Most often, when an individual starts to lose control over their own performance, it is due to a lack of planning and poor time management.
We live in a world in which most of us cannot complete all the items on our “to do” list, and time management has become a mission critical skill.
Here are 5 keys to help manage your time:
Decide on your Objectives
To improve your time management, you need to identify your most important goals. These are the activities that will make the biggest contribution to accomplishing the Goals and Mission of your organization.
When you have a goal, you can create ways to devote more of your time and actions to achieve that goal. Try to establish achievable goals. People often “over promise and under deliver” on their goals because they set them incorrectly. Setting unrealistic goals or having too many goals at the same time will mean that you will not accomplish as much, and it is very likely that you will get tired and frustrated.
Set priorities
You must focus on your highest priorities first. Identify your most Important goal and commit two hours to work on it every day. However, be careful not to ignore your other responsibilities. If you leave everything for later, time will not be on your side. Tools such as The Birkman Method can help you to accomplish this.
Focus your energy
You probably have a lot of things to do during the day; however, if you try to do everything at the same time, you won't be able to finish any of them.
Focus on one task at a time and give it your complete attention. Over time, you will realize that organizing and focusing on one thing at a time will enable you to get more done.
Delegate or outsource as much as you can
Identify your unique skills and strengths and utilize those. Outsource everything else to those who have strengths that you don’t have. They will get the tasks done quicker, better and more easily than if you do them yourself. Remember: you have a team that you can rely on.
Organize your work environment
Having a well-organized work environment helps a lot because you won't waste time looking for something you need. Try to touch things only once; if a task will take 10 minutes or less to complete, do it now and get it off your desk. Even if you are your own boss and can work from home, always have a separate space to carry out the tasks related to your business.
Staying organized makes processes run efficiently and keeps projects on schedule. Maintaining a calendar of your daily and weekly tasks, setting reminders for meetings and appointments, using organizational apps, and creating a check and balance system are just some of the solutions to help you keep up with tasks and deadlines. Whether you prefer a pen and notebook or digital solutions, find a system that works for you and the way you like to work.
At the Angel Advisors we have devoted our careers to helping executives and companies get better results, increase their effectiveness, create powerful teams and develop cultures that attract and retain the best talent.
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