So what simple tips do I suggest for improving work / life balance?

Tip 1: Set deadlines
• Have you ever noticed that when you set a deadline for getting something done or a timescale to do something, you somehow do it? Setting a deadline is a bit like setting an intention which sends a signal to your mind.

Tip 2: Prioritise well

• Whether you believe it or not, some things are more important than others. Make the point of identifying and prioritising how you will use your time.

Tip 3: Be well organised

• Being able to find things when you need them, whether in a computer or filing cabinet, can pay big dividends.

Tip 4: Plan things out of work

• If you don’t, you will just end up staying that extra half hour, which will in reality end up being two hours.

Tip 5: Ask for help

• Don’t suffer in silence. Ask for help if you are struggling.

Tip 6: Focus on what matters

• Rather than stuff that keeps you busy.

Tip 7: Learn to switch off

• Tough as it might be, you need to be able to switch off.

The truth is, maintaining a healthy work / life balance can actually enhance your performance. So what’s your first step?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

So how can you make better use of your time?

1. Start to view it in the same way as money and invest it wisely.
2. Plan how you are going to utilise your team each day.
3. Do what you do best and delegate everything else.
4. Get clear on your priorities and then focus on them.
5. Track how you are spending your time to spot the time stealers.

So what other tips would you offer to make better use of time?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Tip 1: Get clear on your goals

Tip 2: Think clearly, calmly and positively

Tip 3: Stop moaning about the circumstances and start taking action

Tip 4: Say no when you really cannot take on anything else

Tip 5: Take breaks and try to get some exercise

Tip 6: When you are working, focus on working

Tip 7: Tidy your desk so that you can find things quickly

Tip 8: Tackle the time bandits who steal your time

So what other tips would you add?

In truth, very few of us ever take the time to accurately capture where we spend our time and what results we deliver from the time we have invested.  So why should you bother anyway?

1. You might discover that your time utilisation is a bit like a leaking water pipe.  A lot is being lost but you are not quite sure why.

2. You might be struggling to achieve deadlines or rushing at the last minute to deliver because you are not investing your time wisely.

3. You might be having to continually work extra hours (usually unpaid) to get everything done.

Not taking care of how you spend your time is a bit like not bothering to take care of company money or company equipment.

Doing a time analysis is really easy to do and has a ton of benefits, for example:

1. You start to discover if you are spending your time on what is really important to your success as a leader.

2. You start to become much more conscious of the cost of doing certain things.

3. You find ways of adding more value to the organisation without having to make more and more personal sacrifice.

Bottom Line – Time is probably the biggest limiting factor for just about everyone.  So what action could you take starting today to tackle the biggest limiting factor to you delivering results and achieving success

1. Some leader who is under pressure to deliver a certain result.

2. Some leader who has been removed because the results delivered were not good enough.

With all of this focus on results, it is important that as a leader you use your biggest limiting factor wisely.  So what is the biggest limiting factor?  In my experience it is time.  There are always many options open to you on how you could use the time available but the amount you are allocated in a day, week, month or year is fixed.  Contrast with a constraint like the amount of budget you have available.  You can make a case for more financial resource and if your case is compelling enough, you have a good chance of securing additional resource.

So if time is a major constraint, you need to know when your own personal prime time is.  It will be different for different people.  Some people are at their best first thing in the morning, while for others burning the midnight oil is best.  When you know your personal prime time you:

1. Can schedule the most important tasks for the times when your performance is optimal.

2. Avoid wasting optimal performance time on anytime tasks.  You know things like e-mails, routine phone calls or texts.

3. Deliver better results, because you focus your attention on the things that have greatest impact on the results you deliver.

Bottom Line – Your personal productivity greatly influences your results.  So what steps are you going to take to do the most important things in your personal prime performance time?

With lengthy job descriptions and vague objectives being the norm, you need to take control and get clarity on your priorities.

It is pretty easy to do this.

1. List out your understanding of your priorities

2. Arrange to meet with your boss

3. Ask him or her to tell you what they see as priority

4. Come to an agreed list of priorities

5. Plan your time to focus on these priorities

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professionals, teams and organisations develop their management and leadership capability.

1. Time Audit

Where are you spending your time?  Ask most managers and leaders this and you will get a vague answer.  The key to being smarter with how you use your time is a time audit.  Make sure this covers a typical work cycle so that you can get real insights where your time is going.

2. Know Your Priorities

What are your 3-5 key priorities?  Armed with this information and your time audit, you can quickly determine whether your time is being spent on what matters- your key priorities.  After all you want to spending time on things that are important to the organisation and your success.

3. Cut out the unproductive stuff

If you are doing something that is not necessary for you to do, stop doing it.  Delegate it, outsource it and even question if it is necessary.

4. Make a list of your time wasters

We all have things that fall into the time waster category.  What’s on your list? 

• Meetings that are just talking shops and never result in any productive outcomes. 

• Checking every e-mail as soon as it arrives.

Make a list of your time wasters and commit to doing something about them.

Take a positive step to becoming a better manager or leader.  Take advantage of my free e audio course.  Click here to subscribe.

1. Plan how you are going to use it
2. Set time limits for individual tasks
3. Look at your time stealers and tackle them
4. Don’t set yourself up for failure by being overly optimistic about what you can achieve
5. Keep a track of where your time is going

What else would you add to the list?

1. What are my priorities?
2. Where am I spending my time?
3. What are my time stealers?

If you have enjoyed this post you might like to check out the free audio masterclass profiting from prioritising

• E-mail
• Text messaging
• Surfing the internet
• Chatting on the phone during work time

What are your biggest time stealers and what have you found to be most effective in addressing them?