Time Management Self Improvement

Time is of the essence. And in business, time is money. We all agree to that, but what do we seem to have the least of? And what can we do about it….

If you only had half the hours in your week, what work would you feel took priority? How would you be able to do just those things and still have time left to get on with other priorities?

This week the challenge is to let go of some to the ’stuff’ that gets in your way. And better, to stop doing much of what you do - especially if it is someone else’s agenda.

Time to pass the buck that has been so handily passed to you, back to the giver - with thanks!

Work is all about behaviours. Over time, our own behaviours take on a life of their own. They are not who we truly want to be (nor where we perform our best) and we get all uncomfortable with how those behaviours dictate our time. It truly is like forcing a square peg into a round hole - can you feel that pressure?

To get round this you need to take a look at all the things that are getting in the way of doing and effective and efficient job.

Sometimes this means getting out of the nice-to-do-but-a-bit-of-a-waste-of-time things - your ‘comfort-blanket’ things that keep you busy, if unproductive. Time to get real about where you best add value at the level you are at.

Couple of examples? Sure!

• What about that member of your team who needs following up on all the time - how much is that wasting your time?

• What about that boss you have who is always dropping extra work on you that you haven’t planned time for?

• And then there is the time you spend chasing after new recruits, because you are losing people way too often.

To dump some of this waste, it’s time to get deep down and honest with yourself and decide what is not serving you best and dump it - tough though it might be.

Time to assess where those wasted hours go and lose them, one by one, to the benefit of you, your job and the rest of the people in your team.

So, take a look at the job you do and get together that wish list that would free up half of your time in the next week.

What are the jobs that waste your time - look hard and if you can’t find much, have the balls to look more closely at you, yourself because that’s the place to start - and finish!

© 2005-6 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com.

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In Steven Covey’s excellent book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” he tells a well-worn story about the use of time.

In the story, some professor guy (I think) stands at the front of a class, with a big jar. In the jar, first of all he puts some big rocks, and asks the class, “Is it full now”.

Mostly they say, “Yes”.

Then he gets some smaller rocks and these fit in quite nicely too, just between the big rocks. Again, he asks the same question, “Is it full now?”

The group, a little more suspicious say, “Yes”, because it seems to be.

He then gets out a bag of sand and surprise, surprise, those tiny grains of sand squeeze down beside the smaller rocks, filling up the tinier spaces. “Full?”, he asks.

“Sure”, say the increasingly dubious bunch of students in the audience.

Finally, trump card is the water, smaller than sand, of course and finally, as we aren’t getting too sub-molecular about it, the jar is full.

Impressive huh?

The professor then asks,

“What’s the moral of the story?”

Of course the class, thinking they’ve spotted the trick here, say,

“You can always squeeze a bit more in”

A standard and pretty smart reply. The professor, however, is a step a head (all that professorism does it, of course!).

“The moral of the story is that you need to get your big rocks in first, or all that other ’stuff’ gets in, way too soon and takes up all the space.”

Cool story?

The point of course, relates to managing your time.

What are your ‘big rock’ things?

Well, for sure it isn’t all the little jobs you do. All the fire-fighting (or it may be in the short-term, but that is another day).

The trick is to create spaces, ring-fenced, as they say, to do the good stuff.

In business, this is a list something like this:-

1. Planning for the future

2. Time with your people - good, focused one-on-one time preferably

3. Coaching your people in their work

4. Developing others around you

5. Delegating constructively

6. Creating Succession Plans

7. Building relationships

8. Developing new business opportunities

9. Fixing problems once and for all

10. Making time for a life outside the business

There are more!

Covey and his big rocks eh?

He calls them Quadrant Two activities. If you don’t spend time putting these first into your schedule, truth is, you will never fit them in and things will never evolve and grow.

© 2005-6 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com.

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Ever notice that people don’t talk about the weather any more? Now it’s “Keeping busy?” And of course the answer is “yes.” In this day and age of overdoing everything, time management is essential if people are to get all their work done and still have some fun. Read on for seven time management tips that will help you get yourself organized so that you will have more free time.

1. Beat the procrastination habit. Putting things off is almost never a good idea. Sometimes it is worth it to take a few moments to regroup and psyche up for a difficult or unpleasant job, but it won’t get done until you get started. A similar rule of thumb for living is to “do the worst first.” If you’re dragging your feet about making a certain phone call, or tackling a messy job, think how good you’ll feel when it’s done!

2. Put things away when you are done with them. A big time waster for many people is looking for things that are misplaced. If you can get your equipment and paperwork organized, you can find anything you need in just a few seconds. But you must put the item back where it belongs when you are finished with it, or it will become misplaced. It’s possible to spend hours or even days looking for an important piece of paper.

3. Delegate what you can. If your life is overloaded with things to do, look to see if there is someone under you who could take care of some of the easier tasks. For instance, the kids could help you with folding laundry or even answering the phone. At work, farm out those basic tasks to an underling if possible.

4. Establish routines. For many of us, time is wasted every day because we are trying to decide what to do next. When we get routines established, and even written down on paper as guidelines, it can simplify our lives and save time. For instance, you could begin your workday with tasks like check email, return phone calls, and check calendar for appointments. You could have a similar end of workday routine of tidying up your desk, writing out a list of things to do for the next day, and emptying the trash.

5. Say no or find easy options to volunteer activities. For instance, if it’s your turn to provide snacks for your child’s school event, consider buying cookies ready made instead of devoting several hours to baking and decorating special cupcakes. The same goes for pot luck dinners. Potato salad from the store is probably almost as good as what you can make, but takes a lot less time.

6. Use a timer to motivate yourself to work for a certain length of time. If you have a hard time getting busy with the work you need to do, sometimes it helps to simply set a timer for a short time, for instance 15 minutes, or maybe an hour if it’s at work. Tell yourself you can quit when the timer sounds. Often you will be interested in the task by then. If you aren’t, at least you’ve done a little of the task. Take a short break and reset the timer.

7. Think positive! Don’t let yourself get bogged down in doubts about your ability to do the project, or about how long it might take. Chances are it won’t be anywhere near as bad or time-consuming as you think.

For more personal growth articles visit http://www.personalgrowthunlimited.com

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