Word for making best use of time

Time flows like a river.

Have you heard of this phrase before? Certainly, you must have. Moreover, we all experience it.

We cruise along and drench ourselves in the river of time – sometimes we even get lost in it!

Or, at other times, time seems to have frozen, it just stands still.

Time stops!

Don’t the lovers feel so?

They are so engrossed in each other that even though they are together for hours, it seems like just a few moments, and they are left longing for more time.

In the material world, the time clock keeps ticking but your mental clock seems to betray it and stops following all laws.

I felt so, rather recently. No, not while romancing, but while working. 🙂

Can you imagine that we’ve been away from blogging for months at a stretch? We hadn’t thought our break would be this long!

It feels like only yesterday when we wrote last on the blog, but it’s been a while now.

It’s been a strange and enlightening experience, which I’d share with you.

“Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” ~ Philip Stanhope

Let’s Analyze Time

Based on my experiences, I’ve observed two things:

a) When idle, time moves slow.

Let me ask you about Sundays, holidays, or when you are on vacation. Don’t you feel like the day is too long or it’s hard to pass time when you sit idle?

It seems like days, even if a single day hasn’t passed.

On the contrary –

b) When busy, time moves fast.

This is what happened to me. I’ve been so busy with things that I was amazed so much time has elapsed, and I don’t even feel it! Time flies!!

It seems like a week, though a few months have passed.

Surely, Einstein was right – time is relative.

It depends on many factors, and one of them is your mental state.

Do you remember your experience taking an exam or watching a movie?

You sit through the exam writing all the answers, and the number of hours passes so quickly that you’re left gasping for more time.

Or you are so engrossed watching a good movie that you do not realize how quickly time passes. Then, you really feel the movie has been worth your money, don’t you?

But sometimes, even if you are busy and engrossed, you end up wasting time or not making good use of it.

Strange, isn’t it?

Making The Wrong Use Of Time

Even the slow and steady can win the race.

Besides working hard, you also need to be smart.

You waste your time if:

> You are not organized or do not have the things planned.

> You do not have a system that makes sense of the things you do and gives you a direction.

> Your efforts are not concerted; rather they are divided and not connected.

> You try to go too fast or engage in multitasking.

Are you making any of these mistakes?

Yes, I did. I made some of these mistakes and I do not regret or feel ashamed to accept it.

I believe acceptance opens the doors to improvement. The act of improvement will make you avoid the same mistake and lead you to the path of success.

My mistake was that I tried my hands on too many things at the same time. The result was that none of them got completely done.

I’ve been very busy all this while working on a few new projects, and for me time flew at the speed of the Concorde! But I still don’t have anything concrete to show you all.

I’d just take on a task as a challenge and keep working on it, and in the process neglect the other important tasks.

So, how does this analysis and my experience help you?

Yes, you now know that there’s more to making the best use of time than being busy.

Here’s what I conclude from my experiences and analysis of time – the more attentive and passionate you are, the more you make use of time.

Also, the faster the time moves, the more valuable it becomes.

But it is also true that if you do not mix fast and slow time in your working, you may end up being burnt out.

Don’t always be in the fast lane; take time out of your busyness and slow down.

To make the best use of time, you need to:

• Have the right mental state to leverage time.
• Have a practical strategy in place.
• Remain focused to be more productive.
• List your tasks daily and keep track of them.
• Balance and prioritize your work.
• Put your hands on what you can manage.
• Take up one task at a time, complete it, and then move to the next one.

Making good use of your time isn’t difficult as you just need to implement and practice these guidelines frequently. Gradually, they will become new habits and a part of your routine.

If you can leverage time in the right way, you can achieve stability, strength, and prosperity.

I’ve a step-wise structure for you to make sure that you include all the guidelines to make the best use of time.

 “Eternity: a moment standing still forever.” ~ James Montgomery

T.I.M.E. – The Four Steps To Harness The Value Of Time

If you wish to be successful, you need to harness time. Here’s my method to help you.

I love acronyms. This time I’ve a special one for you and it’s called – TIME!

It stands for:

T  – Thinking

I  – Implementation

M – Management

E  – Exploration

Let me explain them to you.

Thinking

The seed of success is an idea or a thought.

To incubate an idea of success you need to have the right state of mind.

Furthermore, you need to connect your ideas and think deep to develop a plan.

Planning is essential for success, no matter what aspect of life. It gives you a form and direction to follow.

