The 7 Best Time Management Tips
The way we spend our time has a big impact on the quality of our work, on the results we get, on our relationship with others, and on our personal well-being. In the end, it all comes down to how we decide to spend our time, i.e. on our choices about it, doesn’t it?
There are so many tips on how to “manage time” more effectively, and here is a small collection of my favourite ones:
1. Do it now: Whenever you have something to do (file a document, answer an email, etc.), do it immediately if it requires less than 3 minutes. You will not only save time, but also avoid your mind getting cluttered with “to-do-items” you’ve been procrastinating.
2. Create compartments: Clearly separate work from private life (e.g. no kitchen cleaning during working hours, if you have a home office)
3. Get organized: Sorry, even if you’d like to, you can’t get around this. Store things you use every day in a place that’s very easy to reach. Use folders or boxes “strategically”, so you always know exactly where to find what you need.
4. Automate: Standardise and automate processes as much as possible, creating templates for things you need to do very often. In case of client correspondence, there are many ways to still add a personal touch.
5. Delegate: You’re great at what you’re doing, but I bet there are things you do that you either don’t enjoy, or let’s be honest, you’re not really good at. Focus on what you really enjoy doing (this should be your core business) and delegate or outsource all the rest. Specialists will need a third of the time you spend on this, and the result will most probably be much better!
6. Get a sounding board: Think of a great leader you admire. Who is s/he surrounded by? Great leaders know that they can’t do it all by themselves. They discuss their ideas and challengers with peers, mentors, coaches and thus gain more focus and make better strategic decisions. This helps them use their time much more effectively.
7. Adjust your focus: It’s easy to get caught up in our daily tasks and forget about why we are doing them, and whether this is what we really want. If you find yourself constantly fighting with time management, it may be a sign that you need to stop for a moment and look at what you really want from your work and life, and how you could get it.
Conclusion: You can choose how to spend your time. And if you feel you’re forced to do something you don’t like: why are you doing it? These reasons are making you choose to do it anyway. What could you do differently?
Try this: Bring your awareness to any choices you’re making today. What clothes did you wear? What was the first thing you did when you came into the office? Now, look at the tips above: what action are you going to take to use your time more effectively?
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Taking action
If you have already spent a lot of time looking for effective ways to manage your time with no real success, and would like to finally take charge of this, why don’t you schedule a free consultation to learn how we could help you gain more focus and get organized more effectively?
Simply click here.
And if you have further ideas or time-management tips, feel free to post them below!
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Comments
I love this! Especially the not doing house crud during work hours. As a new ‘work from home’ mom, I find myself struggling to get laundry AND lunch done while working. Maybe I’ll get one of those ‘Will Return At’ clocks for the kitchen!!! LOL
Some great tips. I recently wrote treasure trove of time management tips. I really like your tip to create compartments, life gets messy when everything begins to overlap!! One tip I would like to add here is: learn the value of saying “No”!
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