Time Management

Being disorganised and not having timescales means that you can lose sight of what is really important. When this happens, you will focus on the urgent, not important, activities.  Without focus, how do you prevent crises in the future?   

If you are constantly completing urgent but not important tasks, how do you meet important deadlines? Without good time management deadlines can creep up on you or you can miss them completely. If you are rushing to meet a deadline, are you producing the kind of quality that you would if the task was well planned? 

When you are not in control of your time, you tend to juggle lots of tasks meaning you end up extremely disorganised. Your to do list never gets any smaller, it’s harder to find things and you will get stressed. 

When you are struggling to fit everything in and rushing to meet deadlines, it's easy to overlook the details that are important.  In some instances, this can lead to significant errors.  It's a bad reflection on your professional ability.  It's definitely not the impression you want to make with the co-workers who depend on you. 

2. Email is a godsend these days, it means quick efficient communication. However, how many times have you been doing a piece of work and a message pops up to say you’ve got a message. The temptation is there to ‘just check it’s nothing important’ then you end up responding to it anyway. Then you have to get back into the zone to continue on your original task. Try checking your email three times a day and turning it off in-between, you’ll be surprised at how much time this will save. 

3. Facebook and other social media – unless your role involves updating your customers via social media turn it off. Status updates and responding to friends is a constant distraction for many, if you must, check it in your lunch break. 

4. Meetings for meetings sake! How many times have you been in a meeting and thought ‘why did we need a meeting for this?’ Make sure that your attendance at a meeting is essential, can you send one of your team members or is a meeting really required. If people like the face to face element then why not consider Teams or Zoom, it’s free and easy to use. If a quick meeting is really required, try this little tip. Don’t book a meeting room. have the meeting standing up, it’s proven that the meeting will take less time. Obviously this won’t be suitable for all types of meetings! 

5. Colleagues – How often do you get asked ‘can you have a look at this?’ or ‘what do you think about such and such?’ Make sure if the task isn’t related to your role refer your colleague on to whoever is responsible. Having a quick catch up should be done over lunch not by the water cooler. 

6. Poorly defined tasks – Having to go back to your manager to ask questions about what exactly they want takes up unnecessary time. Make sure that tasks are well defined and that communication is effective to save time. 

7. Preparation – Make sure there is a clearly defined agenda for meeting so that you can prepare in advance. This in turn will save time. If you have any queries email prior to the meeting so that the meeting itself goes smoothly.

8. Learn to say no – This sounds simple but how many times have you thought it will be quicker if I do it. If it is not your responsibility pass it on to whoever is responsible. 

9. Lists - This must seem like a simple and obvious thing to do, but you would be amazed how many people do not use lists as a way of organising themselves and the tasks they need to do. Not only does making a list stop you from forgetting things, it is also a great way of seeing what you’ve achieved as you tick things off when you’ve done them.