You create the long-term and short-term goals making sure they are realistic.

But mere planning is not enough. You need to go ahead and implement those plans.

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” ~ William Penn

Implementation

It is nothing but putting your plan to action.

To implement, you need to have the will or the motivation to get out of your state of inertia or the comfort zone.

You can bank on your four personal qualities, the 4 D’s – Devotion, Dedication, Determination, and Discipline. I’ve laid it all out here in this post.

Without implementation, your planning is useless, a futile act and a waste of time.

It will help if you make achievable to-do lists at the start of each day and carry out those tasks.

However, you need more to make your plans become effective.

“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.” ~ Nelson Mandela

Management

You need to make sure that your plans are implemented in the way they are meant to be.

To implement your plans successfully, you have to ensure that your efforts are organized and are in the right direction.

You need to develop the right skills and especially learn the skills of time management.

Keep track of all your tasks, and besides allocating deadlines, define time limits to each one of them.

In fact, you need to manage all the aspects of your life that may affect the implementation of your plans, directly or indirectly.

Proper administration saves you time and make your efforts more efficient.

If you wish to achieve excellence, then you need to go a step further.

“My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.” ~ Steve Jobs

Exploration

Yes, you need to become an explorer!

Most successful people are pioneers and inventors of some sort, who spend a millionth part of every second they got to explore new avenues and methods.

You should leave no stone unturned and make sure that no second of your life goes waste. You have to be systematic and spontaneous too.

Going by the book is good, but you also need to be flexible enough to change your ways when your plans do not work as desired.

Yes, sometimes it happens that things do not go as per the plans. Don’t lose hope or treat that as a failure.

There is a time for everything, and your job is not to give up and keep trying.

To harness your time in the best way, you need to be able to extract the best out of every moment, change your thoughts, and look for signs of better opportunities.

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” ~ Robert H. Schuller

Let’s Be Efficient And Smart

“Time and tide wait for no man” and “Lost time is never found again” – these are popular quotes that I’m sure you’ve read many times before.

But the real problem is that we forget as soon as we read it.

We need to change our habit and stop wasting time.

Remember that every moment is precious. Make every intention sacred, every thought positive, every behavior meaningful, and every act decisive.

Let’s resolve to use every moment to develop ourselves, grow professionally, and cherish the gift of life!

So, are you going to make good use of your time now?

“Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Over to You –

Do you believe in the value and power of time? How do you make the best use of time? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

When legendary jazz musician Miles Davis wrote this time management quote, he probably wasn’t thinking about how you spend your day. But he hit on a truth that is so easy to forget during our busy, busy days.

Your day, just like everyone else’s, is only 24 hours. Yet somehow certain people seem to be able to squeeze more from that time than others. What it all comes down to is time management—how you choose to plan, prioritize, and spend the hours you have.

To get inspired to make the most of your daily 24 hours, here are some powerful time management quotes from history’s most productive people.

While you’re here… According to studies, only 10% of people feel “in control” of how they spend their time each day.

RescueTime is the ultimate tool to help you understand how you spend your time, build better habits, and even block distractions like social media, news, and entertainment when you want to focus. Plus, it’s free to start using!

Try RescueTime for free today!

Time management quotes about planning your day

“What gets measured gets managed.”

Nowhere is this truer than when you’re trying to get the most out of your time. Here are some powerful quotes about the planning aspect of time management:

“He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.”

Victor Hugo

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”

Zig Ziglar

“The most efficient way to live reasonably is every morning to make a plan of one’s day and every night to examine the results obtained.”

Alexis Carrel

“The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot”

Michael Altshuler

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin Click To Tweet

How you can use these to plan your day better

As the famous motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said, we all have the same 24 hours. And learning to use them to their best potential is at the core of time management.

Start by tracking how you spend your time to understand where it’s going (and where it’s being wasted). Then, listen to the words of Carrel and Hugo who championed morning routines, evening reviews, and setting and following daily goals.

Time management quotes about setting priorities

Time management comes down to making choices. Should you spend your day in meetings or block out time to work on your more important work? Should you wake up early or hit the snooze button?

Here are some powerful quotes on how to set priorities and make good choices with your time:

“You must vie with time’s swiftness in the speed of using it, and, as from a torrent that rushes by and will not always flow, you must drink quickly.”

Seneca, On the Shortness of Life

“We all know our money isn’t infinite, yet we end up treating our time and energy and attention as if they are.”

