Time has always been a precious resource for me.
Raising three kids (with a fourth on the way) along with a manager's job in an intensive start-up company can sometimes be very challenging. The ability to juggle between numerous tasks both at home and at the office seems impossible sometimes. At some point in my life I've realized that, whatever I do, I'll never have more than 24 hours each day; the key is to make sure I use those 24 priceless hours wisely in order to achieve all my goals and finish all my tasks.
Lately I came across an article which suggested some time management tips (http://www.sdtimes.com/article/TQA-20071201-02.html). Due to my obvious interest in this subject I went on and searched the web for similar tips and suggestions and I have found many articles containing dozens of tips on how to make better use of my time. Not all of them were relevant to me and not all usable, but I was able to learn a lot and even started using some of them, hoping they will assist me with my daily challenge.
Here are a few of the key tips I found to be helpful for me; I hope they will also assist others:
- Know thyself - Rivers can't be forced to flow uphill; nor should you try to work against your inner nature. Schedule the toughest work for your circadian period of peak productivity.
- Use a To-Do list – Keep it short and focused and try to update it every day.
- Know and respect your priorities - Aim to do the important things first. Remember the 80-20 rule: 80 percent of reward comes from 20 percent of effort. One of the aims of time management tips is to help you refocus your mind to give more attention and time to those most important 20 percent.
- Don’t leave email sitting in your inbox - Organize email in file folders. If the message needs more thought, move it to your to-do list. If it’s for reference, print it out. If it’s a meeting, move it to your calendar.
- Save Time for Murphy - When you over-schedule your day, you create stress for yourself by not allowing time for Murphy’s Law—the inevitable and unforeseeable things that go wrong. Leave at least two hours of your workday unscheduled.
- Make it easy to get started – Sometimes it is more difficult to start a project than to finish it. Break large tasks into chunks and do only the first one, the rest will be easier. Dedicate only 15 minutes to start an annoying task.
- Avoid being a perfectionist – "Good is better than Perfect.” Yes, some things need to be closer to perfect than others, but perfectionism, paying unnecessary attention to detail, can be a form of procrastination.
- Learn to delegate and/or outsource – Check if you can delegate or eliminate any of your To Do list, work on those tasks which you alone can do.
- Emulate others - Don't try to reinvent the wheel. If someone else always seems to be ahead of the game, watch and learn. If someone else has a speedier way of doing something, copy it. If you're having trouble getting specific jobs done, ask others how they organize and execute the task; perhaps you've overlooked some short cuts.
- Reboot Your Brain - To function at its best and keep all the data in the right places, the brain needs time to sleep. When you’re rested, you give your brain the white space it needs to do its best work. Nothing is a bigger time waster than when you’re not in top form, and you have to keep doing the same things over and over again.
You are one of the few who share my view that time is a special resource . And the thoughts are well formed as well.
Posted by: Don | December 28, 2007 at 05:46 PM