Effective Time Management
Tips and strategies for managing your time effectively
This article describes the personality traits that prevent us from achieving our goals and offers some important techniques for effective time management.
We have all encountered the following type of people, who just can’t seem to manage their time effectively – we may recognise many of these traits in ourselves or in others who we know:
- The adrenaline junky. This extremely busy, always on the go person has a buzz of activity around them. They are either on the phone or being interrupted by others. Their desks are a mess of unorganised papers and files. They are constantly being pulled off on "urgent" tasks. They tend to work long hours, but ironically, for all their efforts, their projects are always late and off schedule and what they deliver always seems to have problems or involve some type of crises.
- The procrastinator . At the opposite extreme, is the personality type that always puts off tasks, hesitates and debates continually and has difficulty making decisions or following up on actions. They never seem to be able to get much done or follow up on what they’ve agreed to do.
There is a combination of aspects of the above traits in most of us, and we may even swing from one extreme to the other. These are all symptoms of poor time management and recognising this is the first step toward effective change. To effectively manage your time there are a number of key techniques you should use:
- Don’t commit to more than you can handle – one of the key reasons for work overload is over-committing. The adrenaline junky does this for the rush, we may do this out of a desire to please others, because we don’t like to say no or because we can’t let go and allow others to help us.
- Delegate – trying to do everything yourself is one of the key symptoms of poor time management. Focus on the tasks you know you can do quickly and effectively, and delegate to others, where possible. For example, if you’re not an accountant, you can waste hours or even days doing your tax returns – time which is taken away from your own endeavours.
- Prioritise your tasks – decide which are the most important tasks that you need to accomplish. It helps if you write this down in a diary. A good strategy is to write down each morning no more than 5 tasks that you need to accomplish during the day. Stick to your list and tick off each item as you complete it.
- Focus on the task at hand – don’t allow distractions or other tasks to take you away from what you are currently doing. One of the reasons this happens is that we allow others to distract us or we think we are so important that nothing will get done if we don’t provide the answers. It may be a manager or a colleague who just ‘has’ to have an answer. Don’t be afraid to ask your colleagues to wait until a more appropriate time. They will soon learn that you don’t like being interrupted unnecessarily.
- Handle small tasks immediately, as they arrive on your desk – for example, responding to emails, writing letters or returning phone calls -- don’t allow these tasks to accumulate; this saves you time having to read through the same information later, once you’ve forgotten it. One technique is to set aside a 30-minute or hour slot in the morning for such administrative tasks, when you can read and answer all your emails and queries and set up meetings.
- Re-examine your goals – ask yourself what choices you have made that are preventing you from effectively achieving your goals. Make sure that you are focusing your time on achieving the objectives that are important to you – whether these are your career goals or your personal aspirations.
The copyright of the article Effective Time Management in Business Management is owned by Warren Singer. Permission to republish Effective Time Management must be granted by the author in writing.
