Time Management book suggestion

supercooldude

Hi everyone,

I am sure there are many like me, but frankly I'm finding it hard to manage my time having a full time job,
freelancing on the side, part-time college classes and family duties, while pursuing certs.

Could anyone suggest a good book or video material on time management?

Much appreciated,

SCD

supercooldude

bump...

Kasor

All you need is a PDA or excel worksheet that have all your schedule. You just follow them. It is too easy.

Most time management methods which you will learn from business class, jobs and talking to other people. You can find a lot of books about management, but you don't need it. You can do it by a simple techique.

You need a watch and something to keep track of everything. Too easy.

Schluep

The best suggestion I would give is to make a list either at night before you go to bed or first thing in the morning of what you plan to accomplish for the day and specifically when you plan to accomplish it and how long it will take. Having an excel template made up works great. I recommend not only having the electronic copy but printing it and looking at it throughout the day (it doesn't do any good to make a list and then forget what is on it or not follow it). I usually stick one in my pocket and pull it out every two hours or so throughout the day. I find it is very helpful in staying organized and on task.

Another good thing to do is keep a master list of all of the short term, mid-term, and long terms tasks you need to accomplish. Prioritize them numerically or with A, B, C. The higher priority ones that are close to deadlines get put on the daily list sooner or with larger time blocks. The lower priority ones may stay on the master list for a much longer time. If you live in the US you could put Income Taxes on there as a C priority around January. Come mid-March if you still haven't had time to put them on your daily list you would probably bump it up to a B. Sometime in early April it would definitely be an A depending on how many businesses/jobs you have and what alternate schedules you may need to file.

These is what I do to stay organized. I first read about it in a book (couldn't remember which one for the life of me.) I have ready many books on Business and People Skills (as well as listened to a lot of audio while in my car), most of which all include sections on Time Management. I can't say I have any recommendations for specific Time Management books however.

binarysoul

Do more multi-tasking and less uni-tasking; that's the secret of time-management.

See if there are things you shouldn't be doing. I'm guilty of reading differnet news, only at the end to find out it was irrelevant to me So, now I only read the headlines.

Bottom line, do more things simultenously and try to find out what you shouldn't be doing. Time will self-manage itself.

Good luck

P.S. ensure visitng this forum is on your to-do-list

vistalavista

Why don't you save the time you would read a time management book to actually accomplish a task. Time management isn't rocket science. Just right down (or record electronically) everything you have to accomplish in a day and prioritize it. Then use a calendar to figure out where you need to be and what you need to be doing @ a specific time.

Plantwiz

supercooldude wrote:

Hi everyone,

I am sure there are many like me, but frankly I'm finding it hard to manage my time having a full time job,
freelancing on the side, part-time college classes and family duties, while pursuing certs.

Could anyone suggest a good book or video material on time management?

Much appreciated,

SCD

Good replies already.

1. set awake time and bed time for yourself
2. Develop your routine and stay on task
3. Eat good foods (non-junk)
4. Exercise


Welcome to the adult world (just be thankful you are not balancing children, spouse, plus a second job).

Schedule yourself some blow time too so you can unwind too, but I'm betting there are a lot of gaps in your day as the things you listed look like they're probably easy to fit into a schedule.

EX:
1. Fix meals for yourself 1 day a week and freeze/refridgerate things for meals later in the week that will only need heating up.
2. Have snacks pre-planned so you are eating good food to help keep yourself alert
3. figure out your best time for study (morning or night)
4. School won't last forever, so barter services like laundry/dishes etc.. with others or hire these things out if you feel it's too distracting for you....but laundry should be an easy 'study' slot. Be ready to repay once school is done.
5. postpone your certs until after your classes are over.

supercooldude

Just wanted to express my way overdue thanks to everyone.
As everyone mentioned, turned out I didn't really need a book.
I started putting my tasks down on paper, prioritized them urgent vs important, and sorted everything in a short term/long term fashion.
It's actually working and getting better with time.
Thank you guys.

SCD

dynamik

Glad to hear things worked out for you. For anyone else who is curious, this seems like an excellent book. I've had it for about a year, but I've never had a chance to read through it. How's that for irony?