Don’t you feel overwhelmed when you have lots of things to do and very little time to do them in? Well here’s some important news that you should know.

You have enough time to do whatever you want; all you need to do is learn how to get rid of the unnecessary confusion all around you and laser focus on what needs to be done.

The reason you are feeling so overwhelmed is because you are lacking the personal time management skills necessary to organize your life and not because the day doesn’t have enough hours.

Managing your time is a big part of living a rewarding life because you are developing all aspects of it and not just one area. The side effects of learning these skills will result in:

As well as countless other areas of your life that will be affected from developing these personal time management skills.

It will not be easy developing these skills because you will have to take apart the natural instincts that you were born with. We were not born with discipline but we have by human nature been able to decide what is important and what is not.

By cohesively bonding natural instinct and new behaviors you can develop your personal time management skills. This will not happen a day or a week but it can be done by constantly acting differently when it comes to performing tasks.

Your personal time management will increase your health and fulfillment in your personal life, so it is important that you take it seriously.

Although time management is always linked to your daily work activities, you can’t concentrate on working all the time. You need to plan daily activities to develop your mental and physical health or not you will simply burn out.

Time spent relaxing, enjoying life and keeping fit- is as important as putting food on the table so let’s take a look at the top five things you should be doing right now in order to become healthy and happy.

Exercise

People usually look at exercising as purely physical but this is far from the truth. It helps you deal with life’s challenges mentally as well. You begin to feel less stressed out and a lot more focused.

You have the energy to take on your daily activities and you find it easier to cope with pressure. Exercising at least three times a week will help you take on a lot more without feeling exhausted.

Socializing

Go out, have fun you really do deserve it and if you are in a relationship- your partner expects it. This really relaxes the mind and takes it off the stress from work and your personal problems. This creates healthier relationships as well.

It helps by just talking to other people to lift that weight off your shoulders; make time for it when you are developing your personal time management skills.

Hobbies

Who said learning these personal time management skills couldn't be fun? Doing something that you love always creates excitement and brings you joy. If you don’t have a hobby- find one. The thought of doing something that you love will always be something to look forward to.

Learning

The power of learning is undeniable. This is something that you should never stop doing. It gives you that feeling of accomplishment and you’ll see the world differently to others.

Learning is also a stress reliever. Think about all the things in the world you know nothing about; make it part of your personal development to learn something new each day.

Alone Time

This is critical as well. Spending time with others is great but you still need time to get to know yourself better. You begin to see the world through your own eyes not guided by the opinion of others. Learn to enjoy your own company to reflect on what has happened during each day. This will help you build self esteem and self confidence.

A major problem in creating good personal time management practices is to overcome procrastination. This is hard because you are actually trying to defeat human behavior. But before we go any further, we need to take a close look at what procrastination really is.

If someone asked you - what is procrastination? What is the first thing that comes to mind? Maybe it is not a thought but a feeling.

Looking at this carefully you will realize that imbedded deep inside this habitual nature of putting things off, they are underlying emotional problems.

It would be safe to say that overcoming procrastination is to overcome the emotions associated with doing work. Depending on the undertaking, there could be many different reasons for not completing them.

Common Reasons For Putting Things Off ^^

Low Self-Confidence

Believing in yourself is one of the hardest things to do when you feel that you could never get the task done. Your belief system is probably corrupted by previous experiences.

Each time something bad happens in your life it leaves you further incapable of dealing with future failures. Low self confidence is your emotional guard to protect you from taking that leap again.

If left alone low self esteem will destroy you emotionally; this makes overcoming procrastination even harder.

The cure to this would be to work hard at creating your personal time management skills with some time management techniques found here but more on that later.

Too Busy

You probably didn’t do the task because you traded it for something a bit more stimulating and not because you didn’t have the time. Being to busy for the important stuff is just a way of avoiding those tasks that you hate.

Stubbornness

Because you are acting like a mule- you become very vulnerable. You avoided what you had to do because you wanted to be in control of what goes on around you. The slightest hint of someone telling you to do something will spark your defense system and you spring into action.

In order for you to prove that you are your own boss you leave the task for another time or you don’t do it at all. Coming to think of it this is pretty pathetic. Manipulating Yourself

“If I can’t do it, they can’t either,” said the man with very little common sense. At least the other guy was smart enough to take a chance and start working on his project. He is working on his personal time management while you are doing nothing. I guess the joke’s on you.

