How well do you manage your time? If you're like many people, your
answer may not be completely positive! Perhaps you feel overloaded, and
you often have to work late to hit your deadlines. Or maybe your days
seem to go from one crisis to another, and this is stressful and
demoralizing.
Many of us know that we could be managing our time more effectively;
but it can be difficult to identify the mistakes that we're making, and
to know how we could improve. When we do manage our time well, however,
we're exceptionally productive at work, and our stress levels drop. We
can devote time to the interesting, high-reward projects that can make a
real difference to a career. In short, we're happier!
In this article, we're looking at ten of the most common time
management mistakes, as well as identifying strategies and tips that you
can use to overcome them. These seven mistakes are:
Mistake 1. Failing to Keep a To-Do List
Do you ever have that nagging feeling that you've forgotten to do an
important piece of work? If so, you probably don't use a To-Do List to
keep on top of things. (Or, if you do, you might not be using it
effectively!)
The trick with using To-Do lists
effectively lies in prioritizing the tasks on your list. Many people
use an A – F coding system (A for high priority items, F for very low
priorities). Alternatively, you can simplify this by using A through D,
or by using numbers.
If you have large projects on your list, then, unless you're careful,
the entries for these can be vague and ineffective. For instance, you
may have written down "Start on budget proposal." But what does this
entail? The lack of specifics here might cause you to procrastinate, or
miss key steps. So make sure that you break large tasks or projects down
into specific, actionable steps – then you won't overlook something
important.
You can also use Action Programs
to manage your work when you have many large projects happening at
once. (Action Programs are "industrial strength" versions of To-Do
Lists.)
Mistake 2. Not Setting Personal Goals
Do you know where you'd like to be in six months? What about this
time next year, or even 10 years from now? If not, it's time to set some
personal goals!
Personal goal setting
is essential to managing your time well, because goals give you a
destination and vision to work toward. When you know where you want to
go, you can manage your priorities, time, and resources to get there.
Goals also help you decide what's worth spending your time on, and
what's just a distraction.
You might also enjoy our Book Insight into
Long Fuse, Big Bang by Eric Haseltine. This book teaches you how to focus on your long-term goals without overlooking your short term priorities.
Mistake 3. Not Prioritizing
Your assistant has just walked in with a crisis that she needs you to
deal with right now, but you're in the middle of brainstorming ideas
for a new client. You're sure that you've
almost come up with a
brilliant idea for their marketing campaign, but now you risk losing
the thread of your thinking because of this "emergency."
Sometimes, it's hard to know how to prioritize
,
especially when you're facing a flood of seemingly-urgent tasks.
However, it's essential to learn how to prioritize tasks effectively if
you want to manage your time better.
One tool that will help you prioritize effectively is the
Action Priority Matrix 
,
which will help you determine if a task is high-yield and
high-priority, or low-value, "fill in" work. You'll manage your time
much better during the day if you know the difference.
You might also want to go through our Bite-Sized Training session
How to Prioritize, to further enhance your skills.
Mistake 4. Failing to Manage Distractions
Do you know that some of us can lose as much as two hours a day to
distractions? Think how much you could get done if you had that time
back!
Whether they come from emails, IM chats, colleagues in a crisis, or
phone calls from clients, distractions prevent us from achieving flow, which is the satisfying and seemingly effortless work that we do when we're 100 percent engaged in a task.
If you want to gain control of your day and do your best work, it's vital to know how to minimize distractions and manage interruptions effectively. For instance, turn off your IM chat when you need to
focus, and let people know if they're distracting you too often. You
should also learn how to improve your concentration, even when you're faced with distractions.
Mistake 5. Procrastination
Procrastination occurs when you put off tasks that you should be
focusing on right now. When you procrastinate, you feel guilty that you
haven't started; you come to dread doing the task; and, eventually,
everything catches up with you when you fail to complete the work on
time.
For instance, one useful strategy is to tell yourself that you're
only going to start on a project for ten minutes. Often, procrastinators
feel that they have to complete a task from start to finish, and this
high expectation makes them feel overwhelmed and anxious. Instead, focus
on devoting a small amount of time to starting. That's all!
You might also find it helpful to use Action plans.
These help you break large projects down into manageable steps, so that
it's easy to see everything that you need to get done, and so that you
can complete small chunks at a time. Doing this can stop you from
feeling overwhelmed at the start of a new project.
Mistake 6. Not Taking Breaks
It's nice to think that you can work for 8-10 hours straight,
especially when you're working to a deadline. But it's impossible for
anyone to focus and produce really high-quality work without giving
their brains some time to rest and recharge.
So, don't dismiss breaks as "wasting time." They provide valuable
down-time, which will enable you to think creatively and work
effectively.
If it's hard for you to stop working, then schedule breaks for
yourself, or set an alarm as a reminder. Go for a quick walk, grab a cup
of coffee, or just sit and meditate at your desk. Try to take a five minute break every hour or two. And
make sure that you give yourself ample time for lunch – you won't
produce top quality work if you're hungry!
Mistake 7. Ineffectively Scheduling Tasks
Are you a morning person? Or do you find your energy picking up once
the sun begins to set in the evening? All of us have different rhythms,
that is, different times of day when we feel most productive and
energetic.
You can make best use of your time by scheduling high-value work
during your peak time, and low-energy work (like returning phone calls
and checking email), during your "down" time.
Source: www.mindtools.com
