Financial Wisdom and Wealth

I found easist ways to get started in time management is time allocation.

Any good financial counselor will tell you the best way to control your finances is through money allocation. Dave Ramsey really endorses this principle. It works like this: for every dollar of income you allocate where that dollar will be spent (where spent can also mean savings or investments).

Likewise, with time allocation, you and everyone else are given the exact same 24 hours each and every day. Everyone is equally wealthy in regards to time. I hear people tell me occasionally that they don’t have time to do something. That is nonsense! It is because you don’t have your priorities straight and because you haven’t allocated your time.

Yes, this does take some planning initially, but you will find that when you allocated your time beforehand (AND STICK TO THE PLAN), that you will be able to accomplish many more tasks that you had before. Time is our most valuable resource. Some people squander it away, others know the value and become very productive and successful.

A simple way to determine how you are using your time is to break it up into 30 minute intervals. You can then keep a log of what you did and see how effectively (or not so effectively) you have utilizing your time.

Then prepare your To Do List, prioritize the your tasks or projects, and allocate them using a chart showing where each half hour will be spent.

Here are 5 additional tips to ponder:

1. Make sure that you have not over-committed yourself, which will probably cause you feel rushed and tense as well as fall behind schedule.

2. Generously add about 25% more time than you allocated. This will give you breathing room. In addition, if you find that you didn’t use all the allocated time, move on to the next item in your list. You will be able to accomplish much more.

3. Prioritize your list of tasks and events. When you put first things first, other things easily fall into place. People tend to procrastinate the one or two items on their list that they least like to do or are less enjoyable or more difficult. However, those one or two items may be the most important! When you have them done (and finished ahead of schedule), you will remove a lot of stress.

4. Delegate as much as is reasonably possible. We are limited to 24 hours a day. You can’t do everything yourself. You may be the only one that can do the task the way you want it done, but it doesn’t allow others the opportunity to learn and grow.

5. Allocate time exclusively for planning, pondering, and recording your daily activities, even if only for 30 minutes a day. You must have an active plan in place; if you don’t use it, you will not achieve effective time management.