Planning, Organization, and To-Do Lists - 7 Things You Must Do To Improve Your Time Management

Planning and Organization

When you combine goal setting, prioritizing things, and planning and organizing you have a road map for your life that allows you to spend quality time with family and enjoy fun and recreation.

It's hard work structuring your day so that you can fit in all that you want and need to do. The saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is so true. Preparing yourself and the surrounding area helps tremendously. I have listed a few things below that help me with the basics, which leaves more time for the crucial.

1. Organize your space. My office is my car and the left side of the sofa. I try to have everything that I need at my fingertips. I have pens, paper, stapler, readers, calculator, etc. right there on the little table beside the sofa.

2. Get prepared the night before: Before you head to bed each night look at tomorrow's schedule and plan the entire day. What time you will walk out the door, what materials will you need.

3. Have a place for everything and everything in its place. We all spend too much time looking for things. If you have a place for your keys, a place for your cell phone and put them there every time you walk in the house you will not waste time searching for them. This also means putting things back where they belong.

4. Make a "to do" list. This gives you direction plus it is great fun scratching things off the list once completed.

5. Limit things that occupy too much time. Give yourself only 20 minutes on Facebook or 1 hour only of TV.

6. Multi task. The car should either be a rolling university or a good time to return phone calls. (NO texting while driving!) I have a list of calls to return and a stack of CDs just in case I get through all the calls or get stuck in traffic.

7. Last but not least have a filing system. Invest in the necessary items to have a good filing system. Stacks of important things are bad...very bad. Things will get lost. Things that make you stress out. When the mail comes in either pay it, trash it or file it. Don't be caught picking up the same letter over and over and trying to decide what to do with it. Touch the mail once.

These are just a few of the things that help me stay organized and improve my time management. And you may have heard...time is valuable - spend it wisely.

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