Controlling Your Clock: Five Important Time Management Tips to Avoid Stress

Have you noticed that technology has made the world move faster? Now, everybody is trying to do multiple tasks at the same time in the littlest time possible. And we all have to admit that trying to keep up can lead to stress, which could in turn lead to indigestion, increased heart rate, high blood pressure, headaches and a host of several other physical reactions that we all could very well do without.

It has, thus, become very important for people in this modern world to learn stress management techniques and strategies that will enable us to cope and regain control of our environment and our responses to events that cause stress, one of which is effective time-management.

Organizing your time efficiently means gaining control of your activities and your life. The following are five important tips you can follow in order to avoid stress by controlling your clock.

1. Divide the hours. There are but twenty-four hours in a day. Determine how many hours your body needs to sleep and recharge. This should be around five to eight hours. With the remaining hours provide ample time for your usual personal routine such as bathing, meals, travel, as well as breaks for reflection and relaxation. This should give you six to ten hours remaining for serious work.

2. Prioritize. Not all of the work that needs to be done fall into the category of a life-and-death situation. Segregate tasks into urgent and non-urgent, necessary and optional categories. Prioritize tasks that fall into the urgent and necessary categories.

3. Set realistic and feasible deadlines. Assess the task at hand taking into consideration not just its urgency and difficulty but more importantly, the time and resources available to you. Know your limits and base your deadlines on the work hours you have determined for yourself.

4. Delegate. Whether at work or at home, it is important to maximize human resources available to you. Know yourself and the people around you and carefully assign tasks according to capabilities.

5. Anticipate and plan. At the beginning of each week, try to determine which days will be most busy and which days will be a breeze. Look up important dates such as birthdays, meetings, holidays, arrival of guests, and others. When anticipating a busy day, determine which tasks can be done ahead of time and allocate a few minutes of each day a week before your red letter day for preparation.

In following time management strategies, it is important to always remember that taking control of your clock should not translate to giving yourself more work. Control your clock in order to give yourself the necessary time to relax, reflect, recharge, and avoid stress.