It’s easy to get busy with the business of building a business and forget about the basics of just getting stuff done. That’s why today I pulled together a list of my favorite time management principles. You probably know them all, but it’s good to refresh your memory!
#1: Clear Space = Clear Mind – Don’t let clutter drain you of your creativity. Now don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of creative chaos, but creative clutter? That’s a different thing altogether. Save yourself time, effort and huge frustration by keeping your work space – desk, filing cabinet and bookshelves – organized!
#2: Turn Off the Distractions – Stop being a slave to all the beeps and buzzers that vie for our attention! The reason your most productive time is at the cabin in the woods is because you can’t get a cell signal and there’s no Internet. Use the same principle to get more done on a daily basis by turning off the distractions during your focus time.
#3: Start the Day Strong – Start your day with focus and motivation! By starting your day strong, it’s easier to use your momentum to overpower interruptions and distractions (and even if later in the day, things come up that absolutely require your attention, you at least have accomplished some of your core tasks before then).
#4: Avoid Interruptions – Put a bold sign on your door that reads, “Do NOT Disturb!” and mean it. That means no telephone calls get answered, no meetings get scheduled and no digital communication. If enforcing this rule means you need to leave your office and hide in a coffee shop, do that!
#5: Only Handle It ONCE – Stop doing double duty on everything you do! We don’t even realize how many times we pick up a file, open an email, or start a project only to put it down without actually finishing it! Whatever it is, don’t touch it, open it, read it, or anything it until you have the time and are prepared to handle it.
#6: Break Tasks Down – Take all your big picture ideas and enormous projects and break them down into manageable tasks. The key to maintaining momentum on large-scale projects is to give yourself key milestones to achieve each week.
#7: Focus on Priority Tasks – Don’t let Bright Shiny Objects tempt you away from your core priorities. For example, if your overall goal is to increase profitability, only tasks that increase sales, generate new leads, expand lines of business or reduce expenses count as priority tasks.
#8: Plan Your In-Between Time – Maximize the 5 minute ‘in-between’ times by keeping a running list of quick tasks to tackle during those times. For example, if you are waiting for a conference call to start, you may decide to sort, scan, and file all the email newsletters sitting in your inbox, or read through a blog post in your Read Later list.
#9: Compress Your Time – Challenge yourself to accomplish everything you do in 10% less time. That means wrapping up your hour meeting in 54 minutes, writing that blog post in 27 minutes, and you guessed it, spending 13 minutes on that check-in call. Remember, it all adds up, especially if you have a plan for using those extra minutes more effectively.
#10: Establish Clear Boundaries – Set up rules that work for you. If making Fridays a “No meeting, no call” day because it lets you get more focus time in, make it clear to others that Fridays are not negotiable. It’s okay to require people to respect your time and play by your rules as long as you make them clear upfront (remember, people can’t actually read minds).
2 Comments
I am guilty of time management mistakes. Thank you for this post.
I’m terrible at #8 – using those small bits of time. I have ADHD so I have to be really careful about those minutes. If I start something, there’s a very good chance I’ll get so focused that I’ll forget to do the next thing. So as a safeguard, I find myself doing nothing in those in between moments. I suppose I could solve that problem by setting a timer for 5 minutes or something along that line.