Hot Tips to Manage Your Time

Do you feel like a Gerbil on a wheel, a rat in a race, a cat being chased by a dog, a… well, if you feel harried and harassed and your life teeters near out-of-control, read on.

I teach and coach time management, both privately and for executives through the Executive Education Program at the University of Richmond business school, and managing time effectively is the most elusive skill for most people in business today.

My last post was “Part one” about managing time, and this is the second, concluding post on the topic. Here are some hot tips to manage your time:

Prioritize your choices — “I will do this, I won’t do that”, recognizing that each choice you make to commit to any activity has a price tag of time attached to it.
Treat time like money in a checkbook; you get 24 hours ever day, so don’t write ‘checks’ for more time than you have.
Learn the difference between important and urgent (see last post). Most things that are urgent are not important.
Set goals. Not just numbers goals in your business, but goals for your life, which includes your business. How will you know what is important if you don’t have the priority of goals?
Do an activity log. Find out how you spend your time. Most people spend only 20% of their time on what is really important. Think what you could do if you reverse that percentage — 80% of your time spent on important stuff!
The science is in on multi-tasking and the news is not good. The brain is not designed to do two things at once. It can switch really fast – toggle between two things – but this switching carries a price of less focus. Bottom line: Focus on one thing at a time and do it well.
Remember the ‘in-breath’. You can’t stay alive if you just breathe out (be active). You’ve got to breathe in, too (rest and relax). Self care is critical for performance.
Organize your desk. When it comes to all that paper on your desk: toss it, refer it to others, act on it, or file it.
Organize your space. Your environment sets the tone for what you do there; it creates mood and energy, either good or bad.

To manage time well, we must be clear about what is really important to us, remember the difference between “important” and “urgent”, and ruthlessly prioritize our activities to achieve those things. We must spend our time on the things that matter, and take care of ourselves along the way.

Doug Hickok, CEO, Institute for Provocative leadership, doug@IPLsmallbusiness.com