Shane Parrish

“You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide. And if you don’t decide, others will decide for you.”

Tony Morgan

“Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life.”

Alan Lakein

How you can use these to set better priorities

More than anything, these quotes remind us that time is fleeting. And if we don’t actively set priorities and protect our time, it will be taken from us.

Remember to separate the urgent from the important, create your own “avoid-at-all-costs” list, and bring back “no” into your vocabulary.

Get started with RescueTime for free today!

Time management quotes about beating procrastination

Despite knowing what we need to do, it’s easy to push it off for some later date. And while procrastination is commonplace, let’s hear from some of the world’s most prolific creators how they push through it:

“Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.”

Anonymous

“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday and avoiding today.”

Wayne Dyer

“You may delay, but time will not.”

Benjamin Franklin

“A plan is what, a schedule is when. It takes both a plan and a schedule to get things done.”

Peter Turla

“A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.”

Charles Darwin

“The best time to start was last year. Failing that, today will do.” – Chris Guillebeau Click To Tweet

How you can use these to fight off procrastination

Procrastination is less of strictly a time management issue and more of an emotional one. Again, recognizing the issue is the first step in fighting procrastination.

Listen to Founding Father Benjamin Franklin when he says that time won’t stop (even if you ignore it). Then, recognize, as Chris Guillebeau said, that even if you have procrastinated, starting now is the best thing you can do.

Finally, get moving by following best-selling author Stephen King’s advice and just start! Researchers have found that telling yourself you’ll work on something just for 5 minutes is usually enough to break down the emotional barrier and beat procrastination.

Time management quotes about finding your focus

If procrastination and planning aren’t issues for you, I’m sure that focus is.

We all get caught up in daydreams, get distracted, or simply lose our focus. But getting the most out of your time means being laser-focused when you need to be.

Here are some quotes distilling the secrets to staying focused all day long:

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

Mark Twain

“You can have it all. Just not all at once.”

Oprah Winfrey

“The essence of self-discipline is to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing.”

Barry Werner

“Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own.”

Bruce Lee

“It’s surprising how much free time and productivity you gain when you lose the busyness in your mind.”

Brittany Burgunder

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

Albert Einstein

“Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment. That is what’s real.”

Sara Paddison

How you can use these to get your focus back

As Einstein puts it, important work deserves your focus. Follow Werner and Drucker’s advice and decide what deserves your attention.

Next, recognize that you most likely only have 4–5 hours of productive, focused work a day. That means that for anything that is “useless”, as Lee says, it’s time to either ditch it or delegate.

RescueTime supercharges your focus by automatically blocking distractions like social media, news, entertainment, and anything else that takes away your attention.

Get started with RescueTime for free today!

Time management quotes about boosting productivity

The goal of time management is always productivity—to get more done in less time. However, this doesn’t come down to just planning when you’ll work, but understanding the best ways how to work.

Here are some suggestions:

“If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.”

Charles Richards

“The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.”

Stephen R. Covey

“One can find time for everything if one is never in a hurry.”

Mikhail Bulgakov

“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” – Warren Buffett Click To Tweet

How you can use these to give your productivity a bump

Productivity doesn’t just happen on its own as Meyer, the founder of the Success Motivation Institute, said. Instead, there are very specific things you need to do to be more productive.

That means becoming self-aware of what work drives the biggest results, blocking out external distractions, and optimizing your daily schedule to do the right work at the right time.

Time management quotes about multitasking

It’s always tempting to try to do more than one thing at a time. But science (and these quotes) show that multitasking simply isn’t an option if you want to manage your time properly.

“To do two things at once is to do neither.”

Publius Syrus

“The shorter way to do many things is to only do one thing at a time.”

Mozart

“If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got.”

Lee Iacocca

“Don’t make the same decision twice. Spend time and thought to make a solid decision the first time so that you don’t revisit the issue unnecessarily.” 

Bill Gates

“You can do two things at once, but you can’t focus effectively on two things at once.”

Gary Keller

“Be like a postage stamp — stick to one thing until you get there.” – Josh Billings. Click To Tweet

How you can use these to quit multitasking

What all 3 quotes here acknowledge is that splitting your attention between tasks means not giving your all to either. If we want real results and to spend our time wisely, it’s more important to focus solely on one task before moving onto the next.

Sign up for RescueTime for free today!

