1. Establish Clear Goals for Your Job
Set career and job goals. Your own goals and objectives, not your boss’s or your company’s. Then work to achieve those goals and objectives within the context of your current job. If we don’t have goals and objectives, we wander through life aimlessly, which will likely lead to somewhere we don’t want to end up.
2. Write Down Your Goals and Objectives
Written goals allow you t do some decision making about your job, career, and sometimes even your life. Written goals help you know what you want from every job and what kind of time you should spend on those personal objectives in each job.
3. Start Your Day the Night Before
The best way to get off to a good start in the morning is to do it the night before. Start your day the night before by making any preparations you need to then. This will give you an added advantage and a great start.
4. Don’t Procrastinate
Procrastination is costly in time and in your efficiency. It’s the most significant causes of lost time.
5. Write Down Tasks as You Receive Them
Write down verbal instructions and new tasks communicated to you verbally. This starts your record, gets it on your To Do List, and allows you to track your task to success.
6. Set Deadlines for Assignments
Setting deadlines early allows for problems in your work schedule while allowing the work to get done on time. Make your deadlines one or two days in advance to provide yourself with a buffer.
7. Under-Commit and Over-deliver
Sometimes you might have to say no to people, but definitely not your boss. Give more than a %100 on every task or project. Do the job right, on time, and better than anyone else.
8. Make a To Do List
Managing your time means knowing what to do with your time.
9. Organize Your Workspace
Organization saves time, and time is what we are after.
10. Handle Your Mail Efficiently
Some people just wait all day for the may. It’s the highlight of their day, and when it arrives they jump on it immediately. What a waste of time. The best way to handle mail is to let it arrive, and set time to handle it.
11. Know Your Best Working Hours
Determine your best and most efficient working hours. Then schedule your most important work for that time of day, and fence the distractions out.
12. Use an Electronic Calendar
They are neat, handy, clear, and extremely useful.
13. Handle Voice Mail
Listening to all your voice mails throughout the day can use up 15-20 minutes. Tell people to send you an e-mail, delete the basic messages (ex, “Just calling to see how you are doing and checking about our appointment”), and discourage long messages.
14. Speaking Is Faster Than Writing Memos
Some people write memos that are a couple sentences long. Speak it, don’t write it. Speaking also increases your personal interactions with employees.
15. Handle Your E-mail: When
· Disable the message function so it does not interrupt you
· Set the application to check for new e-mail at a longer frequency. Instead of every 15 minutes, set it for 30 minutes, or 45 minutes, or even longer
· Deal with e-mails in batches, not just a few at a time
16. Make It Really Save Time. Not Use More Time
Resist the impulse to get the newest and best device that claims to save you time. Wait until they are mainstream and have proven themselves as true time-savers before you take the leap.
17. Make Certain Your Computer Is Operating At Speed
Create a monthly schedule to run scandisk and defrag. These take a while to run, so you may want to do this over a weekend or overnight.
18. Virus Protection
If you have an antivirus program, good! Make certain that your subscription is up to date. If not, get a new one.
19. Meetings
I hate it when they say a meeting will only last for 15 minutes but goes on for an hour because of people showing up late, lack of organization, and many other reasons. A recent study conducted by the University of Iowa determined that as much as 50 percent of the time in meetings is wasted. Fix this!
20. Learn to Delegate
Learn which jobs are yours to do and which your staff can handle better and more efficiently. Then assign those jobs to your staff and supervise them; don’t do the work yourself.
Source: 151 Quick Ideas to Manage Your Time by Robert E. Dittmer, APR
Tags: becoming more effective, becoming more efficient, becoming professional, how to be more efficient, how to manage time, Managing time, saving time, tips on managing time
