Time Management Tips
July 30, 2010
Have you been feeling the need to be more organized or productive lately? Have you spent your day in a frenzy of activity and wondered where your time was spent since very little has gotten accomplished?
Time management skill is essential, especially for small business people who often find themselves wondering where the hours of the day went. Here are some basic time management tips to help you stay calm, collective, and productive during your next work day.
Find out where you’re wasting your time.
The first step to effective time management is figuring out where your time is going. What are your time bandits? Chatting with coworkers at the water cooler, surfing the net, reading emails, making personal calls, or getting caught up in office drama – any of these sound familiar? Start your day off by tracking your daily activities so you can form an accurate picture of what you do on a day to day basis.
Create daily goals.
Remember, the focus of time management is changing your everyday behavior, not changing time. Every morning before your “shift” make a list of all the things you would like to accomplish for the day. Using tools like Remember The Milk, Central Desktop, or Google Tasks can increase your productivity by keeping a list on your desktop, online, or downloaded as an app to your phone. Once you’ve accomplished the goal you’ve set for the day just check it off and move to the next task. Try setting specific goals, for example if you work in a call center set a goal for how many calls you would like to make that day. Put a little pep into your day by challenge yourself to exceed your goal.
Execute a time management plan with a schedule.
Thoroughly plan out your day and if possible try planning your entire week. Try to structure your week by setting timelines. For example from 9:00 to 11:00 I will focus on ____ and from 11:05 to 12:30 I will accomplish _______. Track how long you think each goal would take for you to achieve and then mark it in your calendar. If you’re working on a project that takes more than a day’s time then it’s best to track your progress with milestones. For larger projects break them down and dissect what you have do to complete it on time while giving it your full attention to detail. Using Central Desktop and other tools can help with this as well. Get in the habit of setting time limits for tasks.
Prioritize ruthlessly.
If you take a look at my daily plan you will realize that I have dozens of little goals, and even more big goals. Learn to PRIORTIZE. If you have 10 different tasks to do for the day figure out how many of them you truly need to accomplish. Always put the most important things at the very top of your list to make sure they get done. Once you start a project, follow through till the very end (unless of course you are breaking it down into milestones)
Learn to delegate and outsource your work.
No matter how small or how large your business is there’s no reason to feel like a one man band. For effective time management try passing some of the work to someone else whether it would be a co-worker or a virtual assistant. Find someone who specializes in your field and have them take on some of the load. Ways To Utilize a Virtual Assistant gives you a variety of services to delegate to a virtual assistant. Make sure to do your due diligence and research a virtual assistant prior to hiring them. Here’s a list of Questions You Should Ask a Virtual Assistant during the interviewing process.
Be sure your surroundings are organized.
Nothing frustrates me more than a cluttered mess. Make sure your surroundings are neat, clean, organized, and everything is easy to find. This includes computer documents, folders, and filing systems. A big hunk of time can be lost chasing missing items. Try avoiding this as much as possible by organizing your office.
Don’t waste any more time. PERIOD
In the end you control your time, you are in charge of your actions, and you have the power how your day is being spent. Once you come to grips with how to effectively manage your time you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. An old friend of mine often says “You can either make money or you can make excuses – but you can’t make both”
Which do you choose?
