It is a great honor to return to Mr. Raveling’s Coaching for Success website as a columnist. This website has personally served as a teaching platform for intellectual and personal growth. Many events have transpired since my last post on The Power of Goals. I am currently a junior at the University of California, Berkeley after successfully making the transition from community college this past fall.

I had the wonderful opportunity to read Scott Belsky, entrepreneur and best-selling author’s book Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality. This was a great read and I highly recommend it. Mr. Belsky captivated me with his blunt by truthful statement regarding the essence of time. He expressed, “If you were told the exact year, day, and time that your life would end, would you manage your time and energy any differently?” The point of this statement was not meant to scare the reader, but emphasize the importance of each day to positively grow and pursue life to its fullest. This statement by Scott Belsky has motivated me to use this column to discuss time management, and provide three helpful tips to improve one’s ability to manage their time.

Time management is simply the way one regulates or schedules their time. One of the keys to successful time management is allowing enough time to complete your priority obligations while still finding time to complete all your other responsibilities. Good time management skills can actually save you time, however, it comes down to taking a few minutes each day and week to plan and organize your time. By learning to plan and schedule your time, you can begin to take control of your life.

Three ways to organize your time more effectively and efficiently is to create an Assignment Calendar, a Running List, and make use of “To Do” Lists. An assignment calendar enables you to include all your responsibilities on one visible location. The ability to see what needs to be done each day is one of the first steps to planning and maximizing your time. Another good way to organize your time is to keep a running list. The running list allows one to state their obligations for the weeks in advance. It becomes a reminder of what needs to get done and allows you to constantly see future duties and deadlines. Lastly, the use of To Do lists can contribute in immense ways to helping with wise time management. A To Do list is a list of the tasks that you want to complete each day.

These strategies are best implemented when they are used with one another. For instance each afternoon or evening, take a glance at your Running List and make out a “To Do” list for the next day. I hope you find these three strategies helpful, and you are able to begin applying them in your daily lives.

Remember as you go through each day capitalizing on the plentitude of resources and opportunities; do not forget the words of the legendary UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden. He asserted, if you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? Until next time, continue to grow, share, and reflect while making each day a masterpiece.

Peace & Blessings, Kimati A. Ramsey

Download PDF