Time Management

Areas:

A.      Environment

B.      Technology

C.      Time stealers

A. Controlling Environment:

1.      Paperwork

2.      Physical organization

3.      Meeting

A Technique for Managing Paperwork

Pass on – to be read by someone else, pass on to only one person avoid passing on multiple copies.
Read – read short docs immediately, long docs later
File – needed in future
Throw away – irrelevant doc

Physical organization

Comfort,

Structure,

Tidiness

Preparing to save time

1. Ask the right questions – necessity, contribution, action

B. Time and technology:

Benefits:

1. Communicate info very quickly over any distance.
2. Enables you to store and retrieve info extremely easily

Controlling emails

Strategy (In order):

1. Allocate specific time for addressing emails.
2. Minimize the no. of emails to be read
3. Prioritize actions as a result of email.
4. Minimize the time that each necessary reply requires.

-         Deactivate desktop alerts

Electronic organization systems

1. PC based system – large amt of data that doesn’t need to be shared
2. telephone based – small amount of data which is very portable
3. networked  - very large amount of data, shared access

C. Time stealers

Dealing with demands

1. Inner directed – minimizes time given to other person
2. Other directed – Gives much time to other person
3. Autonomous – focuses on own goals and that of other person simultaneously.

Avoiding reverse delegation:

1. Set boundaries
2. Offer information
3. Refuse extra work.

Beating Procrastination

- Results into fatigue and waste of time

Excuses:

1. I have lack of info – get relevant info from concerned ppl ASAP
2. I have plenty of time – identify exact amt of time required for the task and schedule each action
3. I don’t have any time – reprioritize

Underlying reasons:

1. anxious
2. low motivation

How to beat?

1. confront excuses
2. break the habit
3. identify the outcome
4. take the first step
5. learn from the past

Handling Interruptions

1.      Don’t either welcome or refuse an interruption

2.      Aim to use your time as well as possible

3.      Control what happens when you are interrupted.

1. Allocate time – Be specific on amt of time. Say : “I have X mins”
2. Control content
3. Control end – Say: “Unfortunately, I have another commitment now”
4. Learn to say NO