Posts Tagged ‘Time Management’

Ask any manager what one of their biggest challenges is and chances are that a lack of time will be pretty high up the list of answers.  Given that the total time available per day, week, month or year is out of your control, it is how you use it that matters.

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.

Having sufficient time is often cited as a key challenge for managers and leaders.  So what are 8 quick tips you can work on straight away.

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?

If you are a manager or leader right now, chances are that you have to deliver more with fewer resources.  Despite this you are still expected to provide all of the key things necessary to run the business.  You know, pay staff, pay suppliers, do appraisals to name just a few.  So how can you get smarter with how you use your time and get things done?

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.

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I delivered a free teleseminar earlier today on transforming productivity and results.  In preparing for the event I was considering the whole myth of the shortage of time.  The reality is that we all have exactly the same amount of time available to us:

24 hours in day

168 hours in a week

744 hours in a 31 day month

8,760 hours in a year

So what really matters is what we do with the time that we have been allocated.  Leave a comment with your top tips and click here to listen to the call replay.

When asked what their biggest challenge is, many managers say that getting everything done is what they struggle with most.  One of the major differences of being a manager is that you are no longer just responsible for one or two things.  You need to manage a varied workload as well as people and resources.  So what are the 5 top mistakes managers make when it comes to managing workload and what should they do instead?

Mistake 1: Failing to focus

The first mistake managers often make when it comes to managing workload is failing to focus on managing.  This is often more of a challenge for those that have been promoted within the same organisation to a management role.  If you are a manager you are no longer measured just on what you do but on the results you deliver through others.

Solution: Make a point of allocating a proportion of your time specifically for managing and get crystal clear on how your performance is measured.

Mistake 2: Not delegating

Delegating tasks and responsibility is often something managers find tough to do.  It might be that they were let down in the past and are reluctant to try again.  It is important to remember that if you avoid delegating you give a message to your staff that you don’t trust them.  How would you feel if your boss gave you a message that he or she did not trust you?

Solution: Identify tasks that can only be done by you and those that can be delegated.  Once you have identified those tasks that can be delegated, find the best person in your team to do the task and delegate it to them.

Mistake 3: Not being willing to say no

You want to be seen as someone who is helpful – don’t you?  The real question to ask yourself is whether you want to be regarded as the person who always offers to help but rarely delivers.  As a manager you need to know when you can commit and when you cannot commit to something.  It is better to say and explain your reasons than to say yes and not deliver.

Solution: Always be clear on what you have to deliver in the weeks ahead and how long it will take so that you can clearly identify what capacity you have to take on additional work or projects.

Mistake 4: Not planning

Failing to plan is planning to fail.  You would not go travelling without a plan or try to make something without a plan.  So why would you leave your productivity and effectiveness to chance by not planning?

Solution: Plan your workload for the month, week and day and ensure that you focus on your priorities.

Mistake 5: Being too accessible

Many managers talk about having an open door policy.  At the same time, you need to be careful that your open door policy does not become a constant interruption policy.  When this happens you start to lose huge chunks of your time, put the delivery of results at risk and put yourself under real pressure.

Solution:  Have designated times when you are available to deal with problem issues and people issues and schedule this time in your calendar.  When issues arise outside of this, make sure that the issues really do require your immediate attention.

Bottom Line – Mastering workload management will set you apart from many managers and help you deliver results.  So what action do you need to take to better manage your workload?

I have recently being doing a survey on peoples biggest challenges.  One of the most common challenges seems to be time management.  So if you are challenged when it comes to your time, what can you do about it?

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?

I wonder how often we all say or hear others say that there is not enough time. Trouble is we cannot add to the number of hours available in a day, week or month. As a result it is how we use and manage the time that we have have available that matters. For me there are three key questions to answer in improving your time management.

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

A lot of people talk about not having enough time.  However, the amount of time we have available is not going to increase.  There are only 24 hours in day or 168 hours in a week.  It is how we use that time that matters.  We all have things that I call time stealers.  These time stealers take our attention away from the things that matter to getting results.  They include things like:

• 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?