Effective time management

Living in an organised way can save us from nagging day-to-day stressors. Here are few points may help

By Dr Meena Shah, healthcare consultant

Living in an organised way can save us from nagging day-to-day stressors. Many don't have the time for family and social commitments, which often results in anxieties and relationship tensions. A bad time manager invariably ends up a much-harried one at the close of the day.

To be organised in life the following points can prove vital:

Be flexible
There is always more than one solution to a problem. One should be flexible enough to accept alternative solutions and experiment with them. It doesn't help becoming anxious and depressed.

Be realistic
It does help setting realistic and achievable goals. The targets should correspond to one's capability in achieving them. Making unrealistic demands on oneself and others is a sure way to invite stress.

Prioritise your tasks
Prioritising tasks can help reduce the challenges in completing them. Putting time and energy to important tasks and breaking a big task into smaller steps makes things easier. When one finishes one thing at a time and is able to meet one's responsibilities in time, the effect can be inspiring.

Do not baulk at delegating responsibility
Delegating responsibility when it is appropriate, prevents stress. When one has several tasks at hand, assigning smaller tasks to others can work wonders. This can be done both in office and at home.

Learn to be assertive
Practicing to be assertive or learning to say no when required can prevent you from taking up extra tasks, which can eat into your precious time and energy.

Keep a time planner
Keeping a time planner ready helps going about one's task systematically. The listings should be scheduled on a day-to-day and priority basis. It is, also, important to allot a little more time for each schedule to avoid working under strain and anxiety.

Take planned breaks from work
Whether a quick 5-minutes break or a 5-day long holiday, the breaks might offload the after-effects of stress in us.