Trying to manage your time better is a goal that many of us have on a regular basis. It seems that once you have a handle on an effective time management routine that there is a shift in the overall tasks that must be completed.
Each time one of these shifts occur it makes you have to reevaluate the schedule and try to find a new way to plan your day and effectively manage your time. The following are our top ten tips for time management, hopefully there are some you too can use for your business.
Time Management Strategies - Tip One
Stay Focused. Multitasking just makes you feel as if you are getting more done than those that only do one or two tasks at a time until completion. It is time to try something new to get that to-do list knocked out and please the boss who has been watching you like a bad teenager. Granted you know that you deserve the watching as you are guilty of not being as productive the last few weeks. This should've happened more than a week or two ago so before you get called out or even worse shut it all down. It is time to close off all but one tab, set the alerts on your phone to silent, and forget that Pokemon Go exists. What else is around you that is a distractor? Tell the friends and family that you will be unavailable to text, tweet, facebook message, or snapchat and turn the ringer off on your cell. Staying focused will be a lot easier to accomplish now that you’ve turned off all the distractions. We guarantee you that within a couple of days rather than the withdrawal you think you will be experiencing you will be shocked. So shocked in fact that your boss might just call on you to find out if it is really you in that office at the end of the hall.
Time Management Tools Scheduling Tips - Tip Two
Still not convinced that it is time to try a new or old over again time management tool or technique - for tip number two break out the old school scheduler and let's find out. For the next full wheel track yourself. Write down the thoughts, the drifting off, the conversations, the times you toss a Pokeball, and even the long lunch or meeting that runs long. Tracking needs to be as exact as possible, no rounding or shaving off of minutes. Keeping track as near the minute as possible at least the first few days. Do not leave off the bathroom breaks, the phone calls that are answered, chatting at the water cooler, or visiting after the meeting. At the end of each day add up the amount of time spent in the various methods and prepare to be amazed. You will also be overjoyed by the fact that your boss must like you considering you hadn’t gotten fired.
Management Apps and Sites - Tip Three
Now that you have learned where your weakness lie after timing yourself tip three will be a true no brainer. Utilize apps and programs created to help improve time management both on the large and small business scale that include products such as Workly. Small business scheduling software and time and attendance software will make so much more sense to you as to why it exists. Head over to Workly at check it out, it is worth the few minutes you will spend there.
Time Management Tips - Tip Four
Tip four is a time management life saver for many. Now you see an entirely new basis for that motel “do not disturb” sign that you have openly made fun of most of your life. If your job does not require answering the telephone send the calls to voicemail, if you can’t take the sound of the unanswered ring silence the ringer then even or best yet unplug the cord from the wall. Turn off the notifications that are not mandatory and shut the email tab on your computer. Pretend you're a high school or college professor for a few weeks. By this we mean having set office hours. Break down those hours to be specific as to the means in which you are reachable. For example, Monday’s from 1 - 3 phone hours, Wednesday and Thursday by appointment only from 2 - 6, Friday meetings from 9 - 11 followed by reporting until all the weeks tasks have been finished.
Being More Effective With Work Time - Tip Five
For the most effective working to be completed in the proper time frames we bring you tip five. Wise Prioritizing. This at the beginning is going to be needed done on a day to day, once you have become more accustomed to the prioritizing ideas and steps it can be done on a weekly or even monthly basis depending on the work done of course. Which of the following headings does what task belong?
- Urgent — Tasks that must ASAP. No questions.
- Important — Tasks that are truly important but not urgent.
- Normal —Tasks pressure felt for until done but then are gone.
- Non Important — Lowest priority and can wait or be missed.
Urgents are top priority and are the first to be done. Important comes next, any not done that day should be bumped into the Urgent spot the next. The Normal and Non Important tasks can be delegated out or placed onto the back burner. The Workly program can again come in handy with tip five in regards to the Normal and Non Important tasks that have been placed onto the back burner. Log them into the database as to when they are about to become due so that they are not missed, late, or left incompleted.
How to Manage Time Effectively At Work - Tip Six
Tip six is a means of helping determine tip five more precisely. Anything that is of importance should be assigned a time slot to go with the priority ranking. This is much like how the office secretary plans the day for the person she works. Meetings, phone calls, interviews, lunches, they are all planned out in the method that we are suggesting you to try so that you manage your time at work more effectively. You should also be seeing how each of the ten steps tie into one another very precisely in the big picture. If not yet you will soon.
Best Time Management - Tip Seven
Delegate. Delegate. One more time just so you know you have read it right, DELEGATE. If you have a decent staff, crew, or even family working with you then this is again one of the no brainers that is so often forgotten or overlooked. Pass on the tasks that you do not need to specifically sign off on right from the start.
Better Management of Business Time - Tip Eight
Make habits out of the key tasks. These are the items that you do without thinking or reminding. Leave a time gap or buffer between tasks. This is imperative to stay on schedule. These gaps cover bathroom breaks or even the calls that run over. Routines are a necessity to ensure that all the required tasks are being done in the right order and time frames. Seriously though for the bulk of us the job has very little actual change that cannot allow for a routine.
Schedule time Better for work - Tip Nine
Leave the first half hour daily to go over the day's agenda, unless you are one of the lucky ones that has a secretary that does this for you. The longer you do this the less time it takes and thus allows you to start off on the plus side of the clock rather than the later.
The Best Way to Manage Time - Tip Ten
Our final tip coming in at number ten is still as important as all of the others so please don’t forget it is here. This step is the bust out. Bust out all jobs that will require five minutes or less in the first hour of the day. Don’t out them to the end like so many tend to do as they are so often not gotten to that way. Rather do them quickly and call them completed. Besides once you are able to cross off three or four list items it places you in a good mental state towards crossing the rest off as well.