Mother Teresa once said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” 

This is the ultimate truth of life. Especially for those who want to work for themselves. Career-oriented people can easily relate to this quotation. In this fast-paced world, every possibility of success lies today. One time that is most valuable for us is the time we are in, neither yesterday nor tomorrow.

20 common time management mistakes

Here are 20 COMMON MISTAKES people do in their time management journey, and I have shared SOME KICK-ASS METHODS TO RECTIFY THOSE MISTAKES. 

1.) TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS

2.) SET PRIORITIES AND GOALS

The first step in any goal setting is to make a proper plan. Write down your goals and create a plan to follow those. Apply the SMART technique.

FOLLOWING IS THE SAMPLE TEMPLATE YOU CAN CONSIDER WHILE WRITING A GOAL PLAN-

(REPLACE “_____” WITH RELEVANT WORDS):

1. MY SMART GOAL IS ________
2. DOES THIS GOAL FIT INTO A SMART IDEOLOGY? (YES/NO)
3. CHALLENGES IN ACHIEVING THIS GOAL ARE __________
4. TIME FRAME REQUIRED TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL IS ________
5. I WILL REVIEW MY PROGRESS BY ___________ (WRITING, EMAILING, MAINTAINING A DIARY, KEEPING A LOGBOOK, ETC.)
6. I WILL NEED HELP FROM ________ (PEOPLE, BOOKS, INTERNET RESOURCES)
7. AFTER ACHIEVING MY GOAL, I WILL _________

If you follow this technique of writing a goal plan, things will be a lot easier and help you in achieving your goals. 

Everyone knows that setting a goal is important. But the potential steps that must be taken to achieve them are unknown to half of the population in the world. Some tricks and tips help us to set our goals properly. These will help in the long run and work for any goals we wish to achieve.

• Select achievable goals
• Set an action plan
  
• Weekly update
• Stay flexible
• Get up early morning
• Go for quality, not doe quantity 
• Set deadlines 
• Progress is just as important as results
• Be specific 
• Use the Five-A-Day rule for effective goal setting
• Push yourself
• Don't forget about self-care

1. Relevant Experience: You want to follow someone who knows what they are doing.
2. Results-Oriented: Good leaders will always look at measurable results.  Numbers are the only fair way for compensation and promotion
3. Fair:  A good leader will go to the mat for their people.  They will also be effective in the discipline as well.  Culture is a breathing thing. Follow the praise publically/discipline privately motto
4. Ethical:  Don’t roll your eyes.  Good people will not work effectively over the long term with unethical people. 
5. Visionary:  Sees the future years before it happens.  Steve Jobs was visionary and saw the future of technology long before it happened. 
6. Team Oriented:  You have to love, respect people, my friend…or learn how to program computers
7. Controls Emotions:  Sure, it's ok to blow up, but on occasion and with a cause.  Typically, leaders are sober people in control
8. Financial Conservative:  Results, numbers-oriented people do not bet the farm  on a passing fancy
9. Good Work Ethic:  Seriously, people do not follow slackers unless they are slackers
10. Humility: It's OK to be human, make mistakes, but learn to apologize and be humble

1. Leaders are agents of change
2. The customer is the priority
3. Leadership is inclusive
4. Leadership is no longer hierarchical
5. There is a new vernacular
6. There is shared accountability
7. Digital Literacy
8. Innovation
9. Risk-Taking
10. Adaptability

Self-leadership: 

Regardless of whether you are driving a small team or a vast association, all leadership attempts start with self-leadership. Self-leadership starts with thoughtfulness and improvement of one's passionate knowledge. Leaders must know themselves first before they can successfully lead others.

Singular leadership: 

Individual leadership is about execution at an abnormal state as an individual giver. Leadership isn't just an element of a situation on an organizational diagram, yet also a singular performance. Anybody at any degree of an association can be a leader, notwithstanding when they are not in a formal leadership position.. Singular leaders are perceived for their leadership in establishing the tone and elevated requirements in their work.

Team leadership: 

Team leadership is the leadership of a small team. It includes direct collaboration between the leader and their supporters. By and large, the leader is in constant contact with their team individuals, and the leader is in charge of everything the team does or neglects to do.