Time management quotes about making better decisions

As we said before, time management comes down to making good decisions. But sometimes we need a little reminder of that. Here are some influential quotes about the sheer importance of the choices you make about how you spend your time:

“One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

Douglas Adams

“Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.”

Anonymous

“It’s how we spend our time here and now, that really matters. If you are fed up with the way you have come to interact with time, change it.”

Marcia Wieder

How you can use these to make better choices about how you spend your time

It all comes down to what Lee says: Life is time. Don’t obsess over deadlines, as Adam notes, but rather apply your time in the best ways possible. As von Goethe says, you’ll always have enough time to do the things you want, if you choose to spend your time on those tasks.

Time management quotes about the importance of rest

Lastly, while time management seems to be so much about doing more, it’s important to also take time to rest.

Disconnecting from work lets our mind and body recharge. It ensures that when we are working next, we’re working at full capacity.

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well.”

Louisa May Alcott

“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” — Bertrand Russell Click To Tweet

How you can use these to prioritize downtime

In our culture of more, it’s easy to forget the benefits of free time. In the effort to manage your time better, remember that not everything can or should be managed.

As old Honest Abe put it, there’s always tomorrow. And if you’re doing something you enjoy with your time off, it’s not possible you wasted it.

---

Time is our most precious resource. And while we can’t control its movement, we can make sure we get the most out of the time we do have.

These time management quotes will hopefully help you when you’re feeling uninspired, lost, and unsure of what to do.

Jory MacKay is a writer, content marketer, and editor of the RescueTime blog.

You only get 24 hours every day, and while there are plenty of ways to wring more out of the time you have, there isn’t a way to get more of the stuff. But no need to worry—there are plenty of ways to make the most of your time.

How to Make the Most of Your Time

Here are 7 simple and effective ways to use your time better:

1. Slow Down

Slowing down to get more out of your time may seem counterintuitive, but when you actually slow down, you will find that what you do becomes a lot more meaningful.

Imagine for a second that you’re driving through a beautiful forest. Your stereo is blasting a new song, you’re talking to a friend in the passenger’s seat, and before you know it—whoosh—you passed right through the forest, and it was like you weren’t there at all.

Now imagine that instead of driving in a noisy car, you’re walking through the same forest. Summer is changing to fall, and as the leaves fall around you, you take in a deep breath of warm, October air.

Your walk is ten times more meaningful, because you slowed down. You were able to notice the sights, sounds, and smells around you, and what you were doing became much more meaningful. Slowing down brings meaning to how you spend your time, whether you’re walking through a forest, spending time with a loved one, playing an instrument, or even working on a report at work.

2. Structure Your Free Time

According to researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book “Flow”, Sunday at noon is the “unhappiest hour in America” because that’s the time people are the least productive. According to his research, people are oddly more motivated and focused at work because of the structure work provides, and he recommends structuring your free time.

That might sound counterintuitive: shouldn’t your free time be, well, free?

Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced CHEEK-sent-me-hi-ee, if you’re playing along at home) argues that when we don’t structure our time, we either spend it on pointless stuff, or just ruminate without much care or focus. Structuring your time—even your free time—is proven to make you more motivated, focused, and ultimately, happier, because it gives you a direction and a purpose.

It’s totally counterintuitive, but when you have a purpose behind your actions, you will feel much more productive and happier (even if that purpose is to do nothing for an hour or two!)

3. Keep a Time Diary to See What You’re Doing Wrong

Keeping a time diary of how exactly you spend your time throughout the day is one of the most powerful ways to discover how you can better use your time. Keeping a time diary:

• Allows you to see patterns and trends (favorable or otherwise) in how you spend your time
• Lets you see what activities impact your productivity the most (e.g. whether getting a good night’s sleep affects your motivation the next day)
• Makes you second-guess yourself when you want to spend your time on low-leverage stuff
• Lets you see whether how you spend your time matches up with your priorities (e.g. if you consider family important, but spend every night watching TV)

When you keep a time diary, it’s much easier to make changes to how you spend your time, because you can see, right in front of you, exactly what changes you need to make with how you spend your time. When I track my time, I keep it as simple as possible in order to reduce the mental friction I have to actually tracking my time. In front of me, throughout the course of a week, I keep a notepad that tracks: what I’m doing, when I start/stopped an activity, and any observations I have.

Keeping a diary of exactly how you spend your time seems simple on the surface, but produces profound results when you actually do it.

