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| Time Management Tips And Tricks |
Have you found yourself at the end of the day sitting at your
desk and everyone else passes you by, waving, going home? Are you the one
that’s, on Friday afternoon, someone drops by an important report that has to
be completed by Monday morning and you’re left there working all weekend? Well,
if you’re one of those ones, then trust me, we’ve all been there. I have too.
So what I’ve learned for myself and what I want to share
with you today, one of the keys is really establishing good habits. So how do
we do that? Here, I think, are the top ten.
Number 1. Urging cluttered
So clutter can be anywhere from unnecessary documents to
books to things that are stored. Just throw it away. Get rid of it. Go through
everything.
If it’s not needed now, just get rid of it. Archive it.
Store it. Get rid of it so that it’s not in your sight. If you’re like me, I
see my little stacks and if I’m trying to focus on one thing I keep looking at
my stacks thinking “There’s something over there I’ve got to do.” So it diverts
my attention and pulls me away from things that I need to get done by a certain
specific time.
Number 2. Avoid energy suckers and toxic people.
You know who they are. They’re the people who come by your
desk and just go on and on and on about some problem or some drama they want
you to either fix or change. But it’s constantly sucking your energy, taking
your focus away from things that have to get done. Guess what? It’s eating at
your time while your clock is ticking away.
Number 3. Establish systems.
So, it doesn’t matter if it’s paper systems or electronic
system. Pick one. I actually use a blend. I’ve gone from using a day-timer
system to literal calendars on the wall to trying to be all electronic. So I’ve
found for myself is I really need a blend of those. So find what works for you
and establish some form of system in place that you can track your time.
Number 4, block out working time.
Go ahead on your calendar throughout, if you know, if
starting in January through the end of the year, if you have set meetings,
schedules, things that you know are going to occur, go ahead and block that
time out on your calendar, because you know you’ve already committed to that.
So you need to make sure to protect it so that nothing else can come over or
overlap that time.
Number 5. block non-working time.
So, it doesn’t matter if you get up in the mornings and you
meditate or you work out, whether you do it in the mornings or the afternoon or
maybe even lunchtime. Maybe you schedule a walk during lunch or maybe going to
read a book or listen to music. Block that time out and vacations. Vacations –
we find out that most people don’t even take vacations because they haven’t
planned for them. They haven’t put them on the calendar. So what we find is if
we get things on the calendar we more likely get those things done.
Number 6. Sync your devices.
So have you ever found yourself in a meeting where someone’s
trying to schedule a meeting and you’re not real sure because maybe you have
your iPhone but maybe you haven’t been syncing it with your computer or your
laptop? So you over book yourself. If you keep everything synced, nowadays
there is specific software that can sync from your smartphone to your computer
to your laptop and now there are certain systems, project management software
that will sync with that as well.
Number 7. Allow calendar access.
If you allow calendar access to those who need it, people who you authorize and trust, maybe people on your teams or maybe family, they can have access to your calendar. And see blocked out time so that they know not to plan or overbook or commit you to something that you have already committed to.
Number 8. Say “no”.
It’s a hard thing to practice and it’s a
hard thing to say, and as project managers we try to typically accommodate
everyone. But the best thing that we can do to work in our favor is set
boundaries and practice saying “no”. A lot of times people think they have to
justify why they’re saying “no”, and no, you don’t. “No” can be a complete
sentence. So if someone asks you something or wants you to commit to something
just say “No…” and just leave it at that. A long pause. You don’t have to
explain, because if you explain then someone may try to find a solution, how
you cannot do that and accommodate them. So they try to problem solve for you on
your behalf. You don’t want that. So, set boundaries and just say no.
Number 9. Stop drive-bys.
You know those people that come by and they drop the hot
potato? They’re the people who come by your desk on Friday afternoon, maybe
they’ve held something all week and they leave it for you Friday afternoon to
get done by Monday morning which leaves you working weekends. So just avoid
that. Just put a stop to it. Avoid people coming by, allowing them to drop the
hot potato in your lap.
Number 10. Change routines.
Routines do change and when your routines change then change everything. If you are no longer working out in the morning, change your calendar. If you no longer have certain meetings, change your calendar. Things change over time. I mean, depending upon what work or what projects that I have, the systems change, and all of this has to change accordingly.
Keep it up
to date. The bonus is how to break bad habits. Well, we usually lose track of
our time and we find ourselves working overtime, weekends, holidays because
we’ve established bad habits. Because sometimes we’re watching others who have
bad habits too, so we’re modeling or we’re copying what they do. So other
people don’t necessarily have good habits.
We don’t want to mimic or we don’t want to model those. So
if there’s intimidation in your work environment or there’s peer pressure to
work late… You’ve seen it. We’ve all been in those environments where the
culture is to work through lunch, work long hours, or work holidays and
weekends. That’s a bad habit. We don’t have to do it. So, break the habits. If
there’s intimidation or peer pressure in your environment, then get over it.
Protect yourself. It’s up to you to protect yourself. Establish good habits and
then you can control your time management.
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