1. They don’t let the team do all the work
2. They do not say “yes” to everything
3. They do not criticize publicly
4. They do not induce the notion that only leaders influence and make say what decisions are made
5. They do not create a monarchy
6. They do not feel entitled
7. They do not create politics in the workplace
8. They do not focus on low value/return work
9. They do not produce low quality work
10. They do not set low standards

1. Keep your ego at bay, at least, when you communicate
2. Use appropriate Chanel of communication as per the situation or circumstances demand
3. Be proactive and gather the information as well as understand it in the first hand / Specifically, related info of your domain
4. Maintain trust at almost all costs
5. Be great at what you do
6. Be right, a lot
7. Generously give away power
8. Make sacrifices

1. Ability to listen, including being open to others' ideas and suggestions
2. Ability to get people on board with a specific system/plan
3. Ability to listen - to the relevant things and ideas
4. Being respectful
5. Being well-respected and having credibility
6. Setting a good example
7. Ability to connect the dots - you will never have “enough “ information to take “safe decisions”
8. Ability to emotionally handle stress and anxiety triggered by uncertainty
9. Ability to ask a lot of questions - and not to become a bank of the right answers. This will help your team to feel respected and trigger their engagement
10. Build your resilience - take it that some failure is inbuilt, yet it should not deter from experimentation or challenging the status quo
11.  Maintain eye contact with whom you are talking. If you are talking with the group, everyone should feel that you are talking to each other
12. Should be able to understand the non-verbal cues.

All the core competencies of leadership, such as:

• Self-management and discipline
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• The ability to see and communicate the vision
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• The willingness to experiment or challenge a status quo
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• Emotional intelligence
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• Personal humility
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• An aggressive and persevering drive for success
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• The ability to organize ideas and people
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• Clear Vision on the Journey and goals
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• Empowering the team ( Keeping the team in the front )
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• Willingness to serve the team ( Servant Leadership)
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• Keep away the ego and Authority
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• Honesty and integrity
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• Adaptability
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• Managing change
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• Decision making and problem-solving
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• Visionary
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• Communicating effectively

• Decide that you will be amazing
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• Praise instead of cash rewards
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• Talk to yourself
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• Wake up early, see the sunrise and sit down for at least 5 minutes of meditation
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• Give away and donate regularly
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• Work on your communication and writing skills every day, in meetings, at conferences, etc.
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• Express gratitude.

1. A good leader always communicates with his subordinates so that they clearly understand the mission and how to carry out an outing. They make sure that each subordinate understands that they can be their main tasks in the team to fulfill the mission, so, in the absence of the leader or the orders, anyone can achieve the mission if necessary.
2. A good leader takes the time to train the people below them on how they do their job, so when the time comes for the leader in moving to the next service position, the leader trusts the next person can achieve that leadership position.
3. A good leader should not fraternize with his subordinates (except in activities authorized by the company) during off-duty hours. He has seen some good leaders stay on the road due to activities outside the service with subordinates

1. A good leader is also a good follower. One must do both to succeed.
2. Take good care of your people, and your people will take care of you.
3. The definition of leadership in the army is: make people do what you want them to do to accomplish the mission.
4. A good leader can delegate authority, but can never delegate responsibility.
5. No matter how difficult or stressful see a situation (being ambushed under strong enemy fire, a point of losing an important business or client), a good leader takes action, even if it can end up being an incorrect action. It is always better to act than not to act at all.
6. A good leader takes the initiative in the absence of orders.
7. A good leader praises and rewards his subordinates for their outstanding performance and successful achievements in the mission. The leader team understands how important they are to the success of the team and the leader.
8. A good leader who enters a new company looks for who are the people/person with better performance in the company, and the behavior model and actions of that person/people with the intention of performance better than that person/people.

Being a leader is a great responsibility given to a person. To be a leader, you must be someone whom everyone can admire since people will find inspiration and motivation within you. Being a good example is necessary for people to follow you. 