4. Do Less

Apple is one of the largest and most successful companies in the world for one big reason: they make only four main product lines. Apple makes the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and the Mac (with software to support them), and that’s pretty much it. Apple is a $431 billion company that puts all of its weight behind four small product lines.

Taking a similar approach with your life is also incredibly powerful. When you do fewer things, you spread your time over less, and so you have much more of yourself to give to everything you do. I think one of the best ways to boost your focus, become a better person, and use your time better is to do less.

Question the elements of your life, and constantly ask yourself if you’re doing too much. Doing less may seem like a counterintuitive way to better use your time, but it boosts your focus and success because you can invest so much more of yourself into the things you want to do.

5. Think About What Matters Most to You

Everyone spends their time differently: one person may invest a lot of time into developing a successful career, while another may care more about investing their time into building a rewarding family life.

Take the time to think about what you really, truly care the most about, then invest your time in what you care about. This seems like simple advice, yet hardly anyone does it. A lot of people wing their way through each day, not thinking about whether how they’re spending their time will produce meaningful results.

I think the only way to make sure you get the most out of your time is to start with what matters the most to you, and work backward to your actions to figure out how you should act.

6. Focus on High-Leverage Activities

You may have heard of the 80/20 rule, which says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. I like looking at the 80/20 rule a different way: every action you take is either high or low leverage. The higher leverage an activity is, the more you’ll get out of a small amount of effort.

Some people invest their time into low-leverage activities, which they get almost nothing out of. Take watching TV, for example. If you watch 3 hours of TV a day (the average is more than 4) and you live until you’re 80, you’ll spend 10 years of your life watching TV! That’s time you’ll never get back, and time you could have invested into a much higher leverage activity, like reading a book, having a coffee with someone you want to learn from, exercising, writing, or meditating.

When you invest your time in high-leverage activities, you can cut the cruft from your life and make sure that what you invest your time in the activities that produce the greatest returns on your time.

7. Know How Little Time You Have, And Live Accordingly

This may sound like a corny tip, but it isn’t. You really don’t have that much time.

If you’re average (I know you’re not, but bear with me), according to the American Time Use Survey, each work day you’ll spend:

7.6 hours sleeping, 8.8 hours working, 1.1 hours eating, and 1.1 hours doing chores around the house, leaving you with about five and half hours left over for doing what you want to do.

And these figures don’t include investing time into your relationships, caring for others, or any other commitments you have already.

You start every day with 24 hours, but once you subtract all of commitments from that, you’re not left with much. When you constantly remind yourself how little time you have, you light a fire under yourself to make the most out of your time. You start to say “no” to commitments that don’t mean much to you. You bring more energy and drive to your work. You become more defensive of your free time, and make the most of it.

Knowing just how little time you have will let you put the time you do have to much better use.

Plan Your Time Better, Use Your Time Wisely

Constantly remind yourself that you only have limited time — 24 hours a day, about 30 days a month, and 365 days a year. Make what you do every minute count so you will not waste any time doing things that don’t matter.

Featured photo credit: Donald Wu via unsplash.com

Here are 66 best time quotes organized by topics:

Be on time

Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late.
William Shakespeare

Time is the best teacher

Time is the wisest counselor of all.
Pericles

Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.
Rodin

Time as he grows old teaches many lessons.
Aeschylus

Histories make men wise.
Francis Bacon

Use your time wisely

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
William Penn

The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.
Shoppenhauer

Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life.
Alan Lakein

Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.
Charles Richards

The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.
Stephen R. Covey

Ordinary people think merely of spending time. Great people think of using it.
Author Unknown

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing.
Thomas Jefferson

Make use of time, let not advantage slip.
William Shakespeare

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.
Charles Darwin

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin

Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!
Anthony Robbins

Check your priorities

If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got.
Lee Iacocca

It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?
Henry David Thoreau

Small things matter

Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves.
Lord Chesterfield

You’re writing the story of your life one moment at a time.
Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Do only a few things

To do two things at once is to do neither.
Publius Syrus

One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.
Chinese Proverb

Focus on the present

Never let yesterday use up today.
Richard H. Nelson

I don’t think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
W. Somerset Maugham

It’s how we spend our time here and now, that really matters. If you are fed up with the way you have come to interact with time, change it.
Marcia Wieder

Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment. That is what’s real.
Sara Paddison

