Time management has become a topic of concern for many of the advisory firms that Ironstone works with. How do we control the amount of time we spend each day on needed and unneeded tasks while the world around us continually adds new means of technology, greater resources for us to utilize, and an endless supply of emails, tweets, blogs and messages?
In our last Time Management Blog, “ Learn Common Mistakes You & Your Team May Be Making In Time Management,” http://aeschlapia.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/learn-common-mistakes-you-your-team-may-be-making-in-time-management-7/ we touched on the wasted efforts of multi-tasking. It still holds true today, that we must redirect our focus into single-tasking. If you are a multi-tasker, you will need to develop your own personal plan to switch from doing useless tasks (often involved in multi-tasking) to executing a strategy that ensures you remain single focused.
Ways You Can Change Improve Your Time Management Skills
List Three Top Priorities: Review your task list for the week. Choose three top priority tasks for each workday. This will allow you to hone in on the tasks that are priority items rather than randomly performing secondary tasks.
Scheduling: Block out fifteen minutes each day for planning. During this time, choose your top three priority items so that you can focus on those items at the beginning of each day. Schedule certain times every day for things like emails, phone calls, meetings, etc. Do not allow a fluctuation in this designated time.
Identify your time-wasters: Track what you do on a daily basis for several days. This will allow you to find where you are losing time. Time is valuable, we just need to know how to control and separate what is important at any given moment. By identifying your time-wasters, you can get rid of them.
Change your habits: Make a dedicated promise to yourself to change those things that are your biggest time-wasters. Write out your plan and follow it. Review it briefly each day to see how you did and what areas you can improve on.
Have good reasons to save time and reward yourself: If you make changes to improve your time management, reward yourself. Your reward will motivate you to make changes.
Get Rid Of Interruptions: If interruptions are a big waste of time in your day, find ways to get rid of them. Turn electronics off, disconnect from the internet or try closing your email. (*Tip: add a disclosure on your email indicating how often you check and respond to email.) You will be surprised at how quickly others respect your response. You can live without these interruptions and will be amazed at how much more efficient and productive you become.
Know your key times: Identify specific times of the day when you have the most energy. Align your priority tasks with those times.
Batch Your “To Do List”: We love this idea at Ironstone! Maintaining your to-do list and scheduling specific, allotted time during the day, will help you keep the list manageable and reduce stress. During the allotted time, complete as many of those tasks as possible.
Technology can be used to your advantage in saving time, but make an effort to beat technology time-wasters. If a lot of your time is spent online, surfing websites for the latest content and news, take advantage of having that information pushed directly to you by using RSS or “Really Simple Syndication.”
- RSS is a great tool that you can use to aggregate news into one convenient location. Ironstone recommends setting up your own personalized page on My MSN, My Yahoo, Google or any of your other favorites. On a regular basis, your RSS reader will automatically check your selected websites and will deliver the content to you in one convenient display. Watch the RSS video at www.efficient-advisor.com/tools-tips to learn how to set up an RSS reader.
Relocate: If you are receiving walk-in interruptions, phone calls, instant messages or even need to rejuvenate your energy levels, consider relocating to a place that will lift your mood and where you can be completely free of interruptions. A conference room, a library, a home office, etc., can aide you in completing tasks on-time in a fresh environment.
Taking Time To Make Time
Take control of your time management – the advantages will drastically improve the quality of your everyday life. When you feel that everything has to be done at once, levels of frustration increase. Don’t forget to celebrate! Time management is not an easy task. If it were, there would not be a significant amount of self help, customized training, checklists, and performance reviews regarding the subject. You owe it to yourself to pat yourself on the back if no one else does. Consider your new management skills a victory and own them! After all, you succeeded!
Take time and reap the benefits of time management.
Ironstone can assist you in improving the time management skills of you and your team. Check out our Time Management Tool!– (TimeManagementTool) We specialize in identifying problem areas and then implementing the strategies needed to align with the goals of your firm. Firms with time management programs in place have lower stress levels, peace of mind, a higher sense of achievement, increased energy and productivity and a healthy cultural work environment.
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