Time Management Challenges

I have recently being doing a survey on peoples biggest challenges. 

One of the most common challenges seems to be time management. 

The trouble with time is that we all have the same allocation of time and unlike our PC we can’t buy an upgrade of time.  We all have 24 hours each day.  168 hours a week.

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 consciously.  It’s really easy to drift if you don’t consciously plan how you are going to use your time.
  2. Set time limits for individual tasks.  There’s a saying that work expands to fit the time available.  It’s the same with tasks.  Ever noticed how if you give yourself a time limit to get a task done you seem to manage it?
  3. Look at your time stealers and tackle them.  Once upon a time this would have been interruptions from colleagues or a boss who had that thing that’s urgent and needs doing now.  These days there’s social media, emails, text messages and apps which were supposed to make us more productive.  Use an app like Clockify to track where your time is going and where it’s being used less than optimally.
  4. Don’t set yourself up for failure by being overly optimistic about what you can achieve.  It’s easy to believe that you can achieve miracles in a day.  What you have to realise is that you can only ever tackle one or two significant things in a day.
  5. Keep a track of where your time is going.  Again Clockify can help.  You also need to ask yourself if your time is being spent on what I call key results areas.

Truth is managing time isn’t just all about what you do.  Often it’s about changing your perspective when it comes to time.

What else would you add to the list?

About the Author Duncan Brodie

Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.

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