5 Ways to Control Your Time
Time is something most people wish they had more of. Here are 5 ways to squeeze more out of your day:
Plan Ahead I call this living on purpose. I like to plan my week out on Sunday nights. I use an old-fashioned paper calendar and I transfer my schedule to my daily planner using color coding to see what areas I need to fill in. This gives me a good overview of where I’m spending my time and what areas need more attention. This does not take long at all and helps me to be purposeful about where my time is going. If I notice that I have not spent much time on relationships recently, I can make it a point to plan something. I do not micro-manage my time in the least, and if you saw my daily planner you would see a lot of white space, but I do want to be intentional about spending time on the things that are important to me.
Prioritize This does not require complicated calculations or numbering systems. It simply requires that you know what is important to you and for you to focus your energy on those things. The best way I know for doing this is to sit down and decide what you want to accomplish over the next year in the different areas of your life – financial, career, relationships, recreation, health, personal development, and community service. Choose 3 things for each area and those become your priority. Focus your time and energy on activities that will help support what you want in those areas.
Limit time suckers Time suckers can be different for each person. For some it is social media outlets for some it is emails or television. Know 
what your time suckers are and then get disciplined. Time management is all about discipline and being willing to give up some things for the short term in order to enjoy long term success. Doing a time study is a great way to get an accurate account of where your time is going. To do a time study you track where your time is going in half hour increments in real time. It can seem tedious and time consuming but what you find out about where your time is really going is worth it.
Map out your time Do you have specific time set aside for business activities? Do you know how many hours you want to work each week? If you don’t, your time will get away from you. First, decide how many hours you will work each week. Then break that down into client time, marketing time, admin time, etc. If you are a service provider you can’t spend all of your time with clients. You have to spend time marketing too in order to keep your pipeline full. Map it out using the daily planner and decide what days and times you will set aside for each activity.
Minimize personal calls This is especially important for self-employed people. Your friends and family will want to call you during the day to chat because you aren’t doing anything anyway, right? It’s important to become disciplined about this so that it doesn’t become a habit. Early on it is important to spend as much time as possible focusing and working on business development activities to help your business grow.
For a total time management system that isn’t time consuming, check out How to Organize & Manage Your Time – A One Year Planning and Action Guide.
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