One of the biggest struggles my clients face is how to effectively manage their time so that everything important gets done. With our busy lives, constant interruptions, an abundance of technology that quite frankly often hinders us verses helping us, the desire to be available 24/7 and the “I can do it better and faster myself” attitude, time management is very difficult - it’s a wonder we get anything done!
You need to change your time management behaviors. Ask: “What do I want to achieve by seeing time differently? Take your power back and make the decision to do things differently, do things better. The 5 nifty time management strategies are:
Prioritize
Tackle the A-1 most important tasks first and delegate or delay B and C level priorities as much as possible.
Time Block
Identify your key daily and weekly activities and then schedule them in your calendar.
Respect these time-blocked activities as you would a doctor’s appointment or dinner out with family and friends.
Avoid interruptions
Do not allow co-workers or others to distract you during the workday.
Delegate
Know what your time is worth! What is your hourly rate?
Know that to succeed and create profitability, you can’t do all of the work by yourself, so practice delegation.
Routinely assign tasks with a very clear definition of what is to be done.
Routinely assign tasks with an explanation of the consequences of the action.
Routinely assign a deadline for completion when you delegate a task.
Have a systematic approach for following up on work that you have delegated.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, implementation is the key. So, tonight when you go home or first thing tomorrow morning, look this over and identify 3 ideas and decide how to implement them!
3 Bonus Time Management Strategies:
Quit Multi-tasking
Research has shown multi-tasking makes you stupid – you’re not focusing on and completing any one particular thing.
Sometimes multi-tasking is useful (exercising and listening to audio cd’s, talking to a friend and doing the laundry).
TASK: identify moments of multi-tasking that hurts you.
Use the 2-minute rule: if you can get it done in 2 minutes or less, it’s OK. Otherwise, put it aside.
Stop negative multi-tasking.
Biggest Time Waster: Unrestricted access to you!
Those who are available 24/7 have a lack of integrity with self.
Create boundaries that serve you.
Buy and use an egg timer!!! Or, go to Home Trends and order the big timer on a neck string!
The Fax
It’s fast but not as easy and instant as email or a phone call. It encourages thoughtfulness with communication.
When you are too available it makes people automatically think: “Oh… he/she doesn’t have that much work.”
Encourage people to communicate with you via fax; it will save you hours of previously wasted time.
Remember it took you a lifetime of time management habits to get to where you are today – changing time management habits is hard; take baby steps.
