I wish there were 48 hours in a day...

I wish there were 48 hours in a day.

Time management is a very important skill to master not only for our professional lives, but also for our personal well being. Effective use of time enables us to work more productively, lower stress levels, and have more time to do the things we need and enjoy doing. Here are ten tips that will help your time management.

Here are a few time management tips for you;

• Organize your work area: File things where you'll find them, not where you think they belong according to a category. Think "where would I find this?"

• Commit to a particular allotment of time for each project: Allowing yourself an hour a day for taking an action on a new project will keep your momentum going without being overwhelming or boring.

• Do your most difficult work when you are in your peak performance state: If you're an early morning person, do that extra-effort-needed project first thing in the morning. If late evening hours are more your speed, save that high-energy project for that time.

• Perform less demanding work at the time of day when you are most likely to be in a slump: If mid-afternoon is your body's sluggish time, save your mindless tasks and other less important to-do's for this time. The point is to get what you need done without wasting whatever time you have available to you at any given time.

• Schedule your phone calls around your peak performance levels: You want to give your customers/clients your very best attention and this requires energy and enthusiasm.

• Place your phone on voicemail mode at strategic times of the day: Voicemail is wonderful for those times when you're either feeling sluggish, want some quiet time, or just want to get a project done. You can access your messages later and return calls on a priority basis.

• Let others in your home/office know when you don't want to be disturbed: Constant interruptions are annoying and distracting; they are also time-zappers. Letting people know when it's ok to interrupt and when it's not is crucial to time management.

• Prioritize your day: Everything is not an earth-shattering emergency! Someone else's perception of a priority does not mean it is so to you. Discern what needs your attention immediately, what can be delegated, and what can be addressed later.

• Delegate: Everything that needs to be done does not have to be done by you. Delegating to another person can save you a lot of time in mundane tasking.

• Instead of a to-do list, create a goal for the day: Throw out the to-do list that never gets done, causes you stress and frustration, and makes you feel like a failure. Instead, set yourself a single goal for the day.

Follow these and you will never ever say, "I wish there were 48 hours in a day."

Time Management Matrix from First Things First, by Stephen R. Covey

Urgency is time related, importance is value related, but most people respond to urgency rather than importance. Whilst they can coincide, they are not the same and a key point with time management is to deal with important tasks before they become urgent, as it is easier to do the important tasks well when they are not urgent.

To use the Time Management Matrix effectively you need to decide what sits where and focus on the important tasks rather than urgent ones. Although, in the short-term, you must do the urgent and important tasks first, for more effective time management in the longer-term, it is better to focus on quadrant 2 – the tasks which are important, but not yet urgent.

The core skill in time management is deciding what tasks lie in each square and having the discipline to do them in the right order.

People will often do tasks in quadrants 3 and 4 rather than sector 2, as displacement activities. A great example of this is office tidying, or answering emails, when you have something important to be working on. The key question to ask is, ‘if it is not important why are you doing it?’ If it is not important then these tasks can either be dumped, or delegated.

Asking your researchers the following questions, with reference to this model, may help move them forward, by giving them greater clarity on what is really important and urgent in their work

• What are the demands on your time? (categorise them into the table above)
• What will you need to do differently to manage your time more effectively?