Why You Need Good Time Managment Skills

Good Time Management Skills

I had the opportunity to facilitate a time management workshop for group of social workers in Charleston SC while contracting leadership company early on in the motivational training business. My first conce
ing thought was that this group was tasked to come to a required seminar and give up their valuable time. I am a huge proponent of effective time management techniques but initially did not see an immediate importance to this group. What I did not realize was that these professionals and I do mean professionals are probably the MOST time challenged individuals that I may know of. They have to get to work very early and leave really late; in between they have to deal with people in need and liaison with other programs/organizations to help people with all sorts of social needs. Probably the most challenging thing they had to conquer was setting and classifying priorities because their priorities were tied to people that all needed their help seemingly at the same time.

Time Management Tips And Strategies

What they were about to learn would change their time management habits for good IF they would stick to a system. The system is the key to consistent and effective time management and if you veer from your system and try to wing it you will lose every time. Just when you think you may have some major leeway and get off track you will certainly lose your plan. Time is so slippery – it’s like taking your eye off a toddler for a moment and the next thing you know there’s trouble. So how do you stay on course and accomplish the things you set out to do? How many times at the beginning of the week to you have a list of goals that you mentally set out to accomplish but at the end of the day or week you may only reach less than 50%? One of the main reasons this happens… It’s because those goals that you had were not defined into S.M.A.R.T goals. By SMART goals I mean realizing if they are Specific, Measureable, Actionable, Realistic and Time Specific. Using the S.M.A.R.T Goal criteria will help you determine if your goals are in fact valid and achievable. This is the formula you have to use to accomplish your goals successfully. In the case of the Social Workers (no pun intended) they had to define each goal with this formula in order to prioritize their situations to determine immediate need from the needs that could wait. Prioritizing is the next step to successful time management, yes once you have defined a valid goal then you must prioritize with the highest urgency first then trickle down to the things that can be subsequently. There may be more defining and refining of your goals in terms of the activities you will use to achieve them which will also help you prioritize.

We are often high-jacked by many distractions throughout the day both internal and exte
al but if you stick to a good time management system you can and will accomplish almost anything you set out to do.