The basic premise: Accept – you will never be able to do everything you want… because there is just too much to do. And your purpose for managing yourself and therefore the use of your time is to accomplish your ultimate goal/s.
Four Skills Required to Be Using Your Time Wisely
- Analysis
- Planning
- Delegation
- Self management
The Process for Success
What to do
- Spend your time doing what is key to the success of your business
- Work on tasks that can only be done effectively by you.
- 4 D’s – Do it | Delegate it | Defer it | Dump it
When to do
- Plan your time/ organize your work schedule so that you are never working on the issues that fall into the ‘Not Important’ category
How to do (organise)
Create a ‘template’ schedule for each time period – month/week/day – which allocates time periods for specific types of tasks. Eg: travel to customers, return/place phone calls; do quiet work, organize paperwork, read. Its a bit like a school timetable.
• Tool – Time blocking chart
How to repeat (discipline)
- The key to efficient use of time is planning
- Work from lists and mark the items for priority (a,b,c)
- Tool – Daily, Weekly ‘2 Do’ lists ie the two top things to do
Planning
For efficiency
- Do it in advance – Friday night or Sunday evening for next week; the night before, for the next day… rather than the morning of.
- Gather your materials in advance, so you can ‘hit the ground running’
For motivation
- Put as little on your list as you can. Momentum is gained as you check off.
- With large projects, break them into small steps so you can see progress
For effectiveness
- Each major project should be planned out over time periods – with other activities interspersed
Hints for Success
Incremental progress is key. So for projects, ‘divide to multiply’ Start now, step by step.
Do the toughest things first.
- stops procrastination
- you’ll feel great… therefore…
- you’ll be inspired to do everything else required for the day
Delegate.
- Include scheduled time in your plan to oversee/ train/ obtain and review metrics and reports on the work you have delegated.
- Do not slip into the habit of just doing it because its quicker.
If you schedule on importance not urgency – the urgent will almost never occur!
