LACK OF GOALS

Sometimes a person does not spend their time effectively because they're not sure what they should be doing with that time. Without clear goals in mind, it's easy to simply waste away the hours of one's life doing little to accomplish anything - because you don't even know what you want to accomplish.

Goals can be personal or professional, and big or small. Having them in mind means knowing where you want to be in the future, and can also help you to see the things you need to do to get there. For example, if one goal is to save so much money for retirement, you know that you need to keep your finances in order now and need to see how much you're saving every month. If a smaller goal is to clean out your attic, you may know that this means buying some garbage bags and storage bins and setting aside time every week to tackle that project.

When you lack goals it's easy to lack focus. Without focus you have no idea how you should be spending your time, which in turn means you accomplish nothing.

NO PRIORITIZING

Lack of prioritizing skills is something like lacking goals in that you don't know what should occupy the time you have for maximum effectiveness. You have many different demands on your time and failure to realize which should come first and which should come last, and which should be dropped from your schedule altogether, can mean wasting that precious time.

Not prioritizing with your schedule can be compared to not prioritizing with your finances. If you buy new clothes without paying your rent, you have your priorities confused. If you go out drinking with your friends or go gambling rather than sending in a car payment, of course your priorities are off!

Learning how to set priorities may mean learning how to say no to certain projects or demands. This can be difficult especially for those that are not used to turning down requests and demands on their time, but like other time management skills, it can be done.

DELEGATING

Do you delegate your work, whether that's work in the office or work at home? If you have a difficult time with this, you're certainly not alone.

Many struggle with assigning work or sharing responsibilities, and for various reasons. It might be that they feel they're the only ones that can handle the work, they nitpick and criticize the work of others, they think others will look down on them if they share their responsibilities, or they just don't know how to ask for help.

Whatever the reason, taking on too much usually means that something if not everything will suffer. It also means that the things that are important to you may not be cared for since there is little room in your schedule for them.

All of these different time wasters and time bandits are very common for many. No doubt you've noticed yourself in some of these scenarios. And if so, what then? How can you address these situations so that you can maximize your time and really call it your own?

Let's go over each of these circumstances individually so you can understand how to address them and reclaim your time.