Time Management Tips - How To Sharpen Scheduling Skills Using 5 Intuitive Tools

Time management tips can be regimented and mechanistic, or they can be heart-based and intuitive. Which do you think will promote your productivity and capacity to excel? To build capacity, cultivate what makes you unique and use it to make the most of your time. Begin today by drawing upon five guaranteed techniques to enhance your scheduling today.

Make the Calendar Grid a Canvas for Your Creativity

Believe it or not, one of the best partners to intuition is the common calendar grid. By providing you with an overview, it enables you are creative right brain to excel at creating productive patterns. Make the most of this is your working to create effective systems.

Your intuition is a genius of balance. On a subconscious level, it coordinates the competing rhythms of your day. It enables you to remain resilient rather than to overextend yourself. These five approaches to discern significant patterns as you use your calendar for scheduling.

1. Color Codes Coordinate.

Color-coding is a fast and accurate way to get an instant overview and side-step double booking. You might consider color coordinating action steps of distinct projects so that you can trace their paths quickly as you scan your month.

2. Perceiving Patterns Protects Priorities.

Which tasks recur cyclically? How do these cycles coordinate or clash with other cycles? For example, one evening activity might meet every other Wednesday, while a second one meets every fourth Wednesday. You will either have lots of schedule conflicts or none, and it will show up immediately on your calendar.

Many electronic devices only project ahead for set intervals like two weeks, monthly, etc. For other rhythms, a large desk calendar with colored markers is invaluable to chart your month's progression. The earlier you catch potential collisions, the more options you can explore.

3. Sync Your Steps.

You're already beginning to see how emerging and receding demands form the dance of your priorities. To further refine how you use your time, note on your calendar when each project must claim precedence and for how long. If you create a visual symbol, you can take in at a glance the time durations that are ideal. (For example, one check mark may represent each half hour you assign to a task.)

As much as possible, chunk down each project into action steps that you enter into your calendar. Then you can better coordinate how to group activities for your maximum effectiveness.

4. Stay on Schedule Using Soft Deadlines.

Soft deadlines are due dates ahead of your final deadline. By focusing on your soft deadlines, you maximize your chance of staying on schedule, even if faced by setbacks.

5. To Energize, Enlist Your Intuition.

Burnout develops when you focus on the specific individual parts of your projects and neglect your health, values and personal welfare in general. Again, your intuition is a priceless ally to keep you whole and effective, not disconnected and exhausted. Remember to schedule in time to recharge your batteries along with everything else. Color-code it prominently! Then, your calendar supports your overall well-being as well as your productivity.

Using these tips consistently takes willpower. In times of stress, it's easy to clench and shut down. Breathing becomes shallow. Responses become rote. Don't fall into this trap! To maintain balance every time, use these intuitive scheduling tools as the allies they are. Remember, you magnify your power by aligning right and left-brain strengths with your top priorities. Then you know you make the very most of your time!