Time Management Tips
The following time management techniques and strategies are designed to help you manage your time and gain greater control of your life
General Tips and TechniquesClear your desk and plan your activities for the next day.
First list your 00ime specific items, e.g. meetings and then write down the tasks you have to complete.
Once you have prioritized your tasks, make a 00o do00list and work through the items in priority order.
Ensure that you have given yourself sufficient time to complete your 00o do00list, taking into account your daily interruptions.
Do difficult jobs first, when you are at your best. Look after minor jobs when you are tired.
Fix deadlines for all jobs and stick to them. A task should only take the time set aside for it.
Do not postpone important matters that are unpleasant. Jobs rarely get more pleasant by being postponed. Do it now!
Try to arrange set times for jobs such as going through the mail, talking with your manager or staff, computer input, etc.
Try to fix definite times when you would not like to be disturbed, and make the system work except for genuine emergencies.
Plan your telephone calls. Make a brief note of what you want to say and what you want to find out. It saves time later.
If you have several phone calls to make, do them all in a burst.
When you start a piece of work, try to finish it without interruptions. If you have to finish it later, you will lose time picking up where you left off.
Arrange your breaks at times when you cannot work effectively.
Plan some time for discussing routine matters with your colleagues. Then you avoid interrupting each other all the time.
Learn to say 00o00 Get used to asking yourself 00m I the right person for this job?00/font>
Monitor how you use your time, and make conscious changes to your behavior.
Stress and fatigue are rarely caused by the things you have done, but by the thought of what you haven00 done!
Make a habit of finishing the main job of the day before you go home.
CLEAR YOUR DESK!
'Paper talk' alone can cost you an hour a day in looking for things and constant distractions.
Many people have developed the habit of their office becoming a giant 'to-do' list; papers; 00ome day00stacks; files; letters; in-trays; phone messages, etc. lying around all screaming 00OOK AT ME', 00EAL WITH ME00 Here are some useful hints for silencing the 'paper talk'.
Put any in/out trays in a drawer or behind you on a credenza (or even outside your office) but not on your desk.
Make it a real IN-tray, not a miscellaneous file.
EFFECTIVE USE OF THE MASTER FILES
Discard all non relevant documents (up to 85% of the documents retained by an organization will never be looked at again).
Remove all items from desk (each piece of paper on your desk will distract your attention 5 times a day).
Reorganize your shelves; give preference to cupboard and shelves rather than filing cabinets (25% space saving).
Identify, reorganize and re-label all your files clearly.
Avoid fat files by all means; you ale better off sub-dividing subjects and grouping these sub-files into a large filing box.
Use color coding facilities (e.g. red/marketing, green/customers, etc)
PHONE CALLS
Never hold on. Instead agree a time to call back or leave a message and your phone number.
If someone is unavailable find out the best time to call back, or leave your number.
If you need to make regular calls agree upon a mutually beneficial time.
Learn to leave clear messages on other people's voicemail. Always leave your name and phone number if you want them to call you back.
INCOMING CALLS CHECKLIST
If possible train your PA or a member of your staff to screen calls and refer them to others.
Let the caller know your time constraints.
Always keep a pen and pad by the phone.
If you get a call asking for information you don't have immediately to hand, don't look for it: arrange to call back later.
INTERRUPTIONS CHECKLIST
If you have an unexpected visitor:
Establish at the start why they have come to see you.
Stand when they enter the room, so that they also remain standing.
If it's necessary for you to deal personally with them suggest a later meeting, at your convenience.
Whenever possible, suggest a meeting in their office.
Set time limits to your discussion.
Avoid engaging in small talk.
If you have a secretary/PA, agree a clear policy about who can have access to you and who they should deal with.
If you really can't get them out of your office, leave the office yourself.
Many of us claim our days are never wasted. "I'm very organized" we say "I know where I am going and what I'm going to do". If you truly feel that way then you are in the minority. Most people become frustrated with a day that is unproductive. We would all like to get more done in a day The idea of time management has been in existence for more than 100 years. Unfortunately the term "Time management" creates a false impression of what a person is able to do. Time can't be managed, time is uncontrollable we can only manage ourselves and our use of time Time management is actually self management. It00 interesting that the skills we need to manage others are the same skills we need to manage ourselves: the ability to plan, delegate, organize, direct and control
There are common time wasters which need to be identified In order for a time management process to work it is important to know what aspects of our personal management need to be improved. Below you will find some of the most frequent reasons for reducing effectiveness in the workplace. Tick the ones which are causing to be the major obstacles to your own time management. These we refer to as your "Time Stealers".
