Time is all you have. Master your time and you master your life. Time management is one of those wonderful, timeless topics with so many lessons and so many great mentors. To get a better view on time management, we can first “stand on the shoulder’s of giants.” To do so, let’s take a stroll through some words of wisdom from our sages of the ages.

There are 4 key time wasters that show up from management and organizational ineffectiveness. One time waster is a recurring crisis. This means there’s a lack of system foresight to anticipate and respond effectively. Another time waster is friction and feuding among teams. This is usually a sign of overstaffing. Another time waster is too many meetings. Too many meetings are often a sign of the wrong organizational structure. Another significant time waster is bad information. People need accurate, relevant, timely information to do do their jobs well.

Photo by Michel Filion.
What are the keys to effective time management?  How do successful people manage their time?  They log and analyze their time.  They use deadlines.  They know that time is the scarcest resource.  They master their own time management to improve their contribution and effectiveness.  In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management (Collins Business Essentials), Peter F. Drucker writes that you should “know thy time.”
Log and Analyze Your Time
Drucker writes that effective people perpetually work on their time management:
And …

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To effectively manage your time, you first need to know where it goes.  Don’t rely on your memory.  The problem is you’ll think you spend time where you should spend your time.  Your memory will fool you.  In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management (Collins Business Essentials), Peter F. Drucker writes about logging your time rather than relying on memory.
Key Take AwaysHere’s my key take aways:

To manage your time, you need to know where it goes.  In order to …

What are best practices for time management?  How do effective people manage their time?  How do effective people manage to consistently get the most important things done each week?  They consolidate their discretionary time.  One approach is to work from home one day a week.  Another approach is to push your administrative work to Mondays and Fridays, and then use Tuesdays, Wednesday’s, and Thursdays to focus on your high priority work.  In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management (Collins Business Essentials), …