Tips To Be More Efficient With Time Management

What do you do to make the best use of your time?

Whether you are a busy professional that works away from home or whether you work out of the home, time management is almost always an issue.

My clients consistently tell me that with so many distractions and being pulled in so many different directions they often have difficultly focusing on the task at hand.  In my experience, two of the biggest productivity killers are distractions and interruptions.

For the last several years there has been a lot of talk about “multi-tasking”.  For many people multi-tasking prevents focus and completing priority work.  Although I used to advocate multi-tasking, I no longer believe it is a productive or efficient way of working.

If your find yourself challenged with how to manage your time, here are some tips to work more efficiently.

Time management sheets

We all at some point in time, find ourselves on this same repetitive path. One day feels like it just melts into the other. A time management sheet is an excellent resource for you to determine how you are actually spending your time.  It is an extremely effective exercise when utilized diligently for a 5 day period.

How it works

Arm yourself a notebook and pen and ensure you have it with you at all times.  Then I want you to write down exactly how you are spending your time, minute for minute as opposed to hours or the day.

Be precise as this will be the tool you use to work more efficiently. Once you log your time for a few days and look back on your log you will begin to see a pattern of exactly what various activities take up your time.

Decision time

Once you have your log completed you can then make some decisions on how you can perhaps delegate some tasks to others and “unplug” yourself during certain periods of the day.  Take a hard look at the activities that you have logged in and that serve no positive purpose for you.

Then following some basic principles of organization, group “like” tasks together for greater productivity and efficiency. For example, make all your phone calls at a pre-scheduled slot each day or perhaps twice a day.

Answer emails only 2 x per day perhaps once at 11:00 and then again at 3:30 p.m. All your activities should be religiously scheduled in your paper or electronic calendar or day timer and stick to that schedule, including gym workouts, grocery runs, etc. There should be no procrastination.

You may find that you have a large task at hand.  Larger tasks can be broken down into smaller ones.  In preparing your schedule I want you to ask yourself “what are the 3 most important tasks” and list them in order.  Then tackle the most important task first.

Once you have your daily schedule fully written down, you then implement the schedule using the Pomodoro technique of time management.

What is the Pomodoro technique?

The main idea behind this is `time-boxing`.  It’s a simple technique that is very effective for people with short attention spans, those that are easily distracted and that work at a desk.

In this technique you are boxing in your attention for a small amount of time and then mentally recharging yourself after each 25 minute interval of work.All you need is a timer, whether it is on your computer, your smart phone or an egg timer – they all can do the job.

6 Steps

1- Identify the task according to your schedule (or “to do” list) .
2- Set your timer to 25 minutes
3- Work on a task until the Pomodoro is finished
4- Take a 5 minute break – get up from your desk, stretch, grab a coffee, etc.
5- Set timer again
6- For every 4 Pomodoros you take a longer break (15 – 20 minutes)

Guidelines

As with every system, the Pomodoro has a few guidelines to aid in your success.  Firstly, no other tasks are allowed during your Pomodoro except the one you began working on.  Secondly, stop right way when Pomodoro ends.  If you didn’t finish your work during that session simply move it over to your next Pomodoro. Lastly, when you finish your task before the deadline, don`t stop.  Review your completed work until the timer is done.

By completing each Pomodoro you will feel and be more productive, happier and build momentum to help you get things done quickly and efficiently.

Let me know how this technique works for you and contact me directly with any questions you have.