A plan for effective time management
The essence of effective time management is to understand what you are trying to achieve. Is it more sales? Is it a promotion or more time with your children? Now, take a look at where you generally spend your time in a week. Keep a diary or look back at the last few weeks and label your activities as productive and towards your goals and those which aren’t.
Be honest about impact
Are there activities you are doing which look like they should give you the desired impact but actually aren’t working? A case in point is social media. As a small business we are often told to get out there on social media to promote our businesses and it’s true, this can make a huge difference. The question is, is it making a difference in your business? Or are you posting on Facebook and getting nowhere? Maybe it’s time to stop for a while and re group.
Consider what is important and what is urgent. This is where your energy should be focused.
What do you do automatically? Is it still relevant? Could you take a break from it?
Time is a scarce resource
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”
William Penn, English writer and religious thinker.
Something I hear a lot is, “I don’t have time to plan, I’m too busy reacting to what is happening.” If you were ill, some of these things wouldn’t happen. If you booked holiday, things wouldn’t happen. So book a planning holiday and give yourself a break from the job. Get strategic, get focused. People understand that you will have holiday in the diary – it’s up to you how you use it.
When you are clear on what is important and what is urgent, take a look at the rest of your activities and take some action.
1. Create time: Delete and delegate
The Eisenhower box is great for this one. What can you delegate and what can you delete from your schedule? Delegation is a natural way to grow. We can hide behind tasks we find easy so don’t want to give to someone else. Delegation is a growth point for you and for the person you delegate to. With the space this provides, you can learn something new. Or tackle the challenges you really have.
2. Create a strategy: Towards or away from your goals
Look at how you are spending your time and ask yourself, “Is this moving me towards or away from my goals?” Is there a better or quicker way to get to your destination? Do you know someone who is great at strategy? Perhaps enlist their help.
3. Get focused on delivery
Effective use of time means achieving your goals. So give it the attention it deserves. Block time in your diary for being creative if that is what your goal needs. We have a saying:
“If it’s in the diary, it’s going to happen!”
Block time out in your diary for answering emails and having meetings. Make it clear with colleagues and clients when you are and when you are not available. I know this going to make the people pleasers amongst us uncomfortable, but another way to look as it is – this is the time I have set aside for my clients. Sufficient time to deliver what they need.
When I had an office full of staff, I used to get into the office early and hang out near the kettle to make myself available for conversations and gauging what was happening. People knew that was always a window of opportunity to speak to me about anything. It was a style of time blocking. If you have a lot of queries, could you put someone in place to sort what they can and only hand over the more complex issues?
4. Review: Is it working?
There’s a saying that that “No strategy survives first contact with the enemy.” Set a date to review your progress, what is working? What isn’t working? What could you tweak or change?
Conclusion
Time management is about being consciously proactive and moving towards what is important. When time runs away or you are distracted, consider what is really happening here. Are you letting it happen as a convenient way of avoiding trying something new or tricky? Work through what is happening with a friend or colleague. Sometimes just making a start with the help of someone else can make all of the difference.
Finally, who said you needed to tackle this on your own?!
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