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Time Management – Personal and Professional

February 11, 2025 - February 11, 2025   


When running your own business, particularly a fashion brand, time management skills are critical. The use of a time management plan can reveal what you need to do to improve your relationship with time.

MANAGE YOUR TIME DEADLINES

With good time management skills you are in control of your time and your life, that includes your stress and energy levels. You make progress at work and you are able to maintain balance between your work, personal and family life. Plus, you have enough flexibility to respond to surprises or new opportunities as they arise.

All time management skills can be taught. It is more than likely you will see improvement from simply becoming aware of the essence and causes of common personal time management problems. With the time management actions listed below, you can adapt your techniques so they are relevant for each situation.

If you already know how you should be managing your time and yet you still don’t manage it – don’t give up. There can be psychological obstacles that can make you procrastinate, have difficulties in saying ‘no’ or in allocating delegation, or making time management decisions.

Revisit the advice below on a regular basis and over time positive time management practices will become second nature.

HOW TO WRITE AN ACTION PLAN

When writing an action plan, and the key is to write or type the plan out, try the following steps:

TIME LOG TECHNIQUES 

Time tracking with a time log is much more than a boring exercise in book keeping. If you approach it right, it will become a very effective time management learning tool. A few minutes of writing and analysing your time and activity logs will eliminate many hours of wasted time.

EMBRACE THE REALITY OF YOUR PERSONAL TIME

Unless this has already happened to you before, your time log is more than likely to surprise you. You will see how much time is wasted in many unexpected ways. Often, it appears, that the busier you feel the more time is wasted.

Another important discovery is how much time certain jobs or activities really take. One of the most common problems in personal time management is underestimating the time needed for a specific activity. This is one of the main reasons why planning and scheduling do not seem to work well for some people. If you always expect more than you able to do with your time, then writing plans and to-do lists will just get you even more stressed. 

Once you analyse how much time is required per task you can realistically plan your day and feel more in control. It is a good idea to have a time buffer between tasks so you are not rushing from one task to another.

PREPARING AND WRITING YOUR TIME LOG

It isn’t necessary to write a time log permanently however, it can be helpful for those that are multi-tasking, or running their own business. Divide each page / day into columns, and include the following headings:

Throughout the day update your time log. Do it every time you switch to a new activity, or at intervals, such as every 30 minutes. Add entries to your “Time” and “Activities” column, and try to put marks like “Yes” or “No” in the “Scheduled”, “Interrupted”, and “Urgent” columns. Where relevant, make short notes on what happened.

WHAT DOES YOUR TIME LOG TELL YOU?

When you have your time log filled in, you can move to the most important part, the analysis. Review your records at the end of the week and try to get answers to the following questions:

Then think of possible adjustments and action steps. For example:

It sounds simple, but seeing how you spend your time in black and white can really help with time organisation and planning. Time logs and planning might seem like a mammoth task initially but once you get in the habit of analysing your time and prioritising your goals the benefits can be tremendous. 

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