As things get much busier in the modern day world of commerce, being organised has never been more important. The increased strain on peoples’ mental health from stress and anxiety. The constant strain from having more and more to do, and not enough time to do it. So here are some time management tips to help:
- Learn when to say no. This can be the biggest drain on anyone’s time, when they constantly say yes to anything and everything. As Entrepreneurs and Business Owners, this can quite easily happen when there’s never a “Happy Medium” between being busy and having no work at all.
- To-do lists aren’t as effective as people think. Sometimes we can think we’re being more productive when we’re able to start crossing off items from our to-do lists. However, this isn’t always the case, if you’re only ticking off listed items, how likely are you to actually start that activity in the first place if it has no defined limit on a very precious resource; time. Instead it might be a better use of time to block out time-slots in a diary. This will give a defined time for an activity to be completed during a work-flow. Obviously, this has exceptions, such as being put on hold while trying to sort out something like an IT issue. The point here though is for the things you can control, be frugal with your time.
- Encourage yourself to form a routine for working. Nothing crushes productivity more than an unstructured day. If you like to wake up late or take the dog for a walk before starting work, make it part of your daily structure. If you like to work in three or four blocks, then break the day up with a lunch break in the middle, that will always be more effective for productivity than working for eight hours straight.
- Don’t be afraid to take breaks. This one is more important than ever, especially if you are a mobile or teleworker, who can end up working longer hours than their workplace based colleagues. Take time to orientate yourself and your schedule if need be. Life often gets in the way, taking a break help.
- Allocate a cost-value to your time. So if you charge a certain amount per hour, charge that to yourself or your business. The number may be surprising for how much time is being spent on things that have no return on investment of that time.
- Use an Important/Urgent 4×4 grid to allocate and prioritise tasks, such the below example:
