – These should be done as soon as possible
 Routine – These are the things that may be done when the others are completed.

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