Wasting Time To Cope With Pressure

Your boss wants you to do some research and when you are finished; you can start on the month end reports. The catch is that you only have 2 weeks before month end.

Then that ingenious idea hits you; if you waste time on the research you wouldn’t have to take on that extra role of doing those monthly reports.

Most likely your boss will see you as not being able to multi-task and will give you less work to do in the future. My friend you have just blown that promotion with a higher salary and benefits out the water.

You should have spent that energy developing you personal time management skills and overcoming procrastination instead of putting off the task.

“The Battered Wife Syndrome”

I dubbed this next excuse for procrastinating as the battered wife syndrome because those women usually make up excuses for being beaten instead of leaving.

After a while they become a victim of themselves and not of their husband. The same is with those who are notorious procrastinators. They blame everything else on the face of the earth for not getting things done except themselves.

If you are one of these guys you will probably blame this article for not helping you develop your personal time management skills.

Being A Perfectionist

Are you serious? There is no way you can finish five 30 page reports in 2 days and still have time to take a bath.

Get real. You want each of them to be immaculately written and if it isn’t perfect then what? You start to criticize the very air you breathe.

This will not help you in accomplishing your tasks; actually it has an adverse affect. Nothing or no one is perfect; at least not on this earth, and you should stop putting so much pressure on yourself to be perfect. Hey, if you want to be perfect at something why not practice your personal time management skills to perfection.

The Student Procrastinator ^^

Developing personal time management skills and ultimately overcoming procrastination in student life is essential as well so let's look at the some of the causes of procrastination in students:-

No Time Management Skills

Not everyone has personal time management skills and this is because it is something we were never trained for at home or school. Time spent overcoming procrastination would be the best chance of learning these skills the practical way; through trial and error.

Without these skills student tend to overwhelm them selves with the task at hand. You maybe biting off way more than you can chew because you are not organized and can’t tell your head from your foot.

This happens to lots of students so don’t feel like you are alone, some students procrastinate so much that they even drop out of school but you’re not going to let that happen to you- right? Becoming a personal time management expert will help you overcome procrastination. This will increase your quality of work to keep that GPA up.

Lack Of Concentration

They’re lots of things going on around you that will break your concentration. You have the parties; sex, drugs, music and even the internet just to name a few. The discipline that you learn from developing personal time management techniques will lead to overcoming procrastination.

It isn’t going to be easy going into a class with a 55 year old professor who is speaking to you like a robot on crack.

But remember, that old android has the knowledge that you want, so no matter where you would rather be at that point in time, taking in what is going on in the classroom is a hell of a lot more important. Always remember you can get to that other stuff later. Trust me, the parties never end.

Fear

We all get scared but fear doesn’t help in overcoming procrastination, actually it makes it a bit harder. When you get scared you stop moving and you become stagnant in your thoughts. You think of all the possible outcomes and none of them ever seems good.

You start thinking about failing your mid-term math exam instead of studying for it. Fear simply helps you waste more time and that is not what you want.

Instead of being scared of failing or looking like a fool, just do the best you can and if you do fail that mid-term, learn from the mistakes you’ve made so you will do better on the finals. If you start to create good personal time management from now you will get a lot more done so that’s a definite incentive to start now.

Personal Life

You may go through some personal problems that will put you in a spiral; one that is not easy to get out of but if you don’t, it will show up in the quality of the work you produce.

I can’t tell you to put your problems aside but you need to weigh the pros and cons of letting them get you down. Only you can answer the question “is this really worth it?”

No Fun In Doing School Work

Who ever said that doing an essay on the mating dance of mountain frogs would be fun? It is the knowledge that you're gaining from the research that will make you a lot more marketable in the workplace.

Maybe concentrating on the salary you will get after you complete your degree can motivate you. Learning techniques to position your personal time management skills future than your peers will make you a lot more marketable as well.

Benefits Of Developing Your Personal Time Management Skills ^^

Mental Peace

Good tie management skills will leave you feeling mentally free. It's a good feeling to be at peace with your self; this decreases your stress level.

Increased Strength

Your strength usually goes down when you are being lazy and you get tired for no reason at all. This could lead to lots of chronic illnesses like diabetes. With your strength you will be avoiding these things later in life.

Purposeful Living

Living without a purpose can be so frustrating. Not knowing where you are going can lead you to do some serious damage to yourself. It’s the total opposite when you know where you’re headed and the work necessary to get you there.

