by Robert Whipple
Yes, obviously one of my passions is delivering a great painting experience at Southern Painting and we’ve been doing that for 25 years and have painted over 75,000 single-family homes. But we’re going to talk about one of my other passions and that is the Art of Effective Time Management.
When you use the tools we are going to talk about, you will see your life go to another dimension for the positive. As you begin to organize your life, others around you are going to see the freedom you have. Some may see this as very restrictive; however it’s just the opposite. Several time management tools are very effective in managing all areas of your life especially electronic ones.
On your iPhone I would recommend working with an app called Easy Calendar. It cost only $1.99. The Easy Calendar is designed around frequent appointments and with only two or three taps you can set the appointment time and description. With other iPhone calendar apps you have to navigate through multiple screens. Bottom line, the Easy Calendar focuses on simplicity, detailed information and entry speed. One more point about this, you can see your week at a glance.
Next, there are three simple rules in effective Time Management. Number One – On the 15th of each month plan the following month (for example, on May 15 plan the month of June). Number Two – On Sunday night plan the next week. This should take approximately 30 minutes. Number Three – Plan approximately 10 to 15 minutes each evening for the next day.
Is that simple or what? It just takes a little bit of self-discipline and a little bit of training. So the next question is what happens when something during the day throws you off course? Simply adjust, re-plan and go back after it. Remember those words: Adjust, re-plan and go back after it.
There are three main areas to plan and map out your time:
1. Your future scheduled appointments – these are set times you are scheduled to do various meetings or activities.
2. Your To-Do List items – these items do not have a scheduled time to be done but need to be done between scheduled appointments.
I recommend carrying your To-Do List with you everywhere you go so you can:
a. Make good use of small amounts of time between phone calls and appointments
b. Add items to the list as things come up
3. Your goals and dreams – Yes, I recommend planning your goals and dream. If you are going to accomplish them, you will need to plan them.
To get started it will take discipline, work and focus. But as you start organizing your time, you will soon see that you actually will get more done each day including the things you really want to do. In the next article we will discuss The Eight Areas of Your Life.
Robert Whipple is the owner of Southern Painting in Flower Mound.
Read more about how to make it easier to transfer property to a surviving spouse in Local Expert Virginia M. Hammerle’s article.
Read about how to choose financial self-help resources in Local Expert Ken Kendall’s article.
Read about how sitting around can increase your risk for heart disease in Local Expert Dr. Raul A. Santos’ article.
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