Five Time Management Tips That Improve Productivity

Time waits on no man! It is a scarce resource and the one commodity that we can never retrieve once it is gone. Furthermore, greatness takes time, and the clock is ticking, so it's important to get started in managing your 24 hours well each day for greater productivity. Here are five time management tips that improve productivity among the world's most successful people.

1. Prioritize

Successful people are great at prioritizing. They are good at recognizing what's important and urgent, and they do what's important first. To improve your productivity, therefore, identify and schedule the most important tasks and tackle them first.

2. Work from A Calendar

Successful people generally work from their calendar and not from a to-do list. While to-do lists are good, most people don't follow through when using them. On the contrary, events and activities placed on calendars are generally perceived as more important and usually get more attention in their execution than to-do lists.

3. Stop Procrastinating

Procrastination is the thief of time and killer of dreams, and successful people know how to beat it. You can overcome procrastination by beating your future self in the present moment. For example, if you get tempted to turn off the alarm clock that goes off at 5 am and then go back to bed rather than getting up, place the clock further away so that you have to get out of bed and walk over to turn it off. The likelihood of you going back to sleep will be much less than if the clock was by your bedside.

4. Allocate your working hours and stick with it

There will always be more to do in this fast-paced world in which we have come to live. But guess what? Rome wasn't built in a day, so don't try to do everything in the twenty-four hours that you have - you will experience burn-out. Instead, decide when you will do your important work and allocate the remainder of the time for family, walking the dog, etc.

5. Follow the 80/20 rule

According to the 80/20 rule, commonly referred to as the Pareto Principle, 20 percent of our actions produce 80 percent of the results we get. Successful people, therefore, identify the handful of things that are bringing them the most results and delegate the rest. But, of course, it would help if you did the same too.