The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.
Carl Sandburg

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.
Art Buchwald

This is the beginning of a new day.
God has given me this day to use as I will.
I can waste it or use it for good.
What I do today is important, because
I am exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes,
this day will be gone forever,
leaving in its place something
that I have traded for it.
I want it to be gain, not loss;
good not evil; success not failure;
in order that I shall not regret
the price I paid for it.
Author Unknown

Lost time gone forever

He lives long that lives well; and time misspent is not lived but lost.
Thomas Fuller

He who know most grieves most for wasted time.
Dante

Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.
Samuel Smiles

Money, I can only gain or lose. But time I can only lose. So, I must spend it carefully.
Author Unknown

One thing you can’t recycle is wasted time.
Author Unknown

Lost time is never found again.
Proverb

The importance of time

All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that.
Baltasar Gracian

Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.
Theophrastus

Time is money.
Benjamin Franklin

Gaining time is gaining everything in love, trade and war.
John Shebbeare

Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.
M. Scott Peck

Your greatest resource is your time.
Brian Tracy

You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.
Henry David Thoreau

Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.
Laertius Diogenes

Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions.
John Randolph

Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.
Thomas Edison

Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.
Peter F. Drucker

Don’t procrastinate

What may be done at any time will be done at no time.
Scottish Proverb

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
Baltasar Gracian

One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks.
Malcolm S. Forbes

To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.
Eva Young

A year from now you will wish you had started today.
Karen Lamb

The surest way to be late is to have plenty of time.
Leo Kennedy

While we are postponing, life speeds by.
Seneca

You may delay, but time will not.
Benjamin Franklin

Never leave ’till tomorrow which you can do today.
Benjamin Franklin

Don’t excuse, you are in control

You will never “find” time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.
Charles Bruxton

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
H. Jackson Brown

The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.
Michael Altshuler

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
Carl Sandburg

I am definitely going to take a course on time management… just as soon as I can work it into my schedule.
Louis E. Boone

In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking.
Sir John Lubbock

Those who make the worse use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.
Jean De La Bruyere

The great dividing line between success and failure can be expressed in five words: “I did not have time.”
Franklin Field

How do you make the most of your time to make sure you are working efficiently? Time holds quite a large relevance to the world in bringing some big results. The objective lies in making every day count for something. How we spend our time is becoming an integral way of our living. When a person manages their time wisely by investing in time management techniques, they are more likely to achieve much-needed work-life balance.

What Is Time Management?

To most of us, it seems as if there’s never enough time in the day. However, we all have 24 hrs in a day to accomplish our tasks, and some people are exceptionally good at it, while others struggle to meet deadlines. 

Why is it that some people utilize their time more efficiently than others? The answer lies in effective time management.

To explain it better, we must understand what time management is. In simple words, time management is the process of organizing and planning the amount of time you want to divide between specific activities. Effective time management is about allocating the right time to the right activity. 

It allows individuals to make the best use of available time by prioritizing tasks according to their importance and the estimated time is taken to complete them. On the other hand, failing to manage time can negatively affect both your professional and personal life. 

Up next, you’ll read about some of the most popular time management tips for work that will help you achieve more productivity in less time and effort.

“If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to stop wasting it. Switch to ProofHub’s time tracking software today!”

Time Management Strategies for Work

1. Know how you spend your time

The basic idea lies in being aware of how long you take to do whatever is on your list. If you have 10 things to do, are you able to cover up everything in the number of hours you have for the day? When you clearly define how you spend your time, you will be better able to keep a record of how you spend your time. Analyze your free time. At ProofHub, the teams track their time on a time tracking software to better manage how much time they are spending on their work. All in all, it makes their job easier and they can spare some free time doing other things.

2. Prioritization

Manage your time>achieve your goals>be successful. This is the pattern to follow. Managing time also simply means spending time on priorities and not wasting time on non-priorities. Know your priorities by asking yourself these questions:

• Identify urgent vs important
• What are your values?
• What are your goals?
• What is the result of the activity?

When you know how to prioritize your goals you will be probably successful in your role.

3. Make a to-do list at the end of each day

To-do lists are predominantly motivating because it gives a clear idea of what is to be accomplished each day. The best time to make a to-do list is at the end of each day so that you clearly know from where to resume work the following day. You can easily do that using a project management software like ProofHub.

Using ProofHub, you can easily: 

• Create tasks 
• Break them into smaller, manageable tasks
• Assign them
• Set start and due dates
• Set estimates and track time spent

Pro Tip: ProofHub can help you plan your day and make a daily to-do list. Sign up for the free trial!

