Time Management Strategies

Improving time management skills is different for each business owner and staff member, there is not one single solution as your personality and skills will play a big part in how you manage your time, however there are many areas that can be identified and improved over a period of time.

One way is to help yourself become aware of how you are using your time at present, socially and in the work place. How do you decide priorities and do you review how your day has gone based on expectations or plans.

“A things to do today list” may seem out dated and over used, however used correctly this can be a valuable tool, it needs to be flexible and have the ability of prioritising specific tasks. Used in conjunction with a groundhog day planner you will become more productive and find that time is your friend not your enemy.

I remember reading that a reporter asked Richard Branson how he manages to achieve so much in business and socially and his answer was simple he makes every second count. You can too. Start by thinking about what an average days looks like for you, one comment I hear almost every time that I start working with a client is “that damn phone” yet this is easily fixed.

Train staff to say that you are with clients or that you have just gone into a meeting when you are asked for, then get them to ask if there is anything that they can help with, or could they get you to phone them back as soon as you are free. Often what you will find is that your clients simply want to place an order, query an account etc. You have resources that can handle this, but the client has got into a habit of asking for you.

In time you will save hours of needless interruptions and your staff will get valuable opportunities to build rapport with your clients. I recommend that when the client has their need satisfied without your involvement, that your staff email you to briefly describe what has happened, this way you can email the client to show that you are aware of what is happening, this works well when orders are placed, a simple email saying, “Hi, I missed your call earlier but I noticed you have placed an order with …. Thanks for your continued support.

Diary in a time to review how last week went, look at areas that could have been improved and start mapping out how this week will be better.Does it need to be perfect? Or does it need to be started? Many people get so wound up worrying about perfecting something that they don’t even start doing, stop thinking start doing.

Delegate, they are your staff and you have trained them well, they will grow further by being given the opportunity to grow. It is hard for a hand’s on business owner to step back, but you must test and measure, start small, but start doing it.

Make sure you have regular breaks. The odd long weekend will help you work to deadlines, you need to remember that to perform to the best of your ability you need to be physically and mentally fit.

Involve your staff, tell them how you feel if they are wasting your time and how they could improve and then be brave and ask for areas that you could improve in to help them. Use time smarter, schedule out going calls when you are most likely to reach the people you need to and schedule tasks that don’t involve others at times that suit.

Be selective with requests if it is trivial treat it as such. Have a special folder and if at the end of a week or month there has been no additional requests then chances are it was not important to begin with.

Identify one thing per week that wastes your time then find a way to change it. This will free up extra time each week for you to use as you choose.

Have non-urgent tasks in a special folder that you can go to when you find that you have spare time, often you will find that you are waiting on others. Use this time to your advantage.

If you find that you are trying to write a report or a letter and the words wont come to you, then just start writing what needs to be achieved in a bullet point format, think of what the outcome needs to be, what benefits or information needs to be supplied. Once you have this you will find that you can fill in the blanks.

The more you stop procrastinating and start doing, the quicker you will start to see the benefits of managing your time wisely. Remember that is ok to make mistakes and that you will learn more from doing than planning. The more often that you make a decision to just do, the more normal it will feel.