Time Management – Top 8 Tips

Today we will continue our article from where we left off in the previous post.

Time Management: Top Tips by Will Edwards

One of the most commonly asked questions in my personal development workshops is: how can I MANAGE my time more effectively? Well, in this article, I have some absolutely top time management tips for you. As always, do remember that it is taking action that makes the crucial difference, so don't just read these tips, but actually make a solid commitment to giving them all a try, especially those that you think won't make any difference. You might be amazed at the huge positive effect that can ensue when you incorporate them into your daily work schedule.

The rest of the top 8 time management tips are:

Tip 5 - Take a Break

When you are very busy, you need to ensure that you take a proper lunch break so, whenever possible, get out of the office at lunchtime even if it is only for a few minutes: go for a walk, get some fresh air, get away from the hubbub of the office. Again this sounds counter-intuitive because working through lunch gives you more working time, potentially. However, a change of scenery can do wonders for your ability to stay focused when you are on the JOB so you will be much more efficient when you subsequently return to your work. If you remain in the office, trying to eat your sandwiches whilst continuing your work, you will find it almost impossible to eat properly as the phone is almost guaranteed to ring after you have taken a mouthful. That kind of eating is just plain bad for you, so even don't go there - get out of the office at lunchtime.

Tip 6 - Visibility Helps Others to Understand Your Situation

If you find that you seem to be constantly fighting your boss about your priorities and therefore feel as if you cannot complete the things you know are most important, the answer is visibility. Get a whiteboard or find some other way that you can display your current task list and whenever you get a new request, there and then, add it to the public list whilst your boss is present. Do it pleasantly and smilingly and then remind him or her of your current priorities and ask for input into where this new task should fit. Once you have his/her view on the matter, you can then draw an arrow on the board, again, whilst he/she is there, effectively representing where it fits into your priorities according to your boss. As you do that, your boss should already be seeing what the effect of giving you this new work is going to do to your existing commitments. However, at this point you have the ideal OPPORTUNITY to explain that, obviously, any previous commitments you made to all of those activities below the line will now need to be rethought. If your boss is a reasonable person, you can then discuss rescheduling those commitments.

Tip 7 - What if the Boss is Unreasonable?

Sometimes, it happens. Logical thinking sometimes does not go down too well with intuitive decision-makers for example. Despite your best efforts, you just don't see eye to eye with the person you to whom you REPORT. Often, these difficulties can be traced to differences in perception and decision-making processes that have become a part of our personalities. In these situations, they key to improving your relationship is to really learn to listen and empathise with the other person's view point. Again, this is completely counter-intuitive. We are inclined to think that the fault, if there is one, is with the other person, when the truth of the matter is that it is often the combination of personalities that produces the difficulty. Remember that you don't have to agree; just really try to understand the other person. Over the course of time, this attitude will have the effect of helping to open the other person's mind to your own views about how things might be best tackled.

Tip 8 - Stay Committed to Your Goals

Remember that those around you and those to whom you REPORT will inevitably lose sight of your goals. But you will never do that. If appropriate, write your mission and your top goals on that whiteboard. Again, it helps to remind others of what you are fundamentally trying to achieve. When circumstances conspire to draw you away from important activity that inhibits progress towards those goals, remember that you do sometimes need to fire-fight. That's OK. Suspend what you are doing, deal with the situation, reflect on how you can stop it occurring again or cope better next time, action anything that seems sensible in the light of the experience and then - get back to work on those goals.

This article concludes the top 8 time management tips that we can apply to our professional and career lives to make an impact in our offices.

You can use this link to read the first part of this article. If you enjoyed this article, you will also enjoy The Inspiration Blog.

Will Edwards is Founder of http://www.whitedovebooks.co.uk  

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