Key Learning Outcomes

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In life not too many things are certain, but time is one of them.

No matter what happens, other than the day we are born and the day we die, we will all have exactly 1,440 minutes each day to use as best we can. As much as we sometimes might hope, there will never be an answer to that plea, “I just need a couple more hours in the day”.

If we think of people who have been recognised around the world as leaders in their various fields, we will see the similarities in terms of their passion for what they do, as well as their dedication and determination. One thing that everyone, including humanitarian Mother Teresa, sports great Michael Jordan and  industry leader Steve Jobs, have in common is that just like us they only had 1,440 minutes each and every day. The difference is that they chose to make sure that every minute counted!

In business and life we often see people that are very busy being “busy”. These people are often moving quickly from task to task, creating havoc among family, team members or worse, clients. These people are rarely as productive or effective as they could be. People who operate like this will have the occasional moments of glory, but this style often leads to mistakes and high levels of stress over a sustained period. Of course there are always moments in life or business where we have to operate at peak performance levels, for example during a weekend sale or when preparing for a large family function. The key is to ensure these moments of high stress are the exception rather than the rule.

Effective time management is one of the most important skills for any business owner or manager to master. The first step is to determine which areas you need some help with and to identify how you are currently using your time. The following short quiz is designed to identify a baseline for your current time management skill level. This covers the areas that many people struggle with when managing their time such as effective planning and being able to manage distractions and interruptions.

		Always	Often	Never
1	Do you complete a “to-do list” every day?	2	1	0
2	Do you complete this at the end of every day?	2	1	0
3	Do you prioritise the tasks on the list?	2	1	0
4	Do you ever have so much to do that you don’t know where to start?	0	1	2
5	Do you find that emails, phone calls, people or problems interrupt when working on something?	0	1	2
6	Do you have trouble saying no to requests from others?	0	1	2
7	Do you ever think “it will be quicker and easier if I just do it myself”?	0	1	2
8	Do you find that you have a number of projects and tasks that are unfinished?	0	1	2
9	Do you ever get to the end of the day and think “I was so busy that I did not even stop for lunch”?	0	1	2
10	Do you find that you have tasks or activities that need to be done that you keep putting off for another day?	0	1	2
11	Do you find that you have times of the day where your energy levels are low?	0	1	2
12	Do you have days where you have been busy all day but feel like you have achieved very little?	0	1	2
13	Do you have uncompleted tasks or projects because they are not quite perfect yet?	0	1	2
14	Do you constantly check emails as they come in just in case it is something urgent?	0	1	2
15	Do you find bigger projects get put on the back burner, as you are so busy dealing with smaller day-to-day activities?	0	1	2

Add up your scores to determine how effective your current time management is. What does your score mean? 25–30  Congratulations. You have mastered time management. You may want to pick and choose from the time management topics to enhance your skills. 20–25       Well done. You have a good understanding of time management but there is still room for improvement. It is worthwhile refreshing your skills. Below 20    There is an opportunity for you to enhance your skills in this area. To ensure you are using your time effectively, we suggest you complete the time management learning modules. Once you have implemented some of the tools, come back and repeat this quiz to see how you have improved and to keep you on track. [wlm_nonmember]Did you enjoy this complimentary article? Would you like to start driving positive changes in your business? Would you like to see increased productivity and profitability? Of course you would! As part of our commitment to being a low cost yet highly effective service to help owners and managers of small to medium sized business, we are now offering the first month of your membership for just $1! This means you will get full access to all of the learning articles, tools and tips that our website has to offer and with a commitment to upload at least another 150 learning articles through 2015 there is also plenty more learning on the way. On top of this you will also receive our weekly newsletter to keep you updated on new learning for the week and much, much more! You can cancel at any time, however, if you see the value in what we're offering (and we're sure you will!) your membership will automatically continue after your trial at the low cost of just $19.95 per month. So what are you waiting for? For just $1 you are getting full access to all of our content for 30 days risk-free, so come on and join our community today![/wlm_nonmember]   Success is giving it your Absolute Best!