Time Management
Part 1
Got a minute? Are you sure?
Welcome to this short course on time management.
I'm sure you're going to find it helpful, and you'll find a lot of
benefits from reading this, and of course taking action.
One thing I find to be a major cause of time management problems is
the general lack of respect we have for our time.
You need to take an inventory of your time, look at how much time
you really have, and what that time is allotted for.
Oh, think you have 24 hours in a day, eh? 8 hours for work? How
about commute time? Lunch? Breaks? Interruptions?
I think you're getting the picture.
Recent studies show that top executives of Fortune 500 companies
estimate that they have as little as 20 minutes per day of actual
productive time.
Yikes!
That doesn't mean they're loafing around the rest of the day
(although some may be...), but it does mean that their time is being
taken up by mundane or unproductive tasks and interruptions that
might be better if they were avoided, put off, less frequent, or
delegated.
Take a few minutes and write down your day. You don't have to be too
specific at first, but the more you do this, and check back through
it after your day, the better you will see where your time is being
spent, and then you'll be able to see where you can start to save
and manage that time better.
Look, we all hear that time is money, but that's not true.
Time is worth so much more. Time can not be replaced.
We can however at least avoid losing or wasting time in the same
manner the next time around, and that's what we're after here.
After you have inventoried your time, you need to budget it.
Yes, budget.
Allot time for each activity, and stick to that time allotment. If
you can finish some activities sooner, start the next task, or
occasionally reward yourself with a little 'free' time.
Free time is only used for activities you want to be doing and
choose to do.
Stick to your budget! You have a very finite amount of time, and you
cannot really be productive, and happy by stealing time from other
important activities. This kind of stealing, though many like to
think of it as borrowing..., is one of the worst cases of "robbing
Peter to pay Paul." It comes back to you, and it comes back hard.
Avoid it at all costs.
Don't be a time thief, of your own time, or others'.
Part 2
Quick! Get The D.A.! Your Digital Assistant
Okay, now that you've got your inventory done and your budget has
been set, you are going to need some help most likely to stay
focused and on track.
Now, you could go out and hire a big burly guy with a stick with a
nail in the end of it to prod and poke you every time you slip up on
your schedule, but that could get expensive in just band-aids alone,
not too
mention these guys don't work cheap... though they enjoy their work
:-)
The cheapest assistant you can ever hire is a simple egg timer.
You can use more elaborate timers in Outlook or other office
management tools, but it's really hard to beat a quality count down
timer.
You can pick these up for a few bucks, sometimes even less.
Keep it simple.
Just get one that you can set the time (I use a digital one), push
"Start", and then get to work.
Put it on your desk or in your work area.
Use it for everything. It's actually fun, sort of like playing a
game.
Here's how to make this work even better.
First off, you don't have to think of time in blocks of 'hours'. A
big mistake. Break tasks down into their parts, and then assign a
time for each one. Be realistic, but don't be overly generous.
Hours don't need to be broken only in halves or quarters either.
I've had much better success with using odd time settings as well.
Try allotting 4 minutes, or 9 minutes for a task. Every time you can
complete one of those on time you've just saved a minute to be used
on something else.
Instead of 30 minutes, try something like 22.
See how that works?
You'll be amazed at what you can do in a few seconds, when you must.
You can use this for any activity.
Try it for shower time, or eating breakfast, or washing the dishes,
or checking your mail.
It is amazing how the time saved can add up! |
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