Whether you’re a business owner or a manager, there never seems to be enough time in the day. Balancing your duties, your team and their needs can be a headache, especially without an effective system in place. The key to time management is prioritisation. Here are 6 ways to use your time better at work.
Prioritise Communication
Email is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it’s an easy and efficient way of staying in touch. On the other, it can be a huge time suck. Especially if you’re checking it every 10 minutes. Set aside a specific time to review emails. Not only will this keep you in the know, but allow you to finish the tasks you need to throughout the day.
Keep Your Focus
You know as well as I do that being a manager means everyone fighting for your attention. You may find yourself spending so much time on everyone else’s projects, with none left to complete your own. Block off portions of your daily or weekly schedule and dedicate it solely to your work. Don’t get booked for other engagements during this time and fully concentrate on the tasks at hand.
Block-book your meetings
When it’s time to book meetings, try to clump them all in a quick chain. This will not only keep you effectively punctual, it also won’t break up the remainder of your day.
Re-designate on demand
When you’re a business owner or manager, it’s important to be flexible. Each day presents a different challenge and prioritisation is key if you want to keep your ship afloat. To organise yourself, determine which tasks are urgent and others that can remain on the back burner. From there, build your list based on significance, duration, or resources required. You may have one project you can complete in an hour and another that will involve several days. For the projects that are drawn out, create checkpoints to keep yourself on track.
Be intentional with agendas
Long, drawn out, ineffective meetings are rubbish. Aren’t they? As the manager or business owner, you have the power to change this. There are many ways to keep your meetings on track and productive, you may have even tried out a few. I recommend you try out the Level 10 Meeting Agenda. A Level 10 meeting will keep your team focused, accountable and efficient. Find out more about Level 10 Meetings here.
Utilise productivity resources
No matter the size or industry of your business, project management tools are a requirement. Sharepoint is a great way to distribute documents between offices and can be accessed from anywhere. More project-specific platforms like Asana and Basecamp are perfect for organising tasks on hand based on timelines or assignees. For internal communication, Slack has introduced itself as an app to be reckoned with, cutting down on emails with its search capabilities and file management system. Tools like this will help you better manage your teams productivity and give you a visual resource for all on-going duties.
Time is key at work. The ActionCOACH system is designed specifically to help business owners like you master their time management. If you would like to find out more, get in contact today.
