by Lee VanAmee

Created on: September 21, 2009

Time management is crucial in every facet of your life, and it is even more important in your working life. Whether you are self employed or working for someone else you are going to need good time management principals in order to make deadlines, administer successful meetings, get things done and also feel good about your progress at the end of the day.

Here are some suggestions that have worked for me:

Ignore any and all distractions in your environment. The reason I did not phrase this "get rid of" distractions is because there are always going to be distractions no matter where you are working.

Become task oriented when need be. Sometimes we just need to complete a task, and this task does not require any more input from people or work done to it. Sometimes, you just need to hit the send button.

Schedule your day according to your own clock and moods, and try like heck to get everyone else on the same page. This is not always possible, but well worth it when you can do it!

Prioritize. Know what to spend time on and what to let go of. That also applies to people; including emails, phone calls, meetings, and shop talk. Sometimes you can dodge the unimportant interactions.

Learn how to be a great communicator. I have watched many people hem and haw and beat around the bush about whatever it is they are trying to communicate. Be precise and to the point, it saves time.

Delegate, get help. If there is any way that you can delegate or share your responsibilities by all means use it as much as possible!

Watch the pros. Is there someone you know that is always calm, cool and collected? If so, try and emulate them, most peaceful people are the best time managers I know.

I think the key to time management is to "know thyself", more than anything. I could give you 150 suggestions to try and if they don't fit your personality or style; they are of no good use to you. We all have experience with time management because our whole lives have had to be on some type of schedule. So think back to a time in your life when you were really in the "zone". This should give you some clues as to what type of structure works for you when you are either under deadlines or just trying to be as efficient as possible.

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