Essay, Research Paper: Time Management

Time management. It can help you put events in perspective, avoid double or overlapped appointments, prioritize your schedule, and keep you on track. It works for school as well as other parts of your life like work and friends/family.
Set priorities. Decide on the single most important task to do at any one moment. Create clear, specific goals for each day or even each hour–writing them down, if necessary, on a “to do” list with the most important at the top and going down from there. Do not go on to the second job (or goal) until you have completed the first.
Decide what you want to do and realistically can do and then say “no” to everything else. (It is often accepted much more easily than you think.) To make it easier, write “No” in big letters and put it near the phone or on your desk. Suggest someone else who could do the job or a time down the road when you might want to say "yes".
Use the energy you spend putting off an unpleasant task to get it done and off your mind. Make it the day’s priority or the first thing you tackle. Divide large tasks into smaller, more manageable ones. Use the reward system and reward yourself as you complete each narrower task. Decide in advance how you will reward yourself when you complete the entire necessary task.
As time management skills improve, people tend to experience fewer stressful situations resulting from procrastination and/or overextending (trying to do too many activities). Time management strategies give people a sense of control over their lives.
Time management strategies also serve as a useful memory aid, reminding one of obligations that must be met at certain times in the day or week or month. They help to organize certain aspects of one's life as well.


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