I’ve always had trouble achieving work life balance. To me, it was impossible. You had to give up something to attain achievement on the other but little did I know that I was doing something very wrong. I was delaying my tasks both personally and professionally. I was slowly building my own nightmare. By delaying tasks, I was creating an enormous pile of things to do – all of which have tight deadlines.

If there’s one time management skill I needed, it was the ability to end procrastination. I needed to stop doing things the next day when I can work on it right here, right now. I needed to have a new perspective and a new approach to my tasks. I needed discipline and a great reminder of what I should do to improve productivity.

Doing things right away entails a great deal of discipline especially when laziness lurks in every corner. You need to be focused on what you want to happen so you can do things that will actually help you attain those. Doing things right away also helps you with time management. If you’re able to end your tasks way before the deadline, you have ample time for other things.  Getting things done right then and there is one of the best time management techniques out there. It definitely saves you time.

How can you mend your ways?

You need to understand why you’re always late. What is it that’s keeping you? Could it be your habit of staying in bed even after the alarm has gone off, telling yourself you just need 5 more minutes? Keep a close eye on what you’re doing and eliminate those that are unnecessary.

It’s all about discipline. No amount of time management training will work if you won’t help yourself. You need to make a conviction to work on not being late.

Look at the bigger picture and the effects it has on your life. You need to understand that being late is always a negative thing especially when you’re in a corporate world and that it doesn’t improve productivity. It does damage to your reputation and evaluations.

Prioritize. Being late doesn’t only apply to your physical presence in the office. It also applies to your tasks and their delivery dates. One time management skill that comes in handy is planning and setting your priorities.  By getting important things done right away, you have enough time for other things.

Own up to responsibility. Learn to respect other people’s time and efforts as they are being affected by your tardiness. You know what time you should be in the office or when the tasks are to be submitted. Be responsible enough to make sure those are met.

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A professor came to his class with a jar, some big rocks, pebbles and sand. He stood before the class and began teaching.

He took out the jar and filled it with big rocks. He asked the class if the jar was full and the class nodded in agreement but at the same time they were confused.

He then took out some pebbles and dropped them in the same jar. He shook the jar and the pebbles rolled to the open areas between the big rocks. He asked the class if it was full and the class nodded in agreement yet again.

He then took out the sand and dropped it in the jar with the pebbles and rock. The sand covered everything else – every space left between the rocks and pebbles. He asked the class if it was full and they nodded in agreement. The class was beginning to wonder what the point of the whole experiment was to which the professor calmly explained: “This jar is your life. The big rocks are the important things in your life such as family, children, partner, health and everything else that’s important to you, the pebbles represent the things that matter on a smaller scale such as your job, car, house, etc. and the sand is everything else. If you placed the sand or pebbles first, there wouldn’t be any more room for the big rocks. In your life, if you spend too much time doing things on the small stuff, you will never have time to do the things that truly matter.”

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It led me to thinking that while we strive hard to find the best time management techniques just so we can improve productivity in our lives, we forget the simplest rule there is. We need to determine which things are important for us and set our priorities. We need to work on the big rocks in our lives. We can work on the pebbles and sand afterwards.

• In decision making, you need to identify the purpose of your decision. You need to know what problem needs to be solved and why it should be solved.
• You need to gather information and facts regarding the matter at hand. You need to know the factors that are involved in the problem.
• Before giving out any solution, you need to know the standards and criteria that the solution should meet. There may be limitations and rules to be considered before coming up with the solution.
• You can’t come up with just one solution but instead, you need to come up with a list of ideas or possible solutions.
• Weigh each solution to determine its advantages and disadvantages. Once you have carefully gone through the pros and cons of each, determine which solution is best.
• Put your chosen solution in action and execute your plan.
• Evaluate the outcome of the solution and see if it has helped improve productivity and the company in general. You also need to take notes of the things that can be improved or avoided for future reference.

We can’t have all day to make decisions because that’s a complete set back on time management. However, we also can’t risk making the wrong one. The best time management techniques suggest that in decision making, you need to keep your eye on the goal and sometimes, you need to heed your intuition without disregarding the facts.

When it comes to time management techniques, one principle that works wonders is writing down important things in your head. You don’t have to remember everything but you should always write them down instead.

Notes always come in handy especially in a fast paced world like the one we are living in nowadays. When you’re in a meeting or are in a conversation with your bosses, do not try to remember everything they have just said all in your head. It’s definitely not helping solve your time management issues. Write them down instead. This way, when you get back to your desk, you won’t forget anything – not even one detail. If you wait until after you have talked, tendency is you forget some things in between. And you never know that that something may just be the most important thing.

When you’re in bed and suddenly thought of a great idea that can help improve your work, write it down. When you do this, you are freeing your mind from thinking about it all the more thus giving you more time to rest.

