Research shows that we tend to waste most of our time performing necessary but often time consuming administrative activities. Besides attending meetings, doing research, responding to our clients and working on projects, we have to manage our business correspondence and calendar; track the projects, the progress and the performance of others; and filter and file information.
The other major time problem is DISTRACTIONS. Generally speaking, you can divide those into two main categories: External and Self-Imposed. For example, there is always a talker at the office, eager to catch up on the latest sports news or tell you about his weekend, and wasting your valuable time. External interruptions are all too familiar, but most of the time we can control these interruptions to some extent by simply shutting the door or saying NO.
But what about Self Imposed interruptions? This can be anything from daydreaming to procrastination to stopping to check every little email when it arrives during the day. How can we manage this load and not get overwhelmed? There is no simple answer; however, there are techniques you can put to work in order to help you minimize the negative effects of time MIS-management.
First and foremost, there is such a thing as task overload. Some activities are given to us; others we assign to ourselves. By staying aware of available time within your work day, you will eliminate the possibility of over-scheduling and therefore overloading your day with work you cannot possibly accomplish! Then comes the question: What do you do with the tasks that have to be done? In which order do you schedule and perform them? How do you handle unexpected tasks that are a part of your daily routine? In other words, how do you PRIOROTIZE what’s on your schedule? You must learn to better distinguish between the merely urgent and the truly important when you have to deal with those little “emergencies” that often arise at any given moment. Use the Urgent vs. Important Principle to prevent you from always operating in a reactionary mode and encourage you to put those things that are seemingly urgent into proper perspective.
Focusing on urgency alone will cause you to consistently ignore the long-range projects that require training, momentum, confidence, and experience. If you focus on urgency, you'll emphasize rapid-fire details over slower, more meaningful achievements.
So, is there a technological solution that will help you manage your time and become more productive? Yes there is! Microsoft Outlook – the program that most of you probably already use to send and receive emails, has a fantastic set of tools to help you leverage your time, filter and sort your email messages, quickly post things to your daily calendar, update your list of important customers and contacts, and effectively monitor the progress on your list of important tasks, as well as the tasks of your team. You can use Microsoft Outlook to improve the way you plan and delegate assignments, set and pursue your most important priorities, easily organize meetings and assign multiples tasks; it even has a simple tool to help you quickly track how you use your time every day. With Microsoft Outlook, you can easily follow every time management suggestion I have made in this article, and you can do it in a streamlined and highly effective way.
Baker Communications offer a quarterly Webinar course to teach you how to use Microsoft Outlook to make time management a breeze. I encourage you to visit www.BakerCommunications.com and check out this course. Invest a little time now win back more time and more productivity very soon!
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October Time Management Quick Tip of the Month – Make a Meeting Agenda
What happens when you go to the grocery store without a shopping list? That’s right; you end up buying stuff you don’t need and when you get home you realize you forgot some items you intended to buy. Running a meeting is no different, except you don’t use a shopping list, you use an agenda. Write down the goals of the meeting and list the topics that need to be discussed. Send this agenda to every one who is invited to the meeting so they can study it in advance. During the meeting – and this is MOST important – keep the meeting focused on the agenda items. If the meeting starts to veer off track, point to the agenda and ask for people to stay on track. You will get much more accomplished, and do it in less time.