4. Focus without distractions

Time management tips at work can be successful when you push yourself out of the distractive circle. It’s not easy to stay on task when you need to do millions of tasks. Getting distracted is normal. So to stay on track with what you want to achieve, keep in mind your end goals. Focus on only one part of your work at a time. No responding to texts, no browsing the web.

5. Elon Musk’s time blocking method

Elon Musk is possibly one of the busiest men on earth. His secret to effective time management is the method of time blocking. He follows the “superhuman” ability to focus without distractions. Time blocking is actually the method of committing a certain number of hours to just one task and blocking off time for other tasks. Kevin Kruse in his book 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, has suggested that top performers organize their day through time blocks. You are more likely to be productive with a plan of action.

6. Decision-making

There are not many jobs where you can just sit down and start working without making a prior decision or giving thought to how you are going to plan all your work. There are many things to think upon, like;

• Which task is of high-priority
• When a task is to be completed
• Which resources are available to do the task
• Which task needs to be done later

All such decisions are to be made before you sit to work, so a task doesn’t affect another task. This is one kind of time management strategy which if done wrong can bring a zero outcome for the day. Make clear decisions related to your tasks to greatly improve the way you have to work.

7. Tony Robbins rapid planning method

Tony robbins, the rapid planning method is a results-focused planning system to change your mindset to concentrate more on the outcome. Rapid planning method (RPM) stands for result-oriented, purpose-driven, massive-action plan. These three portions help in getting better answers to focus our efforts in a better way.

8. Record your daily routine

This time management strategy will make it clear to find out which activities you are wasting your time on. You can start by tracking your activities at work using time tracking apps and productivity apps. When you have recorded your daily routines for a week, you will be able to spot all the time-wasting activities and better keep a conscious effort to cut them out of your day.

9. Automate your workflow

While we are talking about the strategies of time management, automating recurring tasks is one of the most effective time management strategies. You can create recurring tasks if it needs to be done on a regular basis. This will help to save time otherwise spent on manually creating such tasks. 

Using a top project management software, you can create automated recurring tasks Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly. 

“Don’t be fooled by the look of your to-do list, invest your time wisely on what really matters. For efficient time management, Try ProofHub!”

10. Get organized

It is said that super achievers are super-organized. It can be quite overwhelming when there are a large number of tasks to focus that can diffuse productivity. However, a good project management system with built-in task management software will help you divide bigger tasks into small, manageable subtasks.

This time management technique will organize all your tasks into manageable categories. With the chunks of work, you can do your work in a manageable way, with easy categories to handle and get important goals accomplished first. It also helps you to share your workload. 

11. Spend your mornings on MITs

Do you want to be productive with your time? If so, then identify the most important tasks (MITs) from your to-do list and get them completed first thing in the morning. It’s no secret that you have the most amount of energy and enthusiasm in the AM. So, why don’t use it to tackle the biggest and the most challenging tasks? Also, when you accomplish the most important tasks, it will be a lot easier for you to get through the rest of the day.

12. Batch similar task together

Different tasks demand team members invest a different amount of time and effort. But since most of the tasks that teams get today are similar to each other, the best way to handle them is to batch them together. 

The reason? Well, batching similar or related tasks together within a project allows teams to cut out time reorienting and deliver projects faster. You can add custom labels to filter tasks under one label. 

“Add labels to your similar or different tasks with ProofHub. Sign up now for a free 14-day trial!” 

13. Stop being perfectionist

A major reason why most people put off tasks or constantly delay the project or product is that they are running after perfection. It’s great that you want to be the best at whatever task you are doing, but here’s an important question – Do you have only one task in your to-do list? Obviously, the answer is “no”. Since there are many other tasks in your to-do list that needs to be completed within the same day, stop running after perfection and concentrate more on getting every task completed as efficiently, and realistically as possible.

14. Just say “NO”

It’s okay if you don’t want to upset anyone but only agree to deadlines that you can handle in reality. If your to-do list is already full and you receive a request to complete an additional task on the same day, decline it. Don’t agree to work on a task or help a colleague until you have some spare time. Keep your priorities straight and simple.

15. Learn the 80-20 rule

By now, everyone in the business world knows what “20/80 rule” is. It basically tells us that 80% of the results we get are achieved from 20% of our actions. Now, when it comes to effective time management, this rule suggests you look at your to-do list and find ways to keep it simple. According to this principle, you should get down to the most important tasks and focus on accomplishing them first.

16. Leave buffer-time between tasks

You want to make the most effective use of your time within a day and that’s why you jump from one task to the next without wasting any time in between. Now, this might look like a good use of your time at first sight but eventually, it proves to be the exact opposite. After all, the human brain needs a break after every 90 minutes in order to maintain the highest levels of concentration and motivation. So, schedule buffer-time (10-15 minutes break) between completing a task and starting the next one. Just go for a walk or read something nice online to recharge your mind before you get back to work.

17. Overcome half-work

In this age of constant distraction, it’s easy to get lost between what we should be doing and what others want us to do. For example, you’re working on a task from your to-do list, but you stop randomly to work on a report that your boss asked for. This is what we call “half-work”. No matter how or where you encounter half-work, the result is often the same – poor commitments, poor engagement, poor performance. Now, the best way to eliminate half-work is to block a significant amount of time for the task at hand and eliminate everything else.

18. Consider delegating/outsourcing

Delegation and outsourcing are tricky, agreed. But this doesn’t change the fact that they are a crucial aspect of the modern workplace. We understand that it’s often difficult to let someone else complete certain tasks, but remember, you’ve got limited time to complete certain tasks and delegating/outsourcing can be a real time-saver. Just make sure that you hand over the responsibilities to the right person with the desired skills. And, if you do that, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

19. Just STOP multitasking

Managing two tasks at once often results in a loss of productivity. According to a recent psychological study, people who prefer to practice the habit of multitasking are finding it difficult to concentrate and maintain focus on work when needed. Most of them believe that routine multitasking helps to save time and accomplish more in a day, but in reality, the opposite is often true.

20. Rethink your time management strategy

If you’re here and you’re going through these easy time management tips then it’s pretty obvious that you are looking for ways to make the most of your time in a day. Now, if you’re struggling with time management, it simply means that your current strategy isn’t working and you need to change your schedule around. Just spend 5 minutes at the end of each day to review the targets you have achieved and the performance you have delivered. Use this information to identify your peak performance hours within the day, as well as the improvements that you need to make to succeed in the long run.

21. Use an online calendar

Congratulations if you have a sharp memory. But don’t you think it would be a lot better if you have all your important events, tasks, and milestones marked on an online calendar. The efficiency of calendars in time management is well known for years. 

The good news is that now we have digital calendars that have taken time management and scheduling to the next level. With an online project scheduling calendar, you can schedule meetings, create events, set reminders, and check your availability for a specific date from almost any device. You can see all calendar data across all projects at one place using one project calendar.

22. Don’t waste time waiting

Let’s be honest. The time you stand waiting in a project is the time wasted. Now, we’re not suggesting you be impatient. It’s just that every project needs to be completed within a specified timeframe and the time you wasted waiting could be easily spent better elsewhere. If you’re looking for ideas, consider listening to a podcast or read through some helpful blog post while you are waiting for an important piece of information or advice in a project. This will help you reignite the fire within you and get motivated to be back-on-track.

“Plan, prioritize, and preside over time with ProofHub. Sign up today for a quick walk-through!”

Importance of Time Management

Time management is about valuing your time ― the more you do, the better you will be at it. While it helps in increasing productivity in every area of your life. You will get a clear direction of what you want to do and how long you will have to give to a thing.

Time management is a strategy that completes tasks in time with a steady and efficient workflow. And failing to manage the time damages effectiveness and causes stress.

Time Management Stats & Figures That May Surprise You

• 20% of the average workday is spent on “crucial” and “important” things, while 80% of the average workday is spent on things that have “little value” or “no value”.
• The average person gets 1 interruption every 8 minutes, or approximately 7 an hour, or 50–60 per day. The average interruption takes 5 minutes, totalling about 4 hours or 50% of the average workday. 80% of those interruptions are typically rated as “little value” or “no value” creating approximately 3 hours of wasted time per day.
• When someone is asking for our time for a meeting, 80% of the time, there is an alternate date and time that will be acceptable.
• In the last 20 years, working time has increased by 15% and leisure time has decreased by 33%.
• 10-12 minutes invested in planning your day will save at least 2 hours of wasted time and effort throughout the day

These time management strategies for work can help you live a more controlled life at work and at home. The above mentioned time management techniques are like the mantras for changing the way you live. With the right mindset and the right strategies, you can live a more joyous life