Effective Time Management Starts with Realistic Scheduling

By TJ Philpott

Establishing some type of effective time management 'routine' begins not with developing certain habits or skills but rather with your own expectations. When trying to improve upon your use of time it is important to realize that the emphasis needs to be placed on increasing productivity. Being successful in this regard begins with not overloading your schedule and making it even more difficult to accomplish anything at all! Increasing productivity starts with successfully completing one task 'before' moving onto another. Overloading your schedule will not accomplish this and will only likely result in introducing more chaos into your life.
Here are 3 compelling reasons for being more realistic when trying to make the best use of time by keeping your schedule/expectations more manageable.
Helps Maintain Focus
When you contain your ambition by not overloading your schedule you are able to better focus on the tasks at hand. Being ambitious is great however you need to keep your expectations realistic otherwise you will be continually distracted by other things you have hoped to achieve. This will result in a lower quality effort being put into whatever you may be trying to accomplish and instead of increasing productivity you will find yourself being less productive. This can also very easily lead to you having to go back and fix mistakes which is an ineffective use of time!
Helps Control Stress
Having too much to do not only leads to a lower quality in the work you perform but it also frustrates you leading to stress. This is a cycle you want to avoid in any aspect of your life since it affects not only your performance but your health as well! The further behind you get the more stress and anxiety you will experience which will result in the constant tension continually feeding your already anxious feelings! Ironically when you schedule more than you can complete in an effort to make the best use of time you actually are setting yourself up for failure!
Positive Reinforcement
Maintaining a more manageable 'to do' list allows you to complete everything you had set out to do and in a much more thorough manner. What you will find is that you begin to become more proficient at the tasks or functions you are completing. This in turn allows you to then begin to add more to your schedule thereby increasing productivity. Now your self confidence is on the rise as will be the quality of your work and the positive feeling you get from being successful at what you are able to accomplish!
The net net is you are now increasing your proficiency along with your output in a more timely manner and this is what you were striving to do. Keep up the good work!
Effective time management begins with successfully completing any tasks or functions you have previously scheduled. By overloading your to-do list with unrealistic expectations you are only inviting more chaos into your day and life. Maintaining more manageable scheduling habits will help you make better use of time by allowing for the successful completion of everything you set out to accomplish. The 3 reasons for this and how it actually does contribute towards increasing productivity were discussed above. Being successful at better managing your time starts with learning not to allow your expectations to over-ride your abilities or resources. When this happens distractions and discouragement can set-in making a long day longer while also decreasing your productivity.