You can of course spend some money doing a diploma or a one-week intensive course in Time Management. Chances are that you’ll probably learn pretty much the same by reading this article…

There are 2 rules:

1- knowing the principles and available tools is not good enough. You have to feel that time is very precious before you’ll focus on how to manage it.

2- understanding what level of time management you are at – there are essentially 4 levels – so that you know what you might gain by moving to the next higher level

Every day. someone deposits $86,400 in your bank account? Yes, US Dollars! You can use this money any way you like with one condition; there is no accumulation. If you don’t spend the money, it’s gone. Next day, there will $86,400 again. Same condition. So what would you do in this case? You would use every cent of course!! You’d probably buy a nice car, give some money to your family, take an expensive vacation. You would not let the money lapse. No way!

We all have this kind of account. It’s called time. Each day we receive 86,400 seconds and each day whatever seconds we fail to use to the best of our abilities we lose forever.

Every second, every moment is a gift. Do not waste time with things that provide no value to you or to others. For example, doing the TV thing for 3 hours and then complaining about not enough time to exercise. Or waking up half an hour before the office and then complaining about how bad the traffic was to your boss. Learning to prioritize opens up tremendous possibilities for you, tomorrow – no, right now.

There are 4 levels of time management maturity.

We learn through trial and error then gradually move up. Some people do it faster than others – are you going to wait another 5 years before you move up?

Level 1 – The Ignorant – What’s time?

No concern or any idea where their time is being spent. Random agendas set by external factors, letting interruptions dictate their attention, hard time keeping appointments – typical examples are infants and the infantile

Level 2 – The Amateur – Oh so this is time but there isn’t enough of it

more pressures, bills to pay, kids to feed, an overwhelming awareness of the lack of time. Time is the enemy, lot’s of jobs undone, stress management, start thinking about organizers and learning how to set up Tasks in MS Outlook – most executives in organizations young and old fall into this category

Level 3 – The Practitioner – Assessing the value of what we do, when

using calendars and appointment books, MS Office or web based collaboration tools or PDA (but don’t be misled that everyone with a PDA and a busy look is good with time management – odds are they’re not), questioning the value of what we’re doing, removing tasks that do not contribute to organizational goals or personal objectives, saying “no” to time wasters like long meetings, delegating some important tasks to colleagues – a small percentage of professionals are at this level and we call such people good managers or – surprise – good organizers

Level 4 – The Professional – Kaizen the never ending quest

Most managers and professionals who have discovered the immense benefit and satisfaction of managing time well – in other words they are already at Level 3 – inevitably want to go to Level 4. This is the rarefied domain of the HEI – Highly Effective Individual. HEI’s try to use every moment to work towards goals, values and priorities. Do not confuse this person with a workaholic – they are not obsessed by work – they are consumed by a desire to be valuable – to family, to the community, to their organization, to themselves.

These days, knowledge is value but acquiring knowledge has to be on-the-fly, in multi-tasking mode. To practice time management Kaizen, think of the following possibilities:

a- create a purpose, an opportunity to use all available time for personal growth
b- get up 1 hour earlier every day – it may change your life
c- get yourself some audio books to hear while driving
d- treat each encounter with another person as an opportunity to listen and learn

When you get here, you will find yourself developing a dislike for wasting time, or being with those who waste time.