Identifying your time stealers
Interruptions - telephone Interruptions - personal visitors Meetings Tasks you should have delegated Procrastination and indecision Acting with incomplete information Dealing with team members Crisis management (fire fighting) Unclear communication Inadequate technical knowledge Unclear objectives and priorities Lack of planning Stress and fatigue Inability to say "No" Desk management and personal disorganizationFortunately there are strategies you can use to manage your time, be more in control and reduce stress, but you can analyze your time and see how you may be both the cause and the solution to your time challenges. Below, we examine time management issues in more detail
1. Shifting priorities and crisis management. Management guru Peter Drucker says that "crisis management is actually the form of management preferred by most managers" The irony is that actions taken prior to the crisis could have prevented the fire in the first place.
2. The telephone. Have you ever had one of those days when you thought your true calling was in Telemarketing. The telephone-our greatest communication tool can be our biggest enemy to effectiveness if you don't know how to control its hold over you.
3.Lack of priorities/objectives. This probably is the biggest/ most important time waster. It affects all we do both professionally and personally. Those who accomplish the most in a day know exactly what they want to accomplish. Unfortunately too many of us think goals and objectives are yearly things and not daily considerations it results in too much time being spent on minor things and not on the things which are important to our work/lives.
4. Attempting too much. Many people today feel that they have to accomplish everything yesterday and don't give themselves enough time to do things properly. This leads only to half finished projects and no feeling of achievement.
5. Drop in visitors. The five deadliest words that rob your time are "Have you got a minute". Everyone's the culprit-colleagues., the boss, your peers. Knowing how to deal with interruptions is one of the best skills you can learn.
6. Ineffective delegation. Good delegation is considered a key skill in both managers and leaders. The best managers have an ability to delegate work to staff and ensure it is done correctly. This is probably the best way of building team moral and reducing your workload at the same time. The general rule is -this; if one of your staff can do it 80% as well as you can, delegate it.
7. The cluttered desk. When you have finished reading this article, look at your desk. If you can see less than 80% of it then you are probably suffering from 'desk stress'. The most effective people work from clear desks.
8. Procrastination. The biggest thief of time; not decision making but decision avoidance. By reducing the amount of procrastination you do, you can substantially increase the amount of active time available to you.
9. The inability to say "no!". The general rule is; if people can dump their work or problems on to your shoulders they will. Some of the most stressed people around lack the skill to 'just say no' for fear of upsetting people.
10. Meetings. Studies have shown that the average manager spends about 17 hours a week in meetings and about 6 hours in the planning time and untold hours in the follow up. I recently spoke to an executive who has had in the last 3 months 250 meetings. It is widely acknowledged that about as much of a third of the time spent in meetings is wasted due to poor meeting management and lack of planning. If you remember your goal is to increase your self management, these are the best ways to achieve this;
There are many ways we can manage our time. We have listed some strategies you can use to manage your time.
1. Always define your objectives as clearly as possible. Do you find you are not doing what you want because your goals have not been set? One of the factors which mark successful people is their ability to work out what they want to achieve and have written goals which they can review them constantly. Your long term goals should impact on your daily activities and be included on your "to do" list. Without a goal or objective, people tend to just drift personally and professionally
2. Analyze your use of time. Are you spending enough time on the projects, which although may not be urgent now are the things you need to do to develop yourself or your career? If you are constantly asking yourself "What is the most important use of my time, right now?" it will help you to focus on 'important tasks' and stop reacting to tasks which seem urgent (or pleasant to do) but carry no importance towards your goals.
3. Have a plan. How can you achieve your goals without a plan? Most people know what they want but have no plan to achieve it except by sheer hard work. Your yearly plan should be reviewed daily and reset as your achievements are met. Successful people make lists constantly. It enables them to stay on top of priorities and enable them to remain flexible to changing priorities. This should be done for both personal and business goals.
4. Action plan analysis. Problems will always occur, the value of a good plan is to identify them early and seek out solutions. Good time management enables you to measure the progress towards your goals because "What you can measure, you can control". Always try to be proactive.
Time management (or self management) is not a hard subject to understand, but unless you are committed to build time management techniques into your daily routine you'll only achieve partial (or no) results and then make comments such as "I tried time management once and it doesn't work for me". The lesson to learn is that the more time we spend planning our time and activities the more time we will have for those activities. By setting goals and eliminating time wasters and doing this everyday you may find you will have extra time in the week to spend on those people and activities most important to you.
