Sep 16, 2008
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Time Management Styles - Learn Yours Today
We’ve all seen how time management can be a valuable skill for us. It helps us become better at utilizing our time wisely. However, each of us is different and therefore the way we manage time is different. Determining your time style is important so you can learn how to make your time count, reduce stress when changes happen and become a more productive person. The fact that people have different time management or management styles has been known for years by psychologists like Carl Jung. So the idea itself is not new.
One place to help you find your management style is to look at Life Tour . They offer a quick, simple little survey that can give you a brief look at what type of leader you are. Knowing this can help you determine your time management style and how well you manage your time.
Southern Illinois University took a look at time management styles and came up with the following observations and conclusions:
- We all use Hemispheric Thinking
Right Brain Thinkers:
These thinkers find traditional time management rules and systems limiting. They like a more holistic approach.
Left Brain Thinkers:
These thinkers like traditional time management rules and methods. They may need help incorporating some playtime into their time management method. - Pareto Principle
This principle states that most people fail to set priorities causing them to waste their time on unimportant things. In general, we spend 80% of our time on things that will only contribute to 20% of our load. - Management styles sometimes don’t work because:
Rather then focusing on things and time, people tend to focus more on developing relationships and accomplishing results. - Urgency vs. Importance
Urgent matters are those we believe require instant action and reaction.
Important matters are those we believe deal with results like missions, values, goals. - Ineffective time management can lead to burnout because of trying to juggle too many tasks at one time.
Flexibility is so important when it comes to time management. During the course of your day you may have things that come up that will require immediate attention. This is where your time management skills will come into play. You may have to adjust your tasks in order to accommodate the new deed that needs to be done. Don’t stress. It can be done and you can still remain an effective time management person even with adjustments. Time management takes patience and time. You didn’t get unorganized overnight but you can get organized in a matter of days. Knowing your management style will help you recognize why you may be stressing out and what you can do to change it.
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