By DeskDemon Staff

At one point or another in our lives we have all made the effort to be on time, to race against the clock, and win but many a time we fail and dismally at that. We find ourselves late and running around like headless chickens and we seem to be grasping at straws. Time is elusive and there is no way to stop the clock in favor of your activities or plans but you can utilize time by engaging in the following practical time management tips that work;

Failure to plan is planning to fail.
The idea that you just rush into your day, leaves you with more on your plate than when the day started and you will find that you would have done so many things that have little or nothing at all to do with your targets. To manage time, it is important to plan. Plan for your day, plan for your week, your month, your year, and your life. The plan does not have to be cast in stone, but a plan must be there nonetheless.

Planning helps you direct your actions towards what is key and what is urgent. Planning helps you maximize time with whatever activity you do. Before the day begins, plan what you will do and for how long you intend to do that particular activity. You may not be able to stick to timelines but this method is more effective than a “laissez-faire” attitude. By allocating time to each and everything that you do, you can meet your goals and targets. For example, you can even plan to do your shopping and give it a time frame, this means that while you are doing your shopping you are conscious that you only have a limited amount of time, this will stop you from mindless window shopping which may not be necessary at that particular moment. Thus, affording you the time to do those things are a priority on your list. Planning is essential, when you plan you can manage how you spend your time.

Get organized
A study has shown that we spend approximately 5000 hours of our life looking for things that are around us in the home and work environments. This shows that we do not have a system of doing things that ensures that we know where, what is and when. Planning for your day or your life is the easiest part of time management, implementing the plan, however, is the challenge. To effectively carry out the plan a system of operationalization is needed and that is being organized. Putting order in your life involves prioritization.

If everything is important then nothing is important at all. By getting organized everything is put in its place, urgent and important, urgent but not important, important but not urgent, not urgent and not important, this way you can give the priority to what is urgent and important. Getting organized also means a systematic way of doing things, for example putting your car keys in the same place every day can save you the time of looking for them in the morning. Waking up at the same time every day can save you time to get ready for your day, putting on similar clothes every day can help you save time looking for something to wear. In as much as some of us may not agree with some of the highlighted suggestions, the encouragement is to find a system that works for you. For others, it means planning their week's wardrobe while for others like Steve jobs it is owning similar-looking clothes so that there isn't much to think about in terms of what to put on. To each their own but get organized.

On-time is late.
We all strive to meet deadlines. Do you remember when you were at school and you would be so proud to submit an assignment that was due at 4:00pm at 3:55pm? What if I told you that being on time is late? Being on time puts you under pressure because if one thing veers off the course then it ultimately means that you are late.
To effectively manage time always strive to submit things before their deadline, make an effort to arrive a couple of minutes before the said time. By so doing you give room to get there on time perchance things do not go according to plan. For those that have job interviews, it is always better to get there earlier so that you settle down, calm your nerves and be ready for the task at hand. The same applies to work and school, if your work is done before the deadline, you can read, note corrections, and submit work that you are confident of. You will have ample time to check, proofread and test and you know that your work is good instead of haphazardly submitting work that you are not very sure of.
 
Despite the elusiveness of time, it can be managed and it can work in your favor just as long as you utilize it to your advantage. There is no perfect way to manage time but the aforementioned can go a long way in utilizing the time that is available to you.