Managing your time to ensure all of your important work is done is one of the core things you can do to improve performance. Whether you are the owner and president of the company or a key employee, you have a limited amount of time to get everything done.
Many books have been written and systems developed to help the overwhelmed to more efficiently manage the endless stream of tasks and stuff headed their way on a daily basis. Virtually all of these books and systems have a few key elements in common. Here are three of the most important elements to time management:
Get Tasks Out of Your Head
You have important tasks, plans and projects that can mean a lot to the success of your business and your long-term profitability. Some of these tasks are things you have to do today and some tasks will have a longer time horizon. Find the right system for you to manage daily tasks and the projects or plans that will take a bigger time commitment to complete.
It doesn’t matter what kind of system you choose. It could be a daily planner, a to-do list, online task manager, cell phone app or even a card file, but you need to be sure that important tasks and information go into a system and does not stay in your head. Once you have a way to get things out of your head into your system, you will feel less stress and have better focus.
Tip: Before leaving the office at the end of the day, sketch out a quick to-do list of the things you either have to or would like to get done the next business day. You can do this on paper or using an online program like Sticky Notes that “pins” a virtual note to your desktop. Getting the list out of your head can give you a sense of relief, and allow you to better focus on your personal or home life without worrying about what’s on your plate at work.
Develop a Filing System for Paper and Virtual Items
We all have an endless stream of stuff coming at us daily – emails, papers, invoices, statements and more. Some of this “stuff” is critically important, and some of it should go straight into the trash.
It’s important to have a filing system for all the stuff that hits your desk and inbox so that you spend as little time as possible managing and looking for paper items, as well as emails and virtual files. File away things that are important, but don’t need action now. For items that need your attention sooner, either do them right away or set a task reminder.
Tip: When you encounter a task, ask yourself: Can it be done in five minutes or less? If the answer is “yes,” then do it. If it will take longer, it goes into your system.
Budget Your Time
You should develop a plan or system that enables you to budget your time and focus most of your time on the highest value tasks and that means learning to delegate.
Whether your highest-value work is sales, operations, or some other key role, you need to be sure that you spend the maximum amount of time doing the higher-value tasks. This means you should also be sure you don’t consume too much of your time on low-value tasks that can be done by someone else at your company and even shifted to an outside service. Bookkeeping for example is important, but not high value so it may be a good idea to simply hire a bookkeeping service.
Tip: Do your highest value work when you are at your best, everyone has a few hours a day when they are at peak performance and that’s when high value work should be done.
