How To Start Prioritising Your Time

The prioritising of time is something that we frequently (and mistakenly) think about in terms of work only. It's true that it is a very important professional skill, but if you're supremely effective at managing your work time, but your personal life is a mess - you still need to learn one or two prioritising skills. (This and much more can be learnt in one of our leadership development courses London).

No matter what stage of life you are at - young and attending full time education, trying to build a career, just married or starting a family, or approaching retirement - you need to prioritise your LIFEtime, not just your job. Otherwise, the knock-on effect of stress (one of the biggest causes of work absence), illness and unhappiness will be dragged into your employment with you.

Many of us are stuck in routines that we find hard to break. Especially if we are doing "ok" in our jobs and at home, and you're treading water, just keeping everything ticking along with no time for any change. Prioritising your life will restore the balance between work and home.

The first step is to develop awareness of how you are spending (or indeed) wasting your work and personal time. Do you have bad habits - taking long lunch breaks, working late (and therefore getting home late, angering the family), or taking your work home with you? These are all signs of poor time management and lack of prioritising.

Once you have thought about how you currently spend your time, write down the things you would like to eliminate, that are doing you (and your career) no good at all - for example, the long lunch breaks. That extra half hour you gain by giving this up can go towards reading the report that you would usually throw in the car and take home. Prioritising usually has this knock-on effect, and improvements can be seen almost straight away.

Think about what you would really like, in an ideal world, in both your job and life. Many people, sadly, are dissatisfied with their career and would like to be doing something else. Why not start today? No, that doesn't mean handing in your notice- for example, you could make extra training out of hours a priority over going to the pub with friends. Slowly you can build up the qualifications you need for a new career.

Give your priorities (enough money for a new car, want a promotion, would like to get home on time) marks out of ten for how important they are to your well-being and happiness. Once you've set your priorities, it makes them easier to work on - you have a clear path to take. Mark down how much time (out of ten) that you are currently spending on each goal. If there's a discrepancy between desperately wanting something in life, yet you're spending no time on achieving it, it will never happen. The scores you give should alert you to where you should be managing your time - less or more of it - in each area.

Finally, set your priorities out in a place you can see them daily, in the order of importance. On your desk, on your study wall, or somewhere where it can motivate you. If you dream of taking more holidays, stick some pictures up of those palm trees and beaches. If you want to get a promotion at work, write down the training courses you need to take to get yourself up to a higher level.

Remember that priorities are not always fixed - you can be flexible in your approach, and add and take them away as you see fit. However, always have them there- they help you focus, remind you of what makes you happy, and will make you far more likely to achieve them. Setting a goal is the first real step to achieving it.

Take control of your life - prioritise - and go for it!