Are we there yet? For those of you who are parents, and for the rest of us who remember being a kid, wasn’t this a common question on any car ride? Now, as then, we are all eager to get to where we are going. In life and in business, we are all interested in achieving our goals.
One of the things that is key to achievement of goals is to effectively use time. Quite often, this is referred to as “time management”, although in reality no one manages time. Nevertheless, in the short space allotted to us today, here are seven tips for more effective use of time:
- Learn the power of “No”. It is so important to say no these days, because until we learn to say no, we continue to be stressed and overwhelmed with too much to do and not enough time. And isn’t it usually our priorities that suffer? Interestingly, most children go through a phase where their favorite word is no. That’s because no is a power word. It gives you a definite sense of self.
- Understand Parkinson’s Law. Cyril Parkinson first published his “law” as part of a humorous essay in 1955. In its simplest form it is expressed as “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” (Parkinson, Cyril Northcote (November, 1955), “Parkinson’s Law”, The Economist). Essentially, most of us allot way too much time to complete a task, and we will expand the task to fill the time we have provided for it. We tend to work much more efficiently when we are under the gun, under a deadline for completion.
- Understand the 80/20 rule, and use it radically to eliminate the 20% of the things that take 80% of your time. For example, many businesses find that 20% of their revenues come from customers who take 80% of their time. Often, if you simply eliminate those customers, you can streamline your operations, saving expenses, and not only do you service your remaining customers better, you typically realize higher net and even higher gross revenues immediately.
- Look at what things you use as time wasters to avoid important tasks. Do you like social networking sites? Surfing the web? Does this mean you can never do these things during your typical work hours? Not necessarily. Perhaps consider using these time suckers for specific breaks during work hours.
- Shut off all e-mail reminders (e.g. noises at your computer, smart phone or tablet make when an e-mail is received), and create a e-mail responder which tells everyone that you read and respond to e-mails at two specific times each day. Then, check your e-mails no more than twice each day at those appointed times, and respond accordingly.
- Avoid multitasking. Social scientists have conducted numerous studies showing that multitasking is a horribly inefficient way to do about anything. We are all aware of how grim the consequences are from those who try to drive automobiles and text at the same time.
- Understand that the “workday” is a fiction. (This is an easier one for entrepreneurs than for those who work for another company.) Who says Monday through Friday 9 to 5 is your standard gig? In fact, the standard workday can encourage inefficiency. Many years ago, I had a corporate job where I bluntly asked my supervisor what the expectation was for my work performance. He replied that I was expected to give 125%. When I pressed him further, essentially he meant that although my workday was eight hours, I really needed to put in 10+ hours of “face time.” Indeed, if in a corporation you are a very efficient worker, the net result will be that you will simply have more work piled upon you to do. The old joke is the best thing you can do is to look busy; otherwise the boss will find something for you to do.
Here is an interesting exercise to test your true priorities in your work week. Imagine that you have to cut your work hours by 80% each week. Perhaps this is due to a sudden illness where the doctor instructs you to restrict your work time; perhaps it is due to the need to care for an older adult; or perhaps you lost your childcare and now need to spend more time caring for your two-year-old. Come up with whatever scenario seems to fit your personal situation. Now, figure out what tasks you must accomplish with the 20% of your work time you have left. You have now come up with the list of what are your most critical priorities in each typical work week. Then, look at what other tasks you do. You may find that a lot of the things that fill 80% of your time are matters that you either need not do, could give someone else to do, or are simple time wasters.
For those of you with access to my private client website, login and click on the button marked “forms”. Then, click on the button marked “documents”, and under the topic “time management”, you will see a number of exercises that you can do to aid you in your quest for a more efficient use of your time.