Feeling More Competent

After being able to take on a task and complete it, you will feel like you can do more. You will start to broaden the scope of things you take on and no matter what it is you will get it done.

Increased Personal Freedom

Lots of the things you do probably can lead to greater rewards and those rewards can free up your time. You can get a promotion at work that will bring in more money which equates to more personal freedom for yourself and family.

Pride

I don’t care who you are, there is always a sense of pride with doing a good job. Especially when you work hard at it and you see the final product right before your eyes. People are proud of you too, although some are likely to envy you for your accomplishments. This usually comes across as criticism. No matter what- still be proud of yourself.

Increased Self Worth

You may think that your life is worth nothing when you are doing nothing. You look at others around you and wish you were them. When you develop your personal time management skills, you will increase your output and your self-worth increases with it.

Higher Self Esteem Hold your head up high. You know that the sky is the limit and the world is your play ground. You’ve worked hard and it is paying off. This works marvelously for your self esteem.

Self Confidence

Ready to take on more ~ you know you can don’t you? This is the kind of confidence that is gained by accomplishing what you set out to do.

Consequences Of Not Developing Your Personal Time Management Skills ^^

Lost Opportunities

People realize that you waste too much time doing small things and are likely to shun you when they want to delegate work. This probably was your intention in the first place. This will certainly guarantees that you're left out when they consider promotions, referrals and other benefits.

You will soon be aware that they leave you out of everything. Also when you put off stuff for to long either work wise or in your personal life you miss golden opportunities that could’ve made your life better financial, romantically etc.

Tardiness

Good personal time management guarantees that you are not late for another meeting; it also guarantees that you pick up your kids from school on time.

Never Prepared

Those who “fail to prepare are prepared to fail.” Looks like you won’t be getting anything meaningful done for a while. You aren’t organized, your interest level is non existent and your life is a mess (so is your house). You are in desperate need of a personal time management make over.

Career troubles

Didn’t hear the alarm clock again did you? This is the 5th time for the week you were late and you only work five days. Your boss isn’t pleased and you have been warned for the final time.

Not only are you there late but you aren’t very productive during the day and you’re seen as a liability not an asset. Guess what this means? In the wise words of Donald Trump “you’re fired.”

Health Issues

You’re too lazy to cook something healthy so you’re running to the fast food joints for lunch. Speaking of running, when was the last time you had a good work out? Saying you’re going to do-it-tomorrow will not make your heart any healthier.

Frustration With Your Life

If I didn’t do any of the things I said I would do I probably would feel frustrated too. Luckily I woke up and smelled the coffee and boy was it strong. You aren’t getting any younger so I suggest you make a move on life before it makes a move on you.

Developing Your Personal Time Management Skills With Time Boxing ^^

Developing your personal time management skills without any good methods of doing so would be hard and it certainly won’t be fun. Here is a simple technique called time boxing that will help you set the tone for good time management.

How Time boxing Works

Dissect your task into small doable pieces and select one that can be done in a small amount of time. Let’s work on this small chunk of the task for 20 minutes. Because the task is now a lot smaller- overcoming procrastination is easy.

The beautiful thing about this method is that you get to reward yourself with something you love immediately after you complete the job.

Your reward can be anything like taking a walk on the beach. Whatever makes you happy use it to reward yourself for putting in the time necessary to accomplish that small fraction of your total task.

This is a shift from the traditional thinking pattern. Most people simply put to much pressure on themselves by focusing on the task at hand. Now you will focus on the pleasure at stake if you don’t complete the task in the allotted time.

Think about it- after the short 20 minutes of pain going through that small piece of the assignment, you will have that slice of apple pie waiting for you as a reward. If you're like me- that is one heck of a motivator.

Benefits of the Time box Placing your tasks in a time box has some definite benefits besides the huge reward at the end. You start to realize that the task you have been putting off isn’t really that hard after all and you can get it done if you put in a little effort.

You also begin to diminish the hold that doing tasks you hate have on you and your concept of it moves from difficult to doable. This is an excellent trade off.

Hey, after 20 minutes of working on that report for your boss or simply cleaning up the house you probably forgot about the apple pie. Don’t worry- you can still have it (if I don’t get to it before you do). Just keep on keeping on and we will enjoy it later.

