In the business world of today, time is increasingly at a premium. We spend time commuting to work, then filling up the workday before commuting home again and facing whatever time issues are posed when trying to fulfill our duties outside of the office. There is a principle known as the Pareto Principle, also called the 80:20 Rule. It says that of all the results that we produce in the day, 80 percent of those results are generated with 20 percent of our efforts. The remaining 80 percent of our efforts only generate 20 percent of our results.
This poses an interesting question when it comes to time management; how can we take the 80 percent of our efforts that are currently only producing 20 percent of our results and become more effective with that time? What would we be able to do if we were as effective with that time as we are with the 20 percent of our time that produced 80 percent of our results? Chances are we will never get to 100 percent productivity – we are only human, after all. There will always be distractions and time wasters that tempt us away from being our most productive. However, if you use the tools available in this course, you will be able to have more control over your time and produce more results with the time that you do have at your disposal.
However, successful time management will help you to become more effective in completing the tasks that you have to complete so that there is more time available for you to spend on the things that are important to you. This isn’t necessarily always an easy feat; in some cases, it would take significant changes for you to spend time on the things that are important to you.
For example, if you currently don’t have a college degree but you feel that getting one would significantly enhance your career possibilities, deciding to go back to school is a significant, life-altering decision that demands that you restructure your time accordingly. But at the same time, many things that we want to do can be accommodated if we simply learn to use our time more wisely by applying some effective time management techniques. Doing so will make us happier and more balanced so that we are less susceptible to stress and more able to achieve our goals.
Time management also helps you have a greater sense of control over your life – both at work and at home. When you feel as if you are in control of your time, you feel empowered and confident. Then when something arises that you were not prepared for, you’re more likely to be able to deal with it productively rather than getting stopped by it.
