6 Tips for Better Time Management
Contributed by: Phil Morley
“One must learn a different… sense of time, one that depends more on small amounts than big ones.” - Sister Mary Paul
It’s 5 p.m. Do you know where your hours went? Most people don’t. We don’t know how many hours we will spend on this planet, but most of us assume we’ll be around tomorrow and the next day and the next. So we end up squandering one of our most precious resources. The good news is that we can change!
Entire books have been written on the subject of time management, but here are 6 tips that will help you to get a better handle on where your time is going and how you can make better use of it.
1. Keep a Time Log – Try keeping a journal for just one week on how you spend your time. I know it’s a pain, but get over it. You’ll be glad you did. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, just keep it handy and every time you switch to a new task, write it down. A brief description of your activity, whether it’s a phone call, a memo, or a power lunch with a client, should be recorded. If you spend time surfing the net, write it down. No one else will see the log, so be honest in your assessment. At the end of the week, review the log, maybe even tally up the hours spent by category. You’ll probably be shocked at how little actual productive time you really spent. Don’t feel bad…you’re not alone. Better awareness of how you spend your time will go a long way toward becoming more productive with your time.
2. Make a To Do List – Some folks do it at the end of the day while issues are still fresh on their minds. They write down what they have to accomplish the next day, then they can go home and relax. Some people prefer to come in rested and refreshed, and make their list of what they want to accomplish that day. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. The key is just to do it. One important point on a To Do list is the need to prioritize your activities. You may have 20 or 30 tasks you’d like to accomplish that day, but there are probably only a few that are critical. Study your list and pick the activities that if you don’t do them may cost you your job (or at least that bonus you’re counting on). Do them first! Duh! Don’t even think about touching the others on the list until your top priority tasks are done. Check them off when completed, and move to your next level of priority activities. Try to complete all of the items on your list before you leave, but if you can’t, you can still sleep at night knowing that you will have a job the next day!
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” - Carl Sandburg
3. Make Yourself Less Available – One of the greatest time wasters of all is other people. Stop and consider how much time you spend each day engaged in conversation in person or on the phone, e-mail, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, texting, whatever. It’s a huge amount of time! To increase your personal productivity and manage your time better, make yourself less available. Pick your time and place to contact your friends. Close the office door so Susie the office gossip doesn’t feel so comfortable in taking 30 of your precious minutes to vent about a co-worker. If Fred insists on coming in to talk about last night’s game, stand up and meet him at the door while looking for a polite way to escort him back into the hallway. You don’t want to be rude, but some people don’t value their time or yours, so it is up to you to control the situation.
4. Double Up – One technique I have found very useful over the years (when I can remember to do it) is to combine activities. For instance, if you are heading across town to a meeting, take just a minute to consider if you have any current or upcoming tasks that could be accomplished along the way. Maybe there are some documents that need to be picked up or there is a client near your destination that you haven’t called on in a while. There doesn’t have to be any link between your primary task and the second (or third) activity you add to the list, other than geography. Most of us burn up a lot of time in the car every week, so anything we can do to make those trips more productive is worthwhile.
5. Distinguish Between Critical and Urgent – Most of our days are filled from morning ’til night with activities; we go go go all the time. When was the last time you stopped and smelled the roses? Yeah, me too! It seems like we are on a dead run all the time. But how productive are we really? One of the skills that sets the winners apart from the rest of us is their ability to focus on the critical rather than the urgent. For example, your secretary buzzes you to say a supplier is on the line. That is urgent only because he is waiting for you. If he has news about a critical order then maybe it is a critical call, otherwise it isn’t. You can call him back (or not) when it is convenient for you. Being ‘critical’ is a measure of importance, being ‘urgent’ is only a measure of time. Every day we are faced with urgent trivialities, usually being generated by other people. Our job is to separate the wheat from the chaff and focus solely on those things that are going to get us closer to meeting our goals and objectives for the day. Of course, if your boss walks in with an urgent triviality, your time may be better spent in meeting his demand than in trying to convince him it is trivial! Just get it done quickly so you can get back to the important stuff. Everybody else can take a number.
6. Plan for the Long Term – Because our days are so filled with ‘busyness’, it is easy for us to lose sight of the big picture. We may be doing a good job of prioritizing our work and dodging the urgent trivialities while still not being as productive as we could be. Our time horizon needs to not focus solely on today, tomorrow, this week, but also on next month, next year, five years from now. We need to take time to plan where we want to be (personally or as a company) in the future, set long-term goals and determine ways to measure our success in reaching various milestones. If we fail to do this mid-range and long-term planning, we will be destined to stay on the treadmill forever. Take some time every day to look at your longer term goals and make sure that your daily activities align with the longer term view. If your activities today are not going to get you any closer to your long-term goals, then why are you doing them??
Phil Morley is a COG, publicist, writer, blogger, architect, and entrepreneur who helps small to medium size firms get great exposure for their business or organization. He serves as Chief PR Guy for www.newsreleasepro.com.
6 Tips for Better Time Management – © Phil Morley – 2009 All Rights Reserved