Meta Time Management ToolsMeta Time Management ToolsNormally, people look for means to manage their time, if they face some troubles and suffer from stress at the accomplishment of tasks. Another frequent cause is difficulties to reach goals. The most frequent misleading interpretation of time management tools is methods for saving time only. However, what are the most effective time management tools to use? The two most important are the to do list, or task list and a scheduling calendar. A third one, not mentioned in many systems, is a filing system. The specific shape of these tools depends on who is using it and what kind of work has to be done. These 3 tools maybe appear quite self-evident. However, they are the basics comparable to natural constants like the speed of light. Every time management system builds on these fundamentals in some form. Commonly, time management is often confused with time saving tips. Good time savers are precious tools to boost efficiency. However, applying tips is not managing. Strictly speaking the fundamental time management tools are a question of task & time only. A task says what to do. A task with a time stamp is a schedule and tells when to do a task. As long as a task carries no time information, the corresponding tool to manage it is commonly a to do list or a task list. This can be a simple written list on a sheet of paper or a list typed into a smart phone or desktop software. The beneficial utilization of such a list tool is a question of suitable time management activity (prioritizing, categorizing, grouping) and finally performing the task. Tasks carrying a time information are schedules (deadlines, appointments or event dates, for example). Countless paper and electronic tools on managing schedules are offered on the time management market. However, simple date administration normally does not require special skills. Schedules often are administrated by an assistant. You can fix a date only at an empty space within a scheduling calendar. Coordinating conflicting dates and other distinct schedule decisions of course yet demand some decision making skills. One unique tool only requires very special responsibility, real managing skills and some strategic ability. This tool is the task list or to do list. Tasks of course have a relation to time, too. As soon as they are selected for accomplishment, they change to some sort of schedule and carry a time information. Managing and organizing tasks the common way has to deal with the duration, sequence and number of tasks. Time management tools should help to get rid of the things to do in order to save time, reach a goal fast and avoid procrastination. An additional, however, unusual approach to time management. It’s commonly underestimated to think about the chance to minimize the number and time demand of tasks of a current or planned project. Another form of reduction of task count can go far beyond the methods of delegating and saying no. The prime example is starting a business. This is a very time consuming project. Time management, therefore, is a vital tool to secure success. When starting a business the intelligent selection of methods, strategies and procedures that inherently save time, can be interpreted as a time management tool of the second kind (“meta time management”). These are tools for starting a business that provide a certain amount of straightforward tasks, logically and directly leading to success without any detour. At the same time, ensure to save time by concentrating on the absolutely necessary steps with the required time demand but not more. The link below this article presents well proven and time tested tools for starting a business. Since going into a new business is a rather complex issue, special care should be taken at the selection of the right business strategy. Tools like a proper business plan together with a deliberate decision for an individual method to establish the business lay the foundation of all subsequent efforts. Among many other criteria, the aims of business (meta) time management tools here are to support optimal return on investment in the reasonable term and sustainability. (The realistic time frame to get a business running with black or satisfying numbers is said to be 2 to 3 years, blinding out get-rich-quick experiences). When good task management is doing the right things in the right order to achieve the projected success, then choosing the right time optimized strategies is the first step. Ronald Hell is the editor of Time-Management-Use.com, a new approach to effective time management. Find out more about business time management at his site. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
In today’s world, yesterday’s methods just don’t work. In Getting Things Done, veteran coach and management consultant David Allen shares the breakthrough methods for stress-free performance that he has introduced to tens of thousands of people across the country. Allen’s premise is simple: our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential. In Getting Things Done Allen shows how to: € Apply the “do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it” rule to get your in-box to empty From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done can transform the way you work, showing you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.With first-chapter allusions to martial arts, “flow,” “mind like water,” and other concepts borrowed from the East (and usually mangled), you’d almost think this self-helper from David Allen should have been called Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance. Not quite. Yes, Getting Things Done offers a complete system for downloading all those free-floating gotta-do’s clogging your brain into a sophisticated framework of files and action lists–all purportedly to free your mind to focus on whatever you’re working on. However, it still operates from the decidedly Western notion that if we could just get really, really organized, we could turn ourselves into 24/7 productivity machines. (To wit, Allen, whom the New Economy bible Fast Company has dubbed “the personal productivity guru,” suggests that instead of meditating on crouching tigers and hidden dragons while you wait for a plane, you should unsheathe that high-tech saber known as the cell phone and attack that list of calls you need to return.) As whole-life-organizing systems go, Allen’s is pretty good, even fun and therapeutic. It starts with the exhortation to take every unaccounted-for scrap of paper in your workstation that you can’t junk, The next step is to write down every unaccounted-for gotta-do cramming your head onto its own scrap of paper. Finally, throw the whole stew into a giant “in-basket” That’s where the processing and prioritizing begin; in Allen’s system, it get a little convoluted at times, rife as it is with fancy terms, subterms, and sub-subterms for even the simplest concepts. Thank goodness the spine of his system is captured on a straightforward, one-page flowchart that you can pin over your desk and repeatedly consult without having to refer back to the book. That alone is worth the purchase price. Also of value is Allen’s ingenious Two-Minute Rule: if there’s anything you absolutely must do that you can do right now in two minutes or less, then do it now, thus freeing up your time and mind tenfold over the long term. It’s commonsense advice so obvious that most of us completely overlook it, much to our detriment; Allen excels at dispensing such wisdom in this useful, if somewhat belabored, self-improver aimed at everyone from CEOs to soccer moms (who we all know are more organized than most CEOs to start with). –Timothy Murphy Rating:  List Price: $ 16.00 Price: $ 5.92 Some cool time management images: Social Media Time Management Image by Claudio Vaccaro static vs dynamic time management systems Image by fwconsulting |
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