By: Mandie Crawford<

It's a buzz word. Time Management. We manage everything to death!
Can we really manage time? It seems to me that time manages itself
on its own. I look at the clock and I never see the hands skip ahead
or stop for a break. We cannot manage time any more than we can
schedule when the sun will rise or set!

Time Management is defined as self management and event control.
What we manage is not time but, we manage ourselves and schedule and
prioritize events. Time will pass regardless of what we are doing.
There is no special way to freeze it or bottle it up to use a later
time. So when we say `time management' we are really referring to
the art of balancing events to increase our personal productivity.

Moving faster and faster does not improve our productivity. My
father had a great saying, "the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get".
Many times if we try to move faster we end up making mistakes that
would cause us to have to repeat the task in order to complete it
properly. Increasing our speed does not necessarily increase our
productivity. Increasing our speed is guaranteed to raise our stress
levels, but not our productivity. So if self management does not
mean stepping up the pace, what does it mean?

Self management really relates to several things:
-Self Discipline
-Emotional Control
-Problem Solving Skills
-Communication

Learning the art of self discipline and emotional control is
crucial, but often learning new problem solving skills and
communication can speed up many difficulties that related to time.
Think about those four areas. Where can you improve?

Event Control
Event control really relates to the tasks and how we schedule those
events. You know your events are not scheduled well if you arrive
everywhere out of breath , and you feel like your day timer has a
life of its own!

Firstly, to be effective in managing our tasks we need to decide
what things are important to us; to set goals. It is important when
setting these goals that you remember to have personal and family
goals too. You have a life away from work or your business. The time
you schedule should reflect your goals in life. If you are not
setting and working towards your own goals, someone else will have
you working towards theirs. (And maybe that is why your schedule is
so full!)

The second part of event control has to do with grouping like events
together. If you set a day specifically to run errands, you are
often able to combine trips. It is only since technology has
advanced and we have become more affluent that we lack organization.
How many of us think nothing of jumping into the car to run to the
store, several days a week? If we just went to the local store, it
still takes more time to make three trips than it does to make one!
So the trick is to combine like items together. If you are
scheduling appointments, try to arrange them so that they fall on
the same day. You will be dressed for success and out already
anyway, so try to do them all on one day! If you have administrative
errands to do, do them all at one time too!

Grouping our tasks into different types of days is instrumental in
determining how effective we are at doing the important things at
the right times. Grouping days keeps us focused and we spend less
time running around doing errands and tying up loose ends.

Managing our events means that we must begin to work smarter. Most
of us have been raised with a strong work ethic. We believe that
working hard will get us what we want out of life. This may or may
not be the end result. One thing is certain, there are only 24 hours
in a day, and we can work hard and long but if it is not effectively
organized then all we end up with is a tired body and frustrated
mind. Learn to work smarter, not harder and you will find that 24
hours really can stretch!

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Mandie Crawford, author of "When Every Second Counts" and owner
of 'SimplifyLifeSpaces.com' responds to what she views as a
growing need for the public to slow down and simplify their lives.
Mandie now teaches Time Management, Organization, organizes homes
and offices and is a certified behavior consultant. Mandie also
coaches people and assists them to get their lives in order, and
motivates them to set and reach their goals.