3 steps to better time management

Often we say to ourselves “ I wish there was more time in the day?” but truth be known, there is more than enough time for us to effectively manage, provided we prioritise how we are spending our time, in relation to our most valued and important tasks....

Step 1

Conduct an audit of how you are currently spending your time...

Write a diary of what you are doing every waking moment, in 15 minute intervals. Choose any working week (dont worry if there are a few anomolies, there always will be). At the end of the week, review the week that was and use the following grid to rate your activities into one of four categories.

From here it will be very obvious how much time you are investing into important activities versus wasting time on not important, not urgent distractions...

Step 2

Rank your priorities and make them not negotiable

Rank the most important activities, that when completed on a daily and weekly basis, will ensure you are on tract to achieve your goals in the immediate and long term

A great book to read on goal setting and prioritising is called “Eat that frog” by Brian Tracy

Step 3

Plan your diary

Place in your diary, daily, weekly and monthly activites that must be done, at the most appropriate time during the day, to ensure you are on track to complete your daily tasks.

Lock in set times for these activities to take place. Make sure you advise your business partner and team members of your new, strict diary; so that they do not distract you at the times you have put aside to complete those important tasks.

By sticking to your plan you will not only get done your most improtant tasks first, but you will also condense down the number of irrelivant tasks you get distracted by and finally you will gain an amazing sence of satisfaction fromwhat you achieve through the better use of your time...

Below is Brian Tracy’s list of twently one key ways to manage time moreeffectively, free yourself up and get you out of time “kaos” and back into control...

21 Ways To Manage Time More Effectively…Brian Tracy

1. Be decisive
2. Set clear goals and objectives
3. Set a daily work plan (the night before)
4. Prioritise tasks using A,B,C,D,E (consider the consequences in setting priorities). Reprioritise A tasks using 1,2,3 to identify the most important A tasks and so on
5. Separate the urgent from the important (what are the long term potential consequences of doing not doing tasks?)
6. Use the law of forced efficiency (what is the highest value use of your time, right now?)
7. Use the 80/20 rule to identify the 20% of tasks that will have the greatest benefit and just do those
8. Develop stamina and high energy through proper exercise, diet and rest
9. Develop single-handling skills to concentrate on one task at a time
10. Eat that Frog (do the hardest task of the day first – don’t sit and look at it or procrastinate – just DO IT!)
11. Organise your work workspace (don’t work in a mess).
12. Use travel time effectively (listen to CDs, prepare a work schedule for flights/rail journeys)
13. Develop expertise in key tasks through practice and repetition
14. Work in ‘real’ time (pick up the tempo, develop a sense of urgency, do it NOW!)
15. Learn to make decisions quickly; don’t carry ifs, buts, and maybes around
16. Reengineer work processes: map them out and identify what needs to be done to reduce the number of steps by 30% minimum
17. Reinvent yourself at least once a year: identify what you need to do to become more productive, because everything changes
18. Ask yourself this on a regular basis: “knowing what I know right now, would I be doing this/be in this relationship/working with this client” etc
19. Set posteriorities: identify what tasks to procrastinate on, i.e. the lower priorities that can wait, the 80% of tasks that have less value and only contribute 20% of the output
20. Decide to work to live, not live to work. This means working towards a balanced life. It’s the quantity of time on downtime and the quality of time at work to aim for
21. Be Intensely Action Orientated. It’s acting and executing that generate results

For more information on time mamagement, team developemt, sales, marketing and profit maximisation, please call us at ABC Business Improvement... Simple as ABC! ....