Getting things done can be a very a difficult or a very easy task. The difference between the two is time management. But time management requires more than just writing down something on a simple journal, it involves your ability to understand your personal routines and to use this to your advantage. Effective time management begins when you realize that time is precious and you should be a miser with it.

Being good at time management has many benefits. It should first and foremost allow you to reduce pressure and allow you to take a more relaxed approach to life. If you can schedule your time properly, you’ll have a clear definition of when you will be working on a certain task, how long this task will take, and therefore when you will have time away from this task to take breaks or do other activities. With this scheduled timeline, your mind is able to relax because it knows that it won’t be spending all its time doing this one thing. This is a very powerful way to get you to start working and to continue working until your scheduled time for this task is over.

By clearly defining when you are doing what, you logically understand that you have already defined your time in a manner that you find appropriate. If you are faced with many tasks all at once, without any kind of schedule, you will feel overwhelmed when you contemplate performing all these tasks in your mind. But once the schedule has been made, and you have given yourself a certain time to do each thing, you lose that sense of being overwhelmed because you now have a plan that seems logical and doable to you.

Perhaps the best thing about having a good schedule, is the fact that it clearly lets you know when you have leisure time to pursue interests that are more entertaining to you. By knowing when you work, you know when you don’t work. The mind requires this kind of scheduling because in this way it does not feel oppressed; a slave that is doomed to toil forever. Knowing that it will have a break soon, the mind will focus all of its ability in the moment without any reservation or laziness.

The most important part of good time management, is deciding what to do first. When you have many tasks to do, your mind runs wild pursuing each one and then changing its mind and pursuing another. By logically breaking down what you will do first, second, third, etc. you give your mind the structure that it needs to be able to begin. Before you begin you must know where to begin or else you will never get started it all.

A very important aspect of scheduling, and one that is seldom contemplated, is the ability to schedule certain tasks during the correct time. What this means is that when you schedule something, you should not just schedule things randomly but that you should consider your own personal feelings and abilities. I for example find it much easier to do heavy tasks early in the morning, I know others that need to do much of their heavy work late in the evening when the world is quiet. Think about the routines that you now have; when is it that you like to engage in heavy activity? When is it that you like to sit around and contemplate? When do you do your best creative thinking? Schedule your tasks with these thoughts in mind so that you go with the flow of your own energy instead of against it. This can make all the difference in the world when it comes to doing something easily or struggling to get something done.

Once you have found the task that you will be beginning with, and you have scheduled your time in accordance with your own energy levels and routines, you need to develop a strategy to be able to complete this first task easily. The best way to do this is to break down this first task, and any other task that you have scheduled, into smaller chunks.
So when you do schedule something, leave some space underneath your journal or whatever it is that you’re using to record your schedule, so that you can break down this task into even smaller subtasks. In this way any one task will not seem so difficult because you will be breaking it down even more, into very manageable chunks that will be far less intimidating and far easier to accomplish.

In order to have good time management, you need to be realistic. Many people love to create all sorts of scheduled lists about how they will be attempting one project or another. They stack on tons of things into one day and tell themselves that they will be getting this done without problem. Unfortunately for many this becomes a fantasy where once they see the length of the list that they have just created, they decide to perhaps engage in something else before they begin anything at all. The only way that you will get anything done is if you are realistic about the time that it will take for you to do something. You can’t just stack things one on top of the other without much thought or reason. If your mind does not believe that your schedule is possible, it will not even attempt to begin your day’s activities. Be realistic about what you can get done and how long this project will take. Make sure that you give yourself plenty of breaks so that you do not feel overwhelmed throughout the day. Take care of yourself and be honest or else you will not have the impetus to get going on anything.

Be a miser with your time because it is far more important than money. When you spend your money, and you are a wise spender, you are frugal and try to create a good budget which will satisfy all your needs. Your time is far more precious than money and you should be even more frugal in how you spend it because you only have a certain amount to use, and you are not getting anymore. Motivate yourself to create good time management so that you spend all of the time that you have on this Earth wisely. This does not mean that you should not goof off or have fun, what I’m trying to say is that you should schedule your tasks properly so that you do not waste endless time feeling sorry for yourself or being lazy.

Always make sure that you schedule time for fun things. The best reason to have good time management, to have a good scheduled itinerary, is to be able to have even more time to have fun yourself. Make sure that you schedule time to liven up old routines and tasks. If you go from one project to another without ever taking any time for yourself, you are essentially wasting time through poor scheduling; you are wasting fun time. Schedule properly so that you feel empowered and focused, but also schedule your time in a way that allows you to live more and have more fun in your life. Good time management allows you to have a better and more rewarding life.