Effective Daily Time Management
“I’m being asked to do more and more in less and less time.” Is a complaint I hear frequently from those with whom I work. We’re all under pressure to perform.
What’s happening? We
all have the same amount of time available, i.e. 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. It
doesn’t matter whether we’re rich or poor, old or young. We all have the same amount of time
available. We all have to eat and sleep.
When given more work, your choices are:
1.
Refuse (don’t take on the extra work);
2.
Find ways to be more efficient (i.e. do things in
less time);
3.
Share the load with someone else;
4.
Drop/delegate stuff which you no longer need to
do;
5.
Grin and bear it by taking time away from other
activities (e.g. sleeping!).
Of the above, I prefer 2, 3 and 4. 1 could be career-limiting (but you can ask for help or for work to be re-prioritised); 5 results in stress.
We consider it shows we’re “tough” to handle more and more
(if you want something done, get a busy person to do it). However, the mantra “Work smarter, not
harder” is what we should remember and ask ourselves:
·
How could I use technology to help me?
·
How could I automate any of the workload?
·
How could I streamline any of the workload?
·
How could I eliminate any of the workload?
·
What do I enjoy
doing (chances are, you’ll do it better/faster)?
Here’s what I find helps me (different things work for different people):
Prioritise:
·
What must
be done (high priority), should be
done (medium priority) and could be
done (low priority)? What are the 20% of
activities that will bring 80% of your returns or rewards?
·
Remember that what is “medium” today could
become “high” tomorrow. That report due
at the end of next week may be low priority now (Monday of the first week) but
is high on the Thursday night before the Friday deadline!
Plan, Plan, Plan:
·
What needs to be done, by whom and by when?
·
Never assume that everything will happen when
you want;
·
Allow for errors (we spend huge amounts of time
correcting them).
Email:
·
Divide emails into “Action”, “Read Later”,
“Maybe” and “Delete” (than ks to Michael Heppell for this). Chances are, only
20% actually require action, and then not always immediately.
·
Don’t read every email as it comes in. Scan your emails 3-4 times/day, preferably
during those times when you can afford to be interrupted.
·
Don’t read “CC” emails. If it’s important, your name should be in the
“To” box, not the “CC” box.
Taking Phone Calls:
·
Use voicemail – that’s what it’s there for. You can then listen to your calls at leisure,
prioritise which ones to return and make all your calls in one go.
·
If you want a more “personal touch” and work in
a team, have one member pick up calls for others for an hour to
allow their colleagues to work. That member
can still scan their own emails and do other non-critical/low priority tasks
whilst their colleagues take advantage of the “quality hour” available.
Timing:
·
Know when you’re at your best (for me, it’s
early morning) and your worst (for me it’s after 3.30pm). Schedule important work for the time when
you’re at your best, and non-critical tasks for when you’re at a performance
“low”.
· Know your "time bandits" (what distracts you - e.g. gossiping at the water-cooler);· Take short breaks to re-generate (say 5 minutes every hour).
Meetings:
These can be major time wasters. If asked to attend a meeting, be sure that
you know:
·
What is going to be discussed (ask for an
agenda);
·
How long it will take (try saying that you have
an “urgent customer call at the time you
want to leave);
·
Why you
need to be there (would it be sufficient for you to receive a copy of the minutes/action
points?);
·
If you have to be there, can you just attend for
the item that’s relevant to you?
Use “Pareto’s
Principle”*:
·
Use the 80/20 rule in your favour, i.e. you will
generally get something 80% right first time, but the remaining 20% is what you
spend hours on.
*Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80%
of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.
I have spent more than half my life working in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy and work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.
Labels: Career, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork
posted by William Martin @ 18:50
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