Writing down things help improve productivity because you won’t have to spend too much time remembering what you were asked to do or forgetting brilliant ideas.

Emails are an essential part of a company’s operations. It’s one of the communication channel used to delegate, inform or simply convey important things across several people in the office or across the world. It’s an effective way of communication but it can also takes up a lot of time if not done the right way. Spending too much time in writing or reading emails is not part of time management skills that lets you get things done in lesser time.

Here are some time management techniques in dealing with emails:

Emails are great and they are of big importance too but make sure that they don’t distract you in any way or be the reason why you can’t get things done.

1. Do your best to keep all your attention in the appropriate places. If you’re at home, do not think of work and just be with your family.
2. Do not forget that you have a partner. Divide the workload as much as possible and let your partner be a part of the responsibilities at home.
3. Do not feel guilty every time you go to the office. You’re working to earn a living, not spending leisure time.
4. Do not hesitate to communicate openly with your boss and co-workers. This will give them a clear picture of what you’re going through and how they can help. They can also help in making work life balance attainable.
5. Do not think too much of household chores and keeping everything spic and span. With a baby or toddler in the house, cleaning the house after them is a never ending task.
6. Try to think of ways to maximize time. You can take advantage of a flexible schedule or other arrangements that can help you spend more time at home. With time management, you can gain more time to spend with your family.
7. Always have time for your partner once in a while. Go out on dates; watch a movie or anything that allows the two of you to be alone. This helps maintain a good family work life balance.
8. Always have time for yourself. Enjoy a day with your closest girl friends or treat yourself to a spa. You need time to be with yourself to stay focused.

Work life balance is placed with great value and considered to be one essential part of a person’s life. However to the new generation, they have long given up hope of achieving work life balance. To them, it doesn’t exist. But they choose the work that best fits their lifestyle. They don’t settle for anything less anymore. For people who want to travel and have more personal time, they only take part-time jobs. With the right time management skills, this gives them more than enough time to do where they want to go. They also do not invest in material things such as houses or cars because they know they won’t be staying in one place for a long time. For people who are career-oriented and are thirsty for newer and bigger accomplishments, they go for jobs in highly acclaimed companies that provide great benefits to help improve productivity. The people of the newer generation work only for the type of job that they are interested in and the amount that can sustain their way of living.

Because of this, companies who are looking to hire more employees must think of ways to attract them. The old tricks won’t do anymore. Recruiters must now target the right persons for the jobs. They should give out a little bit more flexibility and more room for time management. Recruiters should always promote communication lines to be open at all times to be able to have a more thorough and reasonable negotiation.

Instead of going through numerous time management trainings, you only need to make a habit of five simple steps. Once you get used to it, everything else will fall into place.

1. Get enough sleep. That doesn’t necessarily mean longer hours in deep slumber but rather, the quality of your sleep. You need to be relaxed and not stressed to fully optimize your sleep.

2. To avoid wasting precious time, always have a to-do list. This tells you exactly what you need to do first thing when you get to the office.

3. Clean your work stations or areas. A messy desk can never help improve productivity. Clutters and mess everywhere can add to more distractions. Instead of concentrating, you end up distracted, irate and unproductive.

4. No matter how busy you are, do not forget to take your lunch breaks. We all need a time out from all office works to unwind and clear our mind. It’s also a way to retrieve and refresh our creative juices.

5. You need to spend quality time on all aspects of our lives. Our lives are composed of seven vital areas which are: family, health, spiritual, intellectual, financial, social and professional. Each one of these areas requires our attention in order to achieve a proper work life balance. They are all connected and inter-related which is why it is essential that we take good care of them.

By following the above-mentioned steps, achieving time management doesn’t seem so difficult anymore.

In the years that I’ve worked as a freelance artist, I’ve learned a couple of things that help me get through. These time management tips may be helpful to all you freelancers out there. It helped me improve productivity and made it easier in achieving work life balance.

I don’t normally work more than 80 hours a week. I only do extra work if there’s a critical problem. Other than that, I always keep 80 hours or even less than that. Besides, if you strain yourself too much and force your brain to think, you’ll still end up with sloppy ideas due to stress. So might as well call it a day and start fresh tomorrow.

I have kids and I love playing with them. However, we put them to bed early because they need all the sleep they can get. So how can you spend more time with them even if you’ve got unfinished work to do? One of my time management techniques is simple. I stop working at 5 in the afternoon and spend the remaining hours playing with them till its bedtime. When they’re in bed, I go back to working and finish whatever needs to be finished. It works, I tell you.

Do not miss dinner. Always eat dinner with your family. Bond with your kids, talk to your wife and enjoy the food.

Once in a while, I always leave the house to free my mind. It’s always nice to smell a little bit of fresh air and take in the beautiful sights around me.

There are pressures – they are inevitable. But it’s all about how you handle your time and tasks that make you different from all the rest. Yes, time management is the key.