Prioritising will be covered in more detail in our other Time Management on-line courses but let’s start with some tried and tested tips for you to think about when managing your time. We’ll concentrate on the ones relating to time management and give you some simple ideas to help you on your way. Most of these will be covered in more detail in the course.
1. Crisis Management
We all suffer from crises but are you the fire-fighter or arsonist! We may be great at sorting out crises but do we always get into crisis by not making plans for the future. Remember, for the same crisis; once is unfortunate; twice is a disaster but the third time is
incompetence!!!! We haven’t learnt from previous mistakes.
Time Tip: After every crisis, meet with those involved and ask ‘How can we ensure this doesn’t happen again’. Set a reminder in your Outlook calendar to ensure you don’t forget and follow-up the lessons learnt.
2. Telephone interruptions
Still, our greatest communication tool and still considered our greatest enemy at times. We feel awkward about closing phone calls because we may feel rude if we do. We also don’t ask enough questions when put on the spot by an instant telephone request.
Time Tip: Always ask ‘When’s the deadline for this task to be completed?’ on every request to determine how much ‘padding’ has been added to it. You can end your calls by saying ‘OK well I won’t take up any more of your valuable time’. You’ll be amazed how quickly and politely this ends most calls.
3. Unclear Objectives and Priorities
The University of Arkansas carried out research that there was a 25% difference between what managers thought staff should be prioritising and what staff thought were their priorities.
Outlook Time Tip: Ensure you have clear and agreed priorities between you and your boss that are reviewed daily or weekly. Ensure you have your key tasks and objectives written as tasks in Outlook so that you can update them when you speak to your boss or your team.
4. Trying to do too much yourself
We sometimes feel a failure when we compare what little we’ve completed compared with our colleagues. We always seem to run out of time before we run out of tasks because we try to do it all without regard to its priority.
Outlook Time Tip: Break tasks into timed events so that you are clear how much you’ll be able to do in a day or a week. Colour code items in your Outlook Calendar so that you can complete them in a structured and orderly way.
5. Interruptions – personal
Drop-In Visitors will always come because of one simple reason. You allow them to. Many people are ambivalent towards this type of interruptions. That very ambivalence encourages the practice until it becomes a major drain on quality time.
Outlook Time Tip: Change your behaviour towards interrupters and gently rearrange their interruptions to another time more convenient to you. Your boss will understand if you can show him or her that your priorities will cost them more if left undone due to their interruptions. Create an appointment in your Outlook Calendar for call backs and appointments with reminders for the important ones. Outlook Time Tip: Change your behaviour towards interrupters and gently rearrange their interruptions to another time more convenient to you. Your boss will understand if you can show him or her that your priorities will cost them more if left undone due to their interruptions. Create an appointment in your Outlook Calendar for call backs and appointments with reminders for the important ones.
6. Ineffective Delegation
Coaching and good delegation are considered the main route to effective leadership – the wisest leaders choose this style of management above all others because it strengthens teams and builds confidence.
Time Tip: Ask yourself ‘Do I free up more time; have someone in my team who can do this quicker than me; better than me; who will enjoy doing it; or can do it cheaper than me.’ If the answer to any of these is yes, then you should delegate more. Creating a delegation in Tasks and then assigning them will allow you to delegate more and track their progress.
7. Desk management and personal disorganisation
Are you suffering from Desk Stress where you can’t see more than 5% of the material your desk is made of due to unnecessary clutter. Research shows that there is about 36 hours of work on top of the average desk – this alone can be a real productivity stopper.
Time Tip: Clear your desk at the end of every day and ensure you have a weekly schedule for organising and de-cluttering your paperwork and filing systems.
8. Procrastination and indecision
Procrastination is putting off what you should be doing right now and is truly ‘the thief of time’. We run away from what is a priority and effectively waste time. People avoid making decisions for many reasons: the three principle ones are: avoidance, complacency and panic.
Outlook Time Tip: Do your worst task at the start of the day. It gets it out of the way and stops you stressing over it. Also break long tasks into smaller segments – breaking your day-long project into 6 one-hour segments will ensure you know how you’re doing at the end of every hour. Doing this in Outlook Calendar will enable you to measure your progress during the day.
9. Inability to Say No
If you say ‘yes I will’ when you know you can’t you’ll be causing other people stress. People rely on your promises and people will accept your promise of delivery rather than an a.s.a.p. if you always meet your deadlines.
Outlook Time Tip: Instead of automatically saying ‘Yes’ to requests say ‘How and When’ you can deliver, say how you will deliver and when is realistic for both you and the other person. By having your daily tasks and priorities listed on your Outlook Calendar you can visually refer to your tasks and show the other person your commitments – this will help you to become more assertive and negotiate task completions more effectively.
10. Meetings
The average senior manager spends 17 hours per week in meetings, plus 6 hours a week getting ready for them, and even more hours recovering!
Outlook Time Tip: Always ensure your meetings have an agreed START and FINISH time. Cost out your meetings to ensure that they are worth having. Plan your meetings using the Meetings planner in Outlook ensuring you have meetings at the optimum time for all attendees.
11. Managing e-mails
Are you suffering from e-mailitis: a stressful inability to stop looking at and stressing over your e-mails every 5 minutes.
Outlook Time Tip: Here are three tips to make this e-mail relevant to you
- Deal with your email at regular times during the day and not when you see it pop up.
- Disable the pop-up notice on your e-mail so that it doesn’t continuously interrupt you
- Create e-mail rules that balance your need for technology with face to face contact. Also develop e-mail guidelines for your team or department.
As you can see there are many ways in which we can start to manage our time more effectively but one of the factors which stops people attempting time management techniques is the thought that ‘These factors are out of my control. One way to start is to manage our thoughts and ‘self-talk’.
If you do then you may have to manage your internal dialogue to produce a more positive outcome.
The following tips will help.
- Don’t aim for perfection
- Don’t give up at the first hurdle, setback or failure
- Start with the easy stuff first
- Pat yourself on the back regularly when things are going well and you’re in control
- Remember, old habits are hard to break
- Give yourself at least 21 days for each major technique to become a habit
- Remind yourself constantly of the positives that will emerge from a more organised you
“I would love to manage my time better but I don’t have the time to do what I need to”. This is a phrase uttered by many but perhaps the more accurate phrase should be “I don’t make the time”.
Be the master of time – not it’s victim – only 10 minutes a day spent on making time for what we need to do (proactive tasks) or saving time (eliminating time wasters or reactive tasks) added up over a year equals ONE WORKING WEEK.
Make a list of five simple things you can do to start you on your way to managing your time
1. ………………………………………………………………………………………
2. ………………………………………………………………………………………
3. ………………………..…………………………………..…………………………
4. ………………………..…………………………………..…………………………
5. ………………………..…………………………………..…………………………
By doing this you will soon be on the way to becoming a great manager of time.