I am Always Late

We already know that inability to manage our time properly and being unaware of the most effective time management techniques can cause being always late and making other people disappointed with this bad habit. Sometimes we fail to do the things in the most effective way and we tend to lose our time for doing something that can be done much faster. In the worst situation, we’re spending our time and efforts on trying to get everything done as fast as possible and fail to figure out what can be the best way to get everything accomplished on time.

Below, check out the list of 5 most common ways we usually spend our time in not too very effective way, that leads to stresses, inability to succeed and achieve, lower self-esteem, and…being always late.

1. You avoid asking for help. Most of us do not like asking for help of other people in order to feel being in total control of what we are doing. If you feel that you can do everything yourself, it may have an impression that you can avoid stresses and be more powerful. However, asking for help of other people can help you not only complete your job faster, but also receive better quality results, because other people can be more experts in something. For example, asking a stranger about a place you are looking for in an unknown area can help you save hours from searching the place you need.

2. You look for ways to do a job with less efforts. Sometimes we do not feel like giving out 100 per cent  of efforts for doing some task or a job, so we start spending our time for looking for ways to procrastinate, to avoid doing the job, or doing it half-heartedly and without any enthusiasm. At the same time, it is usually possible to mobilize all the efforts and do the job in no time, but we do not see that and spend days to procrastinate. Keep this idea in mind when planning your daily tasks and thinking over your time management abilities.

3. You are convinced that this is not your job. The above mentioned idea can be applied to this situation as well. Sometimes we think that this is not our job to do what we are supposed to do, and we’re spending days for thinking over who to delegate it to, or how to avoid doing it. Do not waste your time and be sure that sometimes even unrelated jobs can be yours to handle.

4. You spend so much time for useless emotions and talks. Getting involved in useless dramatizations or explanations always takes a lot of time, and an ability to organize your work with minimum talks, emotions, delays, or preparations, will help you save a lot of priceless time.

5. You do not take time to rest. It is a common notion that a good office worker must always be busy. That is why most of office workers quickly master the technoque of “looking busy”. That is why social networking or surfing the Internet are the most common activities in the offices which are not overloaded with work. However, remember that we all need breaks in order to maximize our efficiency and productivity. That is why taking 5-10 minutes of break every 2-3 hours is absolutely useful and normal, and such kind of short breaks will help you in improving your time management skills, will assist you in avoiding wasting your time and become a good tool to achieve more success.

We already know that inability to manage our time and plan the things we must do for a certain period of time is one of the most important reasons of tardiness and being always late. Effective time management is a very important skill which can make many people happier and more successful, and some specialists believe that learning to spend our time in the best way is even more valuable than the amount of money we receive. “People often make career choices based on how much money they envision they can make now or in the future. Surprisingly little thought goes into how they will be using their time — whether they can control their time, who they will spend their time with and what activities they will spend their time on,” says one of the specialists at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Below, you can check out 5 easy steps to making your time management more effective.

1. Keep your schedules under control. In our times of extremely busy life, both for children and adults, it’s very difficult to do the things we need to do even within 24 hours of the day. It is crucial to keep control on your time, create realistic schedules and avoid constant running behind the schedule. Also, taking a couple of minutes for relaxation, transcendental meditation or breathing exercises will help you in substantially enhancing your abilities to control your time and be effective and concentrated on your daily tasks since the morning till night.

2. Be attentive to your daily activities and responsibilities. It is very important not to try doing everything at once or mindlessly trying to complete this or that assignment, but choose carefully what you are going to do during the day. First, you should do the things which must be done this very day, like paying bills or making appointments at work. Then, you should plan other important things and activities, which are less urgent. Effective planning skills are crucial!

3. Learn how to “invest” your time in the best way. Consider that your time is your most valuable asset, which you need to invest very carefully and with a lot of consideration. Many will agree that time is even more valuable than money, and you need to learn spending this precious asset in the most effective way. Make the best choices and try to invest your time only in positive and constructive experiences.

4. Plan your being happy and successful. You should anticipate good times and get ready for your being pleased with your own achievements and incomes. By imagining good times in your life, you’re going to have plenty of positive emotions and activate happiness centers in your brain.

5. Connect only with successful and happy people. It is very important not to spend your time with those, who do not care about their life and prefer lazing and going with the flow. It is impossible to be happy and successful in the environment where everyone puts each other down. Therefore, look for the ways to spend your time with strong and happy people, who are proud of their achievements and are eager for more.

For the last two-three decades, the changes in our life resulted from technological development were more than miraculous. Internet, computers, notebooks, e-mails, smartphones, Wi-Fi and bluetooth technology, flash cards: is it possible to imagine our life without them? That is why we all love technology. However, specialists do not stop warning us that we rely on the latest technological achievements and innovations too much. The truth is: all those devices and inventions were made to help us to save our time. But very often they play a role of very powerful time killers and cause a lot of unwanted stresses. Let’s take a closer look at this problem.

For some years, my friend Carla worked as a secretary in Precision Intermedia, a huge marketing agency. Every time when I used to meet her she was complaining about one of senior managers in her company. He was always extremely busy and unreachable, but when she used to tell him that she could not contact him on time, he never accepted that as an apology. “Look, you have 5 ways to reach me at any time. I have my mobile phone, which is never off. I have my personal assistant who is always next to me. I have a phone on my office-table which also works fine. Finally, I have 2 business e-mail addresses and I check them out every hour from my PPC. I will never believe that all these communication channels failed at the same time.” What to say?

Undoubtedly, every technology and every innovation has positive and negative sides. For example, using e-mails substantially facilitates and fastens communication, as well as lowers its costs. However, numerous viruses and spam messages we receive through e-mail damage our computers and affect our productivity. Mobile connection allowed people to stay in touch with each other regardless of the distance and other circumstances. At the same time, using mobile phones has negative effects on our health and also affects our productivity. The same can be said about using Internet or PPC. It is obvious that we must keep using technological developments under control, and here are some recommendations for those who want to be less dependent on technological failures:

1. Be sure that you use full capacity and all functions of your devices or technologies. Do not keep any device or technological tool only because it is a brand new and fashionable one, but can not satisfy all your professional or personal needs. Avoid using the technologies which can not bring the expected utility, otherwise you will lose more than win.

2. Always look for more information about your new device or technology. My dad had to spend 4 hours to learn using his mp3-player because he was feeling shy to bother other people and asking for directions. Spare your time and ask your friends, relatives, shop assistants, distributors about new functions and new opportunities that can be opened to you by using your new device or technology.

3. Update your technology. Just a decade ago our mobile phones were quite simple and could offer us hardly something more than just mobile connection. Now, we can use these devices as a photo camera, internet service provider, file storage and God knows what else. If you have the latest model of Samsung or Nokia mobile phone with a powerful high zoom camera, give up using your old digital camera: at least you will save your money and time for battery replacement.

I hope that this article did not make you think that I am an opponent of technology. Technological innovations and inventions are doing a great job for the humanity, and technology is extremely useful until it does not stop helping people to progress and advance. So, technology itself can not be blamed, the problem is us. In our epoch of multiplicable gigabytes, increasing number of web-sites and space ships, a great deal of people use too many various devices and technologies in their daily life. As a result, we frequently spend our time on less important things and sometimes even waste those precious minutes and hours of our life for solving various avoidable technical problems.