KNOWING WHERE YOUR TIME WENT...

How time flies when you’re having fun!  

Yes, you can afford to muse on that when its playtime. However, when it comes to work, you have to be able to account for your time no matter the strength of its wings. Management is not about to joke with billable hours, so you must know where your time went.

Without effective time management, you will produce no results and no returns. Your lofty goals will end up only on paper. In other words, you‘re working hard, but you’re not working SMART (busily working here, there, and everywhere, achieving nothing anywhere).

Here are some time killers and possible remedies. 

• Emails - some people spend 2 or more hours of their 9-5 dealing with emails.Emails are necessary you say. That’s a moot point. You can’t avoid them, but ask yourself just as you are about to send that email, “is this really the best and appropriate means of communication?  Sometimes it’s just easier and quicker to pick up the phone and call that person.

Only send an email to someone who needs to read it.  Do not clog up someone’s inbox if they do not really need to see that email. Answer ALL the questions in your emails and pre-empt further questions: avoiding additional emails. Set a time to read and respond to emails according to your most important goals for the day. Set a time to refresh if need be and limit that to 5 minutes or less.  Remember Pareto’s Law? Only 20% of emails produce 80% results.

• Procrastination - You only have 24hours in a day; we all do and can only manage ourselves within the timeframe given. Procrastination is one time thief that is guaranteed to frustrate and ultimately eliminate you (if you don’t beat deadlines).  Ironically, a lot of us yield to this “time bandit” when we specifically intend to better manage our time. We tend to push that unpleasant or daunting task to a “more convenient time” just before the deadline under the pretense that the time will be sufficient. 

Face it, procrastination builds up anxiety as deadlines approach. There is this dread that creeps up on you when the deadline of a procrastinated task nears.  This can lead to stress, another distracting time bandit. Think about this the next time you tell yourself, “I’ll get to it later”. Act now!

• The phone-(Talking on the phone or texting)

Consider the best time to call, a time when the other person will have very limited time to prolong the call or in the need to get off the phone too quickly. However, for a very important business calls, its best to pick a time when the other party will be able to give you full attention. You can only get this by making an appointment and sticking to it. Otherwise, you’ll end up making follow-up calls etc. For seemingly “innocent” incoming calls that are not business related, consider making your phone calls while standing or walking around, research shows this shortens your calls. If it’s a call you’re already expecting, make keynotes of the discussion beforehand to save both parties productive man-hours.

Tip: consider starting that “innocent non-business related” conversation with: “I just have a quick minute”. That is sure to set the stage for your exit. It’s not rude, it’s all about restraint. Your Productivity, Your Time!

  

• Surfing the internet- According to recent survey by salary.com , surfing the internet is one of the greatest culprit of employee time wastage. We can’t tell why the internet is so distracting, but researchers speculate that evolution has wired our brains to be constantly searching for changes in our environment and if a change is sensed, our minds direct our attention towards that thing. 

Have you tried closing your monitor or simply turning off your computer when it’s not in use? Get up from your seat, stretch our get a drink of water and get back to your seat. Do not turn your system on until you specifically have something to use it for and do not just turn your browser on every time you turn on your system. It’ll help you focus. Also avoid leaving web pages open under the guise of research. Tabs are not meant to be “to-do lists”. They’re distractions. What did you think bookmarks are for?

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• Meetings - Don’t let your business get infected with “meeting-itis”. When you spend 75% of productive time on meetings, you know you've got it.

Try to determine whether emails could suffice if the topic to be discussed is a straightforward one. Indicate a start and finish time for the meeting. Stick to your guns about keeping the topic in view and not veering off.

What if you limited those Monday-morning meetings or staff meeting to a quick 5-15minutes with everyone involved already aware of the agenda beforehand, instead of those long 2 hour meetings that drag on and on,

ending with everyone’s recount of how splendid or not their weekends were?

Try forcing a limit on time spent on meetings by scheduling important appointments for just after the meeting. Know when to say no especially if you’re the boss. Limit your time to just those meetