Control Your Day or Your Day Will Control You

By Elliott Roberts in Time Management on April 7th, 2008

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by Elliott Roberts

Our days fly by so quickly that without a plan, it is easy to lose the value of them completely. All of the tasks we need to complete are easily neglected for things that pop up and grab our attention. When this happens too often, we are allowing the day to control us, when to be effective and successful we need to be in control of our days.

Too often we work in reverse, taking care of what has already happened, rather than ensuring a desired effect the first time around. Whether you spend your time or waste it, once it is gone there is no getting it back. Therefore, it is essential to use your time wisely in order to achieve what you desire in life, at home, and on the job.

When you “participate” in your day, you are more efficient, less prone to stress, and caught up on tasks, leaving more time for leisure. The self help key to participating in your life is time management.

Your projects also need start and stop times so that they don’t consume your whole day. The notion of a schedule will help you stay focused, as well. Make a routine for recurring tasks such as managing email and project implementation. Stick to those schedules so that they don’t eat up too much time, as they are tasks that really have no end.

This will allow the eventual completion of the big project, as well as attention to all other matters of the day. Perhaps most importantly, you need to create routines. Your day planning itself should be a routine, as should all your small recurring tasks such as managing email, reading the news, and project implementation.

Planning may be key, but acceptance is important too, for even the best made plans can be thwarted by unexpected tasks. Realize that it is okay, deal with the situation and move on. It is so easy to put a small task aside to be completed later, not realizing the pile up you will soon be facing.

Otherwise they will pile up and leave you feeling stressed and overwhelmed. The other big time waster is the time spent starting a new project. There are some things we just do not want to do.

Either finish it at the moment or schedule a more appropriate time and forget about it until then. Unless deeply focused on one project, handle as many as you can of the small, unexpected tasks as they come, rather than putting them off until later. This will prevent them from piling up and leaving you feeling overwhelmed.

About the Author:

The Author, Elliott Roberts, is a writer at Becomng, a Personal Development blog that deals with topics from health to web applications. Find additional Time Management articles here.