by Ben Francia |Last Updated: August 27, 2011 
A friend of mine needed my help with something a few days ago. He says he was too loaded with all his other tasks in writing and community management that he couldn’t handle the next few batch of jobs. I obliged. So he sent me all the details of his writing and web development jobs and handed it over to me.
Being the outsource expert that I am, I got it done in less than 2 days. The following weekend I asked him what’s up and he told me: “I guess I was just too into community management…” ‘Your community huh?” With a grin, he admits that he got too distracted with his Facebook chat with friends that he missed at least 2 hours of work.
In that little story, we see how important time management is. If you don’t get something done when it’s expected, there’s going to be hell to pay. Heck, just ask my friend.
In any case, here’s a few things you might want to do to make sure you keep your schedule tight:
- Eliminate distractions – By that, I mean when it’s work time, you need to keep your eyes on the price. Get rid of any potential distraction. If you’re a community manager, set up a business account without any friends or just use Facebook as a page. If you’re a writer, turn off your chat app or notification device and keep at writing.
If needed, hold up a sign that reminds you that it’s time for work and you can’t waste any of it on something you can check on after.
- Trust on paper.. Or on a mindmap – Get your schedule on paper and have it posted somewhere you always see it. I suggested that to my friend and he pretty much got a hold of his schedule quite well. Besides that, you can also use a mindmap to get your thoughts in line and be aware of any arrangements you’ve made.
- Leave time for emergencies – You never know when an emergency might come up so make space for at least two hours in your schedule. If it can’t be helped, just do your tasks ahead of time so you’ve got a lot of time to spare in the future.
- Know your role – Knowing your role simply means giving yourself the right mindset with whatever it is you’r e doing. We all have different roles to play in our lives and we can’t be two things at the same time. Besides being pretty messed up, we’d end up hurting the things that really matter. So when it’s time to turn that laptop off and go play with the kids, then do it. It’s something that you should work on as well.
In any context, time management is an essential part of living. You need to be able to manage your time wisely if you want to perform well at work and enjoy life to the fullest.
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