Time Management
Well for starters, this is a topic that quite frankly, eludes me! I often under-estimate how long particular tasks will take when they’re not something I do regularly.
One thing I do know from my previous experience (in the “old” days), is that the feeling of “not having enough time” is super stressful! All that racing around, trying to beat the clock, it’s exhausting!
Of course Google has a smorgasbord of Time Management Tips to choose from and many are saying the same (or similar thing), so adding in some of my own words, here we go…
- Be self-aware / Create a Time-Audit – Once you know where the time is actually going, adjustments can be made. Track your time and record each half hour (or full hour) on what you were doing in that block of time.
- Eliminate or reduce the time-wasting items.
- Create a To-Do Task List, then break it down to sizeable and realistic chunks, prioritize and put into your plan for the day (week or month).
- Put similar tasks together, so your day will flow better.
- Don’t do seemingly “quick” things at random times, like checking emails, social media & messages – these things tend to suck you in and easily steal half an hour or more. Having a scheduled time for these is highly recommended.
- Set a time-limit for certain tasks and start the day with the most important.
- Forget trying to multi-task – focus on one thing at a time (I know, easier said than done)
- Avoid perfectionism – in most of the cases what we have done is good enough, get some feedback if you must, but back yourself and the task you’ve done.
- Learn to delegate and/or outsource. Sometimes this can seem that it will take longer to find someone and train them, than it would to just do it yourself, but in the long run it will be better. ** Also learn how to (nicely) say no to things that won’t fit into your schedule – don’t overload yourself with other people’s stuff.
- Have a buffer time in between tasks/appointments.
When it comes to prioritising – create a list of the tasks to do, then allocate each a ‘rating’ of importance for today, using levels high, med, low. When that most important thing is done, you can go onto the next and so on. If you’re like me – at the end of the day there may still be things to do, so now it’s a matter of making peace with the fact it has to wait until tomorrow.
A great quote by Brian Tracy – “Your greatest resource is your time”.