5 Time Management Tips That Will Set You Up For For Success
Short, sharp techniques for optimising your day
Sometimes you haven’t got time to mess about.
You just need the answer right away.
So, here are 5 of the best time management tips for success. Use them to to power through your day.
1. Batch Things Up
To really get a motor on you need to learn how to batch things up. Here are three different ways to do it.
Batch by task — organise to do your emails in one go.
Batch by time — define a time when you’ll do admin jobs like empty inboxes, tidy desk and file paperwork.
Batch by energy level — when your energy’s low, tackle less complex tasks.
You can maximise the benefit of batching if you also manage interruptions. Stay focused on the job in hand and whistle through tasks like a tornado.
2. Learn To Say No Assertively
If you try to help everyone all the time, it’ll only end in tears. Most probably yours.
The key skill to develop is assertiveness. If you struggle to say no, remember this:
When you take on too much, all your work gets affected and quality will reduce.
That’s right, your helpfulness it turns out can be — unhelpful.
Assertive statement:
I’ve got a lot on right now. If I take this on, I will have to rush it — and I don’t think I should do that. I’d like to help, but on this occasion I suggest you ask someone else.
3. Use A System To Manage Your Tasks
There are few things more likely to stress you out than that buzzing feeling in your head you get when you’ve got too much on your plate.
Your brain doesn’t like uncompleted tasks. Like a good divorce lawyer, your brain likes closure.
When you’ve got a hundred to-do’s rolling around your brain, it’s like the equivalent of a pinball machine inside your head. Synapses are firing continuously as they hunt down solutions. This will distract you and it is hard to concentrate.
You need a trusted system to tuck your troublesome tasks into. They will happily snuggle down in there once you’ve given them a name, a due by date and a reminder.
Then you’re free to use all that brain capacity to solve real problems.
4. Set Things Up The Day Before
To start tomorrow well, you need to finish today like there’s no tomorrow. Round out the day by reviewing how much you’ve done, what’s still left you haven’t finished and which 3 jobs are essential for tomorrow.
Implementing this strategy turns on two superpowers.
First, you are kick-starting your unconscious mind, which will start examining your top tasks in the background and get you ready for a fast start.
You’re also emptying your mind before you leave. That helps unlock a good night’s sleep — your second superpower that will revive and refresh you so you’re at peak readiness tomorrow.
5. Be A Good Delegator
Not everyone works in teams, but even lone workers can use outsourcing for simple, technical or administrative tasks, which is delegation by another name.
There’s a bit of an upward slope to delegation. It sometimes feels like it takes longer to do the first time round.
All those explanations and little bits of coaching.
Once you’re up and running though, it will pay you back handsomely in time that you can use for own purposes.
So help people spread their wings, put your trust in them, monitor carefully if you must and reap the rewards.
Have you got any other snappy time management tips?
