Managing Your Time

Time wasters need to be identified if you want to do something about them. One way to identify them is to record your meetings, conversations, and actions for one week. This will help you spot where you are producing results and where you are wasting time.

You will be interrupted throughout the day. Be comfortable letting employees know that you may need to meet with them later. Use judgement when answering the phone or responding to emails or texts. Only give an immediate response if necessary.

Take the first 30 minutes of each day to prioritize your day. If you have 20 tasks to do in a day, how many of them do you need to accomplish and in what order? Time management is not doing the wrong things more quickly. It is doing the right things in the first place.

A person that has a messy desk or file system, on average, spends 1.5 hours per day looking for or being distracted by things. That adds up to 7.5 hours per week. Neatness makes the job much easier and reflects a degree of professionalism.

Each day, use your calendar to block time needed to complete essential and important tasks.

Schedule five minutes before each call, meeting, or major task to identify the result you want to achieve.