Time boxing And Your Kids

Helping your kids develop good personal time management skills with this technique works pretty well. People may say this is bribery. What do you think? Is giving your kid something to look forward to bribery? If you have control of what they will be permitted to indulge in and the length of time and quantity, then it really can’t do any harm.

You set the limits, you set the standards and you are in control. So they like watching cartoons, no problem- simply take it away and trade it for work done around the house. It’s probably because of watching all those cartoons that they aren’t doing their chores anyway- so go ahead punish them- just take it away.

Tell them to make sure their room is cleaned first thing in the morning and as a reward they can watch that 9.00 a.m. show that they love.

For this to work effectively you have to monitor their progress and also monitor the usage of the reward. If you allow your child to spend 1 hour per day watching cartoons then you have to make sure it is only an hour and not anymore than that.

Always give them a start and finish time for each task and don’t forget, monitor their progress and give them feedback on how they are doing.

Final Thoughts On Time Boxing

The time box is a great technique to use to overcome procrastination and build your personal time management skills. It can make work fun and a hell of a lot easier.

You feel a lot more energized and motivated but if you think about it- you just took your mind off the task and put it on something a bit more appealing.

Other Methods You Can Try ^^

They are other techniques you can use to develop the personal time management skills you desire. Try these on for size. Changing Your Self Talk

By simply changing the words used to describe the task then you will be setting yourself up for a better beginning and hopefully you will reach the ending you desired.

For example replacing "have to" with "want to" will shift how you approach the task. It no longer seems like the takes has the power over you but you have the control over it.

An Action Plan

Try creating an action plan for your daily responsibilities. When you do that your day becomes goal-oriented. You have an outline of your time and you know what you want to do with it.

Scheduling

Don’t forget to develop a schedule of how the action plan will be carried out. This will be useful in monitoring how far you’ve gotten and if you’re putting in sufficient effort in completing your tasks.

Monitoring Your Progress

Are you accomplishing what you have set out in your action plan? Are you sticking to the schedule or can you do a lot better than what you are doing now?

Monitoring your progress is provides feedback on how well you are doing with your personal time management goals and this is never a bad thing.

You will be made aware of areas the can be eliminated completely because they’re unimportant and you will find spaces where you can have a little more time for yourself and others.

Minimize Interruptions

If you have a mid-term paper or a report to complete, find a quite place where you get the job done. If it is at all possible, turn off the cell phone, it seems to be a major force of distraction nowadays.

Motivate Yourself

Motivation to keep on going is important and we covered that in the time box method as well. It really helps you keep focused by keeping your eye on the prize.

Prioritizing

Try asking yourself, what do you need to accomplish immediately? These are your most important tasks and you should concentrate your full attention on them. When you prioritize your daily, weekly or even monthly objectives, these should be at the top.

Getting Organized

Getting organized is not that hard. By planning ahead of time and putting the tools needed to accomplish each task will make everything runs smoothly.

Keeping your surroundings tidy will help you achieve a lot more in a lot less time. People’s surroundings usually say a lot about their state of mind. By getting organized you will see a big difference in how you days will go.

Keeping Track

This time management technique is simple. You need to keep track of what you’re doing and how long it takes you to complete a task. If a 30 minute task takes 2 hours then analyze why. Keeping track of your progress or lack there of will open your eyes and highlight the good and the bad of your time management skills.

You’ve Got Mail

It started off as a good thing but it certainly is getting really old, really fast. How many times did you check your email today? How long did you spend checking it? I would say before I used to spend roughly 2 hours a day doing nothing else but checking mail from my boss, friends and co-workers.

This in a nutshell is time well wasted. You can get so much more done if you turn the email notification option off in your email program. Checking your mail maybe important to your job but doing your work is important too.

Check you mail early in the morning when you get to work for 10-15 minutes and then right after lunch. Feel free to check it one more time on evenings just before you leave to go home.

Doing To Much At Once

Lots of people have a problem with concentrating on one thing for to long and it takes lots of energy for them to do one task at a time. Working on one task until it is completed will be more productive than starting many tasks at once.

You quickly get overwhelmed because you have lots of unfinished work when the day is over. This is counter productive so by removing all your work from your line of sight and then taking up one thing at a time and working on it until completion, you will certainly get more done.

Conclusion ^^

You have no more excuses about your personal time management. There is just too much information here to help you get it right to ignore it. The only thing stopping you now is yourself.

Implement some of these things and see how it works for you. If something doesn’t work try another. With determination I know you will be come a time master.