There’s no way to manage time but we can manage our attitude, activities and environment to get the most of the time we have. This is what time management is all about. As entrepreneurs, managers and professionals, we are hungry for growth, want to reap results and progress in leaps and bounds.
Master Prioritization
Set deadlines
- Focus on 20% of the tasks
- Separate urgent from important: Urgent tasks require immediate action, whereas important tasks have more significant and long-term consequences
- Learn to say “no”: Refuse tasks and activities that are irrelevant to your goals
Improve Organizational Skills
Organizational skills = establishing order and structure in your goals, plans, schedules, and tasks
Upgrade Project Management
Integrate and automate: use online calendars, scheduling apps, time trackers, project management systems and other tech tools to automate routine tasks
- Delegate: use app integrations and connect your apps so that they could exchange your data
- Outsource: consider outsourcing HR and accounting tasks
Master Stress Management
Monitor changes in your environment: take interest in policies, procedures, finances, and other processes around you to be ready to adjust to changing circumstances
Cultivate Collaboration
Communicate the company’s mission, team and individual goals
Improve Scheduling
Create a routine
Start With Time Tracking
You can’t improve your time management tactics and approaches if you don’t keep track of your time
Master Goal Setting & Reflection
Get some perspective
- Develop an action plan
- Break it down into manageable steps
- Take action
- Reflect on your progress
- Ask for feedback
- Be ready to take criticism
- Use data to identify trends and opportunities for growth
Use Your Energy Wisely
Focus on the end result
- Use peak performance time
- Diligence and attention to detail are good traits, but they often take more time to produce better quality work when common-quality work is enough
- 20% of input produce 80% of results
- Practice self-care
Develop Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express your emotions
- In terms of time management, self-awareness lays the foundation for our behavior and skills including goal setting, communication, motivation, stress and time management
- As long as we understand our inclinations and limitations, we can choose appropriate time management strategies
Improve Focus & Concentration
Use productivity apps
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker
First published in 1967, this book remains one of the top reads with time-tested general practices for project managers.
- Adaptability skills, stress management, prioritization
- Cal Newport addresses the problem of an increasingly distracting world that reduces our cognitive and concentration abilities
- Self-awareness, focus and performance
Save Your Brain Power
Create to-do lists: Document key points of meetings and conversations with colleagues to unload your mind and consult them at any time.
- Take notes and create running lists: Create a list with ideas to explore, discuss with your manager, etc.
Arrange Your Tools
Know your tools. Document important guidelines, meetings, procedures to unload your mind, refer to and share them with others in a few clicks.
- Save passwords, backup important data, and keep a copy of important docs on your cloud or external storage.
Improve Your Time Assessment Skills
Estimate your activities
- Use time tracking software
- Upload your tasks and time estimates into your time tracker and record time against them
- See how your estimated and actual time stack up
- Ask for feedback
- To reduce estimation errors, ask a neutral party for feedback about your task estimates
Leave Out Low-Output Activities
Identify unproductive activities that don’t contribute to the project’s success and can be eliminated with little or no damage to the outcome.
Eliminate Distractions
Manage your attention: Redirect your focus when it slips up
- Block time for emails: 28% of workers spend most of their workweek on emails
- Declutter: Organize your workspace to relieve stress and anxiety
- Turn off email notifications and schedule time blocks for checking emails
Grow Adaptability Skills
Adaptability skills refer to a person’s ability to adjust to changing environments and circumstances such as changing responsibilities, expectations and strategies
- This skill set consists of sub-skills like communication, creative thinking and problem-solving skills which allow people to manage high-pressure situations, deal with stress and distractions
Further Time Management Reading
Effective time management is a hard skill to master because it includes dozens of sub-skills that allow us to manage our thoughts, emotions, communications, and environment.
