Everything you need to know about time management is captured in three words.
- Eliminate – stop unnecessary or low priority tasks. Prioritize.
- Delegate – put stuff on someone else’s plate.
- Accelerate – improve efficiency. Use brevity.
Trivialities dominate those without priorities.
Calendaring:
The worst place to schedule an appointment is in an open block of time.
Look at next week’s calendar. Do you see an open morning or afternoon? Protect it!
When someone calls for an appointment, allow time between meetings, but schedule them on days where you have more appointments. Don’t think, I’m already busy on Tuesday and open on Wednesday so I’ll schedule them on Wednesday. What a waste.
When others have the power to put items on your calendar, protect your time by scheduling “non-essentials.” Block out time for:
- Research.
- Connecting with leaders in other divisions.
- Management by walking around.
- Personal development.
Talk this strategy over with teammates and bosses. Determine what fits organizational culture and enhances organizational objectives.
Could you create a weekly “no appointment time” for your entire organization or department? Between 8:00 and 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. on Thursdays, for example.
Brevity:
Brevity enhances efficiency. Deadlines fuel urgency.
Shorten some meetings to forty-five or thirty minute increments, or even less.
Bad brevity:
Brief isn’t always better. Value connection-time. Take ten minutes at the beginning of some meetings to reconnect on a personal level. Where did you grow up? Where is anyone volunteering in the community?
Feedback:
Enhance time management by eliminating waste.
Peter Drucker said, “Effective executives have learned to ask systematically and without coyness: ‘What do I do that wastes your time without contributing to your effectiveness?’ To ask this question, and to ask it without being afraid of the truth, is a mark of the effective executive.”
What time management tips help you use time wisely?