The question now is: how can you be one? To help you, here are qualities that a great leader must possess:

1. A great leader knows how to listen.
2. A great leader knows how to empower.
3. A great leader has honesty and integrity.
4. A great leader has a strong communication.
5. A great leader must have positivity.
6. A great leader knows when he is wrong.
7. Lead by example The best leaders set the example for the actions they take, from the cleanliness of their clothing to the care of their team, their clients, and their employees/team.
8. A good leader must have every opportunity to receive education, training, and read books. Good leaders read, learn, and understand the situation.
9. The most valuable training a good leader can get is an experience. The real experience of being directed, leading people, and motivate teams.
10. A good leader is also a good follower. One must do both to succeed.

Leadership style is the methodology that deals with the interaction between the leader and his subordinates.

The most common leadership style is given below:

• 
  
• 
  Autocratic leadership:
• Autocratic leadership is one in which the leader takes control of all things. There is a lack of consultation. Individuals do not have the opportunity to be creative at work because the autocratic leader retains control of decision making.

• Democratic leadership:
• Democratic leadership allows the leader to make decisions with the help of subordinates. The queries are not missing.

• Free Rain Leadership:
• Free rain leadership allows the leader to delegate decision-making authority to employees quite completely. Delegation completed Free rain leaders assign work to employees and then let them decide how they will complete the task.

Autocratic leadership:

Autocratic leadership deals with limited delegation, while democratic leadership deals with free rain consultation and leadership with full delegation.

1. Collaborate

One that tries to move mountains by itself fails, and those who use a competent workforce (and perhaps some technology) win.

2. Communicate

Give a clear direction. The fact that there is a job description does not mean that people understand what needs to be done to achieve results. Do not assume that you and your employees are on the same page. Create control points and talk to them often to ensure success.

3. Candid

Being honest sounds fundamental to being a great leader, however, people often hide what they have in mind because they don't want to hurt someone's feelings

4. connect

Set the value of feedback: give and share equally. As leaders, we can gather very little truthful feedback. If people feel that their voice is important, their ideas valued, they are more likely to remain engaged. 

5. Care

People want to feel valued. One way to encourage that is to ask them about their life. What do they enjoy? How is your family? Did you find time to relax on a recent vacation? Work is not everything in life, and people feel loyalty when a leader cares about them as a person, not just as a workhorse.

“Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is taking care of those in your charge.”

Leadership is all about inspiring your teammates. You don’t encourage them by showing how amazing you are. Instead, you inspire them by showing them how amazing they are. If you want to lead people, you have to walk behind them. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, YOU ARE A LEADER.

1.) Informative: 

Topic you are communicating, you should have adequate information about that. Else you can’t be able to answer any query made by your audience. Apart from this, being over-informative is also a problem. Suppose you were talking about effective communication, and there from you started taking about advertisement – this would adversely impact your reputation, and your audience will tend not to prioritize your words.

2.) Conciseness of Communication: 

Subject matter should be concise to do effective communication. Repetition of the same things, again and again, makes your communication dull and less interesting. 

3.) Know your Target Audience: 

Communicating, you must know whether the person or group of people in your audience or not. Else all your efforts and energy will be in vain. 

4.) Be a Listener:

Also, we have said that to communicate effectively, you should listen carefully. Then only you can respond correctly & earn respect. 

TAKEAWAY: 

Skill is an essential skill everyone should acquire. Be it a professional field or be it a personal one- it’s required in all aspects of life. So, expertise in soft communication skills and touch the heights of excellence. 

A) Interactive communication: 

Of the most effective tools to communicate effectively is to indulge yourself more in interactive sessions with your audience. This way, your audience pays more attention to you and listens carefully. Also, you can understand the effectiveness or result of your communication by merely discussing it with them. This way, you can also rectify or learn more to achieve betterment.

B) Timeliness: 

Communication can only be effective if that is communicated at the proper time. Suppose someone is saying that yesterday was the last day to submit the presentation- this communication is not an effective one as the deadline is already over. Weather is also a piece of useful information if the forecast is communicated before. After the day is gone, it’s not helpful information. 

C) Be confident:

Very important to be confident in yourself. If you lack confidence, it will reflect on your body language, expression & eye contact. Thus the audience will likely ignore your words.

I) Importance of Non-Verbal Communication: