Good time-management sayings

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  1. Time is money.
  2. If in doubt, throw it out.
  3. Plan tomorrow today.
  4. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
  5. Do the worst first. (Brian Tracy)
  6. Finish what you start.
  7. Getting it done is my reward. (Ben Franklin)
  8. A place for everything, and everything in its place.
  9. Quit talking and start doing. (after Walt Disney)
  10. Pull the trigger!
  11. An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
  12. The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory.
  13. Don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today. (after Ben Franklin)
  14. It’s better to do the right thing slowly than the wrong thing quickly. (Peter Turla)
  15. Work smarter, not harder.
  16. Well begun is half done.
  17. A stitch in time saves nine.
  18. The early bird catches the worm.

20 time management rules

These are 20 rules of time management I picked up from Edwin Bliss’s excellent 1970’s Time Management classic called Getting Things Done.

  1. When filing,  remember that a few fat files work better than a lot of thin ones.
  2. When you stuff up, don’t say “If only“;  say  “Next time.
  3. Finish what you start. Don’t accumulate a long list of unfinished projects.
  4. Read selectively. You can waste a lot of time reading.
  5. Protect prime time. There are times when you think better than other times — use that time well.
  6. Start the day off with your most unpleasant task on your to-do list. That way, you’ll feel wonderful for the rest of the day, knowing you’ve got your most dreaded chore out of the way.
  7. Schedule large chunks of time for the important things and control interruptions.
  8. Reduce your commute time –or your wasted commute time.
  9. Create positive tension e.g.  set yourself deadlines, go public with your goals, invite others to evaluate your work, enter friendly competitions with others, etc.
  10. Break all tasks down to bite-sized pieces ( Bliss call this the salami technique).
  11. Plan before starting anything. Think:  “Is there a better way to do this?”
  12. Conduct post-mortems after projects. Ask yourself “How would I done this better. What will I do next time?”
  13. Identify mental blocks and use the salami technique to break the obstacle down into tiny pieces.
  14. Remember to pat yourself on the back whenever you do something well.
  15. Give very specific instructions. People can’t give you what you want if you don’t tell them precisely what you want.
  16. Learn to touch-type and use voice-recognition software.
  17. Replace neurotic perfectionism with the more practical concept of “good enough”.
  18. Learn to “focus like a laser”.
  19. Say “no” more often; make fewer promises.
  20. Use the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) to identify your most likely high-yield activities and allocate lots of time to those activities.