EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS

Effective time management is so critical in business that without it your business will often stall.

If there is one thing that you will soon learn about business, it is that there is never enough time available to do all the things that need to be done during the day.

Following on that however, you will also soon learn that trying to do them all is not only impossible but also impractical. On top of that you will find that your stress level will shoot through the roof, if you even try.

Small business in particular can be a killer when it comes to your day being too short and with too much to do. The work needed to get you up and going seems endless and you can’t delegate it because you are it!

Without effective time management your life is likely to be very busy and very short.

Be warned, if you don’t learn the art of effective time management you can only look forward to ultimate failure in your business life. That strong enough for you?

Before we go on, let’s make it clear that personal time management and business time management are very different. Here we are talking about time management in a business concept, with the person managing the time being the boss. The time management skills needed here are not the same as the skills needed to manage your personal time.

Time management means getting the important done properly, timely and still allowing time out for your self.

To do this you need to become organized and efficient, at which time you will find that more time suddenly becomes available

Here is how we get to this happy state.

The How of Time Management

When I first started in business for myself, I managed my time very simply. On my desk I had a note pad, my to-do list, in which I wrote down everything that I wanted to do.

At lunch time each day, I would look at my list and decide what had to be done that very day, the important.

The next day I would rule out those items completed the previous day and again start adding to the list.

In this way, I got the important done and the balance became the ‘wish list’. Sometimes some of the wish list items got done, but mainly they were forgotten.

Despite the growing wish list, the business prospered because the important got done, which in fact is all that needs to be done for effective time management.

My time management skills improved over the years as I learnt to become more organized and efficient and learnt the rules.

Effective time management need not be difficult or complicated if you understand these basic rules.

Rule One.

There are only 24 hours in a day and seven days in the week. You cannot change that.

Rule Two:

You need eight hours a day to sleep and eight hours a day to eat, exercise and spend time with your family. Remember this.

Rule Three:

There are eight hours a day for your business, for five days a week, maybe six if you push it. That’s what you have.

That’s it, now manage your time around these rules and you won’t go far wrong.

If you break any of these rules however, you are not managing your time, simply pushing yourself to the point of collapse.

The Eight Hour Day.

So let’s now take a look at how we can squeeze all that needs to be done into those eight hours a day.

It comes down to these three things, which if you get right, will allow you to use your time well and thereby find more of it.

• Be focused
• Get organized
• Do it efficiently

Become Focused

Of the many effective time management skills needed by business people, the ability to decide where your attention needs to be concentrated is the most difficult.

One has to be able to look at the many problems, questions and decisions that need to be made on a daily basis and decide on what will be done today, tomorrow or next week.

Here is some help:-

• Stay alert, if you can spot potential problems or crises developing, you can prevent them from becoming major problems and so save time later.
• Decide on the purpose of your position in the business. What should you be doing well to make your business boom?

  Don’t fall into the trap of trying to do everything at once. Remember we are trying to get focused.

  Focusing on the right things means doing less, but doing them properly and is part of your effective time management.

• Manage your body by staying fit and healthy. This gives you energy and a clear mind, both of which you will need to manage your business well. This is part of Rule Two – time for yourself - don’t neglect it.
• Most of your decisions will involve people so focus on your interpersonal skills, the better they get the quicker you can deal with people issues that might arise.

Focus on what you need to do well and things will get done a lot faster and better.

Getting Organized.

Now that you have got yourself focused on the needs of your position, it is time to get organized so that this focus can produce the best results.

1. Start with your desk and your office.

   A desk piled high with papers, bits of machinery and product samples is not productive.

   A filing system that is disorganized is another time waster.

   Things in there place, always, makes for efficiency and time saving.

   Just give it some thought for a moment. You spend 20 minutes a day searching for things, that’s 1 hour 40 minute’s a week or 10 days a year.

2. Take a closer look at all the things that take up your time. Can you reorganize any of them to save time? Effective time management often means doing simple things.

Reminds me of another story from my past.

An acquaintance of mine, with a fairly high tech company, decided to be more democratic and allow his staff to park their cars anywhere in the company parking lot. No more allocated spots based on rank!

Well, it nearly destroyed the company. People spent time, lots of it in total, driving around looking for the ideal spot. Arguments broke out about “my space”, and stress levels went up all round.

Productivity plunged and the business tottered.

It only took two weeks before all the old place signs were back and things returned to normal. What a waste of time.

Not the sort of re-organization recommended!

3. Tidy your mind. Are your thoughts and actions logical, based on your business needs? Do you know what you will be doing when you arrive at work? Routine makes for efficiency, both for you and your staff.

   Unclutter your mind of everything that does not pertain to your business, before you get to work. Effective time management starts with a clear head.

4. Organize the way you record your to-do list. You can keep a pad on your desk and write down the things that you need to do or you can go digital and keep a personal digital assistant (PDA) at your side.

   A micro cassette recorder on your desk can allow you to record all your thoughts and decisions.

   It all depends very much on the type of business you run. Your choice!

   Whatever you decide, it is essential that you organize the way in which to record your to-do list in an efficient, timesaving and effective time management way.

5. It is important to understand the difference between projects and activities here. Your to-do list will contain both.

   Projects involve a whole lot of activities, for example installing a new conveyor belt in your factory is a project.

   Activities are any one of those many things that need to be physically done at one time. All these different activities make up the project. In the conveyor example, digging the foundations, pouring the concrete footings, erecting the pillars, installing the rollers, etc are all different activities.

   On your do-do list projects need to be broken down into activities to enable you to fix a time scale for the entire job. A to-do list will therefore tend to be a list of activities that you wish to do straight off the list.

   Projects tend to be off-list, to enable the planning of the project. Unless you need reminding that you are building a conveyor!!

6. How you prioritize you list is up to you, by importance, urgency or time. I tend to look at my list and then place a date by it, by which time I want to have completed the work. Effective time management is what works for you.

   Contained within your do-do list will be different tasks.

   One-off items that can be completed and then forgotten.

   Persistent items that reoccur on a regular basis.

   Periodic items that occur only when something else causes them to.

The persistent items e.g. pay the rent, generally are contained in a separate list and not on your to-do list.

Right lets move onto:-

Doing it efficiently

Big savings of time can be accomplished by doing whatever you are in the process of doing in a more efficient manner.

Efficiency saves large amounts of time and so when it comes to effective time management is very important.

We are all too busy to do everything that we would like to do, that is a fact. Therefore your perspective on what is needed to be done, for the business, is vital.

This perspective must be that you always have the time to do what is needed. Decide what is needed and you will find that you have the time to do it. Strange but true.

Or as the old saying goes “If you want something done, ask a busy person”.

Let’s now look at how to do it efficiently.

• Eliminate the time wasting pitfalls that lurk in every business.
  • Meetings are great for getting a message across to many people at once and that’s all. Don’t hold general meetings if you only need to speak to two or three people. Effective time management applies to all.

    Cut meetings to a minimum and when you do need them, run them with time in mind, all the time. Clearly state the maximum length of the meeting before they start.

  • Talking is necessary to get your message across, but if you are not careful, talking can waste huge amounts of time. So cut out the waste by deciding on the purpose of your talk and get to the point.
  • Don’t talk, mail it. If you can get away with an email, text message, fax or any other means that saves talking, do it. You will save hours.
  • Telephones. The greatest invention known to man, but also the enemy of time saving.

    If you can, limit telephone calls to the essential, otherwise e-mail.

    On ‘phoning someone, prepare them for a short call “Joe, I only have a minute”! Say what you have to say and get your response. Bye!

    If you have to leave a message, tell them what you want and ask for a call back. When they call back, it should be with your answer and so save time.

• Efficiently identify your goals and have plans at hand as to how to accomplish them.

  This you can do from your to-do list. Put together a schedule of priorities and stick to it.

• If some repetitive job has to be done day after day, take a close look at it with the aim of reducing the time it takes to do. Of the many daily tasks that have to be done, looking at them with efficiency in mind will lead to time savings.

By now you will have realized that effective time management is not difficult or complicated but a question of mind, your mind, deciding what is important and how you can best get the job done in the shortest time.

More time management tips.

• Have you noticed how all forms of communication are either ‘urgent’ or ‘priority’?

  Realize that they are, to the person sending them, but not necessarily to you.

  You alone must decide on the grounds of importance and not urgency.

• You are the boss and can decide if you want to do it or not.

  You can decide to delegate it, delay it or pass it on.

• Effective time management is simply that, your decision as to what needs doing and then doing it, always with Rule 3 in mind!
• The smarter you are with effective time management the more time you will find that you have and that is what you want.

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