SolveYourProblem eLearning Series: Time Management
How Can I Manage My Time Better?
( 50 articles in this series )

How To Choose a Time Management Class
   

After surveying the growing pile of bills, papers, and photos, you have decided that something has got to change. You understand that you need to learn some solid time management skills, and you wander into the nearest bookstore in search of a cure-all for what ails your schedule. Of course, who has time to read those lengthy tomes? The next natural step is a time management class, after all, once you spend all that money to sign up; you will attend, won’t you? Perhaps you will. In order to ensure success for your and your time management issues, it is imperative to choose a class that works for you. Here are three easy to follow steps that will all but guarantee you find that class.

First and foremost, decide if you are more likely to attend class held at a brick and mortar building, or if you will be less likely to skip class when you can log on any time from the privacy of your own living room. For some the real life benefits that can only be garnered from attendance in live classes are well worth the few hours spent in class once or twice a week. These folks will love the interaction, camaraderie, and competitiveness that class assignments bring. This will keep them faithful to the class and the learning process. Others are not impressed by the outlook of spending what little free time they can squeeze out of their busy lives, sitting in a class. They dread the schedule, and will most likely find valid excuses early into the class to drop it altogether. For them, a class that will be ready and waiting for them at their leisure would be the best way to go. It will permit these students to access the information and course work 24 hours a day, seven days per week, without regard to holidays or office hours. The only commitment needed is the dedication to improving their time management skills. Which category do you fall in?

Secondly, are you in need of personal time management help or is this more business related? If it is the latter, do you want to get your employees or coworkers involved? Naturally, a time management class may need to take a different angle to truly fit your needs for a business related setting, and perhaps an in-office consultation would be the best case scenario. Allowing a consultant to visit your business will permit her or him to see your office in action, and to recognize potential pitfalls but also obvious strong points. Such a consultant will then be able to tailor a class specific to your needs. Most likely this will take the form of a meeting that will not take more than a few hours, but its benefits are liable to last for a long time!

Third and last, take a look at the curriculum and see if it addresses the short term solutions as well as long term problem solving. It is not enough to become proficient in sorting your mail and disposing of unneeded or unwanted pieces of correspondence. While this may be a great clutter decreasing tool for the short term outlook, it does very little to enhance your time management skills for the future. Seek out a class that challenges you to set goals -- these should be short term, mid term and long term goals. In the short term you may wish to become clutter-free, but in the mid term, you are probably looking to achieve some new goals, which may be personal or professional in nature, and which will require their own set of time management skills. The same is true for the long term goals. Thus, when choosing a time management class, be certain to find one that does not only deal with the here and now, but instead uses this knowledge as a starting point for future success.

Hopefully you feel inspired to teach out for some time management help. It is hard to get started, and even harder to begin midstream, when your schedule already looks as though sleep is a major commodity. Nonetheless, whatever your situation may be, help is only a phone call or mouse click away, and the classes offered vary greatly in approach and content.

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SolveYourProblem.com : 2006

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