Time Management Is An Illusion

We've all heard the tips about time management: make a list; prioritize your activities; focus on finishing one thing at a time; rewarding yourself for checking things off, etc.

These suggestions are all great, but they miss out on one important fact--you can't manage time, you can only manage tasks.

When you're constantly feeling overwhelmed or "behind", it's not because you didn't manage your time correctly, it's because you didn't manage your tasks correctly. The key to taking control of your day is to manage the tasks that you have to complete within a certain unit of time. In order for you to be efficient in managing tasks, you need to understand the best way to determine both what you do and the order in which it needs to be done--in essence, you have to create your Rhythm & Flow.

Creating your Rhythm & Flow comes down to two things: 1) understanding your natural rhythms and 2) creating a flow of activities based on the best times to align tasks to your rhythm.

1. Understanding your natural rhythms: Understanding your natural rhythms comes down to paying attention to your patterns and goes beyond whether you consider yourself a "morning person" or a "night owl". You have to determine when is the best time for you to successfully complete certain tasks. For example, when is it best for you to have complex conversations? When is the best time for you to have meetings? How about creating new content or solving problems? There is a natural time of the day and day of the week when you are at your best to tackle certain tasks. Those are the times when you should schedule them.
2. Create the flow of activities based on your natural rhythms: Creating an ultimate flow of activities (your schedule), just involves you putting tasks in the appropriate day and time on your calendar. If you align your tasks with the day and time when you are at your best completing them, then you'll be more productive--and more successful. Most of the issues that people have with procrastination or time wasters has more to do with misalignment of what they do naturally with the time that undertake the task.

In order to put this practice to the test, you'll need to spend a week taking note of your activities, tasks and how you feel when completing them. Then try creating a flow (schedule) of your new tasks based on when you're naturally at your best to complete them. Aligning your tasks with your abilities will create a more productive environment for you and lead to an easier road to success.

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Keisha A Rivers is Lead Strategist and Managing Consultant of The KARS Group LTD--a full-service strategic development firm specializing in assisting clients to create their vision of success and developing strategies and action plans to enable them to achieve it. Find out more at www.karsgroup.com.