Time is a concept that we use commonly in our day-to-day activities. It is the basic concept of life by which all events and tasks are scheduled. Among other treasures on earth, time is arguably one of the most valued gifts of man. As a matter of fact, time is one of several factors that modifies human existence. This is because it is the unit of life by which the lifespan of any individual or event is measured.

Just like other treasures on earth, time is well sought for by many individuals because of its relivance to life. However, time is the most mismanaged resources.
We all desire more of it but once it comes our way, we end up doing little or nothing with it only to become amazed to find out that it has gone again. Another interesting thing to note about time is that, time presents to us limitless opportunities to develop ourselves and to get tasks done.

Moreso, we all have almost the same amount of time each day, that is 24hours. Consequently, we have almost equal chances of developing ourselves and getting various tasks completed. Hence, you have no excuse to give if you are unable to use this opportunity that time offers on a platter of gold. Bearing this in mind, it becomes pertinent to state here that the success you desire in life is dependent on how well you are able to manage your time.
Hence, the importance of time management. It is in this light that I have decided to write this article to educate you on how to manage your time effectively with the use of the Principle of Time Management.


Principle of Time Management
Time management is a deliberate effort made
towards a proper coordination of tasks within a given time. In other words, it is the ability to perform a given task completely within a specified time.
From the definitions given above, there are three salient points that I want you to take note of about time management.

1.Time Management is a deliberate act
What this means is that, time management is an act that you practise with a purpose in mind. That is to say, you do it consciously. It is not what you do with a causal attitude. It's a conscious act geared towards achieving a desired goal. Hence, you should be determined and disciplined enough to manage time effectively. Time management deals with the coordination of tasks. You can only talk about time management if and when you have tasks to be done. These tasks could be some basic day-to-day activities such as house chores,
minor office work, going on shopping, etc or it could be complex activities like preparing for seminar presentation, personal study among others. You are expected to get this tasks arranged in your to-do list and keep it closer to your reach so as to get yourself reminded of what task you need to embark on at any given time.

Be it as it may, time management is a function of tasks to be done coupled with the proper coordination of these tasks.

2. Time management is time-bound
This simply means that there is need for you to create a time-frame for each task that you intend doing. This is important because it is the bedrock of an effective time management, without which you are unable to manage time. Also, this prevents you from wasting so much time on a particular task at the expense of other tasks on your list. In deciding what time-frame to choose for each task, I was able to come up with a system called the the Multiplex Pattern of Time Management
Basically, this pattern involves the division of the
whole 24hours of the day into fragments. Each
fragments is made up of one, two, three or four hours. In other to understand this pattern, let us take a brief look into the various patterns.
A. The One-hour pattern This is a pattern of time manage in which the 24hour in a day is divided by one hour. What you get at the
end is 24 fragments with each fragment having a duration of one hour. Thereafter, you can allot a fragment to each task. With this pattern, you will be able to fix a time frame
of one hour to each tasks on your to-do list. This idea helps you to attain a level of organisation in running your day-to-day activities because with it every task in your list is taken care of.
This pattern works best for all domestic activities that do not consume much time.

B.The Two-hour pattern
This is what you get when you divide the 24hour in a day by two hours. This leaves you with twelve fragments in which each fragment has a two-hour duration. Thereafter, each fragment can be allotted to each task.
The two-hour pattern is suitable for some domestic activities, music rehearsals as well as for personal studies.

C. The Three-hour pattern Here, the whole day is split into eight fragments. This is obtained by dividing the whole 24-hour by three hours. At the end, each fragment has a time duration
of three hours. This pattern finds relivance in tasks that are time consuming.

D. The Four-hour pattern
The Four-hour pattern is obtained when the 24hour in a day is divided by four hours. This leaves you with sixfragments in which each fragment has a time duration of four hours. This pattern is suitable for complex tasks that are time consuming such as academic activities, professional services, research work, learning new things, etc. At this point, it is necessary to state that no particular time fragment is mutually exclusive. That means, you
can adopt a combination of different time fragments in your task schedule. Nevertheless, it is of best practice to stick to one particular time fragment.

To sum it up, time mismanagement has been a challenge to everyone but a regular practice of time management is vital to remedy the situation. This you can achieve by applying the principle of time management. So, get up and start managing that time to your own advantage.

Source:
http://creativepodium.com/Creative-Ideas-How-To-Manage-Time-Effectively.html