Time Management Definition, Skills and Tips

In this post, I would like to focus on the definition of time management and why you need to manage your time. I will also provide helpful tips to help you manage your time.

“Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you don’t let other people spend it for you.”
– John Dryden

Definition of Time Management

We will be sure to provide more than one definition of time management.

At first, time management referred to business or work activities, but eventually, the term broadened to include personal activities. It actually refers to all your activities.

Let’s define time management:

Time management is a set of principles, practices, skills, tools, and systems that help you use your time efficiently at work and accomplish goals.

Here are a few more definitions:

Time Management Definition According to Cambridge dictionary:
“the practice of using the time that you have available in a useful and effective way, especially in your work”

Wikipedia Meaning of Time Management:
“The process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity.”

Why You Need Time Management Skills

Practical and strong time management skills are essential for setting priorities and using your energy and time in better ways. They are useful for your personal life and career success.

Everyone needs these skills. Here are a few of the reasons why you need to develop these skills:

1. Time is a special resource you cannot store or save for later use. Everyone has the same amount of time each day. Time not well used cannot be retrieved.

2. Most people feel they have too much to do and insufficient time. They blame lack of time for their poor finances, stress, bad relationships, and not exercising their body.

Good time management can help you find the time for what you want and need to do.

3. You need time to get what you want out of life. If you wait for extra time to appear, you might lose the game of life.

You can “create” the time you need through right time management, and not just wait for it to come. Planning your time wisely gives you more time to do more things.

4. This skill can help you set a due date to accomplish and complete tasks, prioritize tasks, and plan your time for specific tasks. This will help you create a life balance.

5. Setting goals, both short-term and long-term goals, and working on them every day becomes easier.

6. The time is limited to 24 hours a day, so plan your life wisely.

7. Time management helps you make conscious choices, so you can spend more of your time doing things that are important and valuable to you.

8. You can learn to find the time for the things that are important to you. Even a small amount of time once a day, or even once a week, will take you closer to your goals, and you will be surprised at the progress you make.

Strengthening your willpower and self discipline will improve your ability to manage your time effectively.

9.You become more productive using improved time management skills and tools and can accomplish more with less effort and time.

Effective time management skills can help you reduce wasted time and energy on time consuming activities, such as the social media or watching TV. They can also enable you to become more creative and productive, and to do the right thing at the right time.

All this will, of course, lead to more balance and fulfillment in your life.

10. Life today is full of so many distractions, and therefore, it is very easy to lose time on unimportant activities.

Ask yourself, is watching this or that TV program, reading this or that gossip column, or participating in a particular activity going to add anything to your life? Is the time spent on a particular activity well spent, or is it just a waste of time and energy?

More Reasons Why You Need to Plan Your Activities

11. Life puts in front of everyone so many choices each day, and the question is, do you follow what appears on your way, or do you consciously choose what you want to do?

Do you allow external distractions to deter you from your goal, or do you use willpower and self-discipline to walk toward your goal in a straight line, without wasting time and energy?

12. A certain degree of detachment and inner peace are useful in managing your time effectively.

These two skills can help you avoid spending too much emotional and mental energy on what people say and think about you.

These skills can also help you stay calm despite distractions or difficulties, and this saves you a lot of time and energy, which you can spend on better and more rewarding activities.

There are many things you can do and tools to use to manage your time effectively. A lot of time is wasted each day, which can be put to better uses. There are changes you can make which will effectively increase the time you have at your disposal every day.

Time Management Tips

Here are a few simple time management tips:

1. One of the simplest and most useful tips to manage your time is to get up early in the morning. Instead of watching TV late at night, go to sleep a little earlier than usual.

Waking up even only 15 minutes earlier would be great. It is a time of quietude, before everyone else wakes up, which you can devote to reading, meditating, exercising, or planning your day.

2. If you feel you have much to do and not enough time, try to feel and think, as if you have all the time in the world. This will help you focus on what you are doing without stress and strain.

3. Always plan your time well and don’t waste it on useless activities.

4. Be careful not to procrastinate, and do everything in the best way you can, with focus and attention. It might not be easy, but with perseverance, you will develop good time management skills.

5. Developing a certain degree of willpower and self-discipline will make it much easier to be in control of your time.

Some More Additional Tips

6. Developing a certain degree of focus will increase your time management skills considerably since you will be able to focus on what you are doing and avoid distractions.

7. Make a list of any time waster activities, and then, try to avoid participating in them.

8. Make a list of your important daily activities and urgent and important tasks first.

9. Create a daily routine and follow it.

10. If possible, set time for making phone calls to a certain time of the day.

11. Avoid texting unnecessary text messages at work.