Spring has sprung and summer is on its way. Who doesn’t enjoy the warmer, lasting days? With the longer days we tend to overextend ourselves with additional tasks, responsibilities, projects, and errands. We all tend to take on too much and get overwhelmed. However, with practice of time management you will become more focused, have increased clarity and enjoy a sense of accomplishment. Although we all wish and want for time management to be developed out of desire to be a super-hero, for many of us, it becomes a matter of survival. We find ourselves sinking before we even have a chance to swim.
Here are a few ‘life rafts’ that can be helpful in better managing your time.
Planning–Set Goals
Goal setting is crucial to any good time management strategy. To make sure you’re engaging in activities that support your individual and/or business goals, both short- and long-term, you need to define those goals in terms that are clear and attainable. After all, if your goal is to just “to grow your business,” you might find yourself overwhelmed and not know where to begin. To counteract this paralysis, many companies find that the SMART goals methodology helps keep them on task and on track. Standing for “Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound,” SMART goals provide clear, step-by-step tasks to help you get where you need to go.
Prioritize
Once you’ve set your goals and determined the individual tasks you need to complete to achieve them, it’s time to prioritize by creating to-do lists. Of course, you want to make sure you’re getting things done, but they should be the right things. Write down your three or four “important and urgent” tasks that must be addressed today. As you complete each one, check it off your list—creating a sense of accomplishment and motivation to keep moving down the list.
- Important & urgent: tasks that must be done right away. Focus your energy on completing your most important and urgent tasks before moving on to less time-sensitive items. Block time on your calendar to stay focused on these tasks and NOT allow distractions
- Important but not urgent: tasks that may appear important, but upon closer examination can be postponed to a later date if necessary. While these items are likely integral to smoothly run your business, they are not do or die.
- Urgent but not important: tasks that make the most “noise” but when accomplished, have little or no lasting value. Delegate these tasks if possible.
- Not urgent & not important: Low-priority stuff that offers the illusion of being busy (your running, no deadline list). Do these later.
Eliminate Distractions
Interruptions can be the biggest thing to make someone sink. It may take a massive exercise in will power, but block off time in your schedule, turn off or your phone, put answering emails on hold and focus on just the task at hand. Those phones calls, emails, and social media will still be there. In fact, create a dedicated block time to address and answer all of these communication sources. Distractions can be the biggest time-waster so really dedicate yourself to ONLY focus on the task at hand, ignoring all the other “noise” and complete the task. You will see things get completed successfully with more time to focus on the higher prioritized items.
Reminders
Set alarms and/or reminders, whether it be in your Outlook calendar, Google calendar or on your phone. It will indicate when you should begin getting ready or maybe when you have 10 minutes until you MUST start a scheduled or blocked out task/ project. Being more aware of what time it is and how long things take is a critical aspect of time management.
Practice makes Perfect
The above ‘life rafts’ may sound like a lot of work or dedication but adding one step at a time can make life a bit more manageable and you’ll notice that you are not sinking. Practice each step until it becomes a habit. There may still be occasions when things happen that you couldn’t have prepared for–that’s OK! Be easy on yourself and try again tomorrow. Being punctual and managing your time makes you a more productive, efficient and reliable individual. It will reduce your stress level, increase your energy level, and at the end of the day you have a sense of achievement.
Our firm has helped numerous companies in this area and we would love to be a resource for you, so please contact us to discover what we can do for you. Before you know it, you will be in the water floating on your back enjoying the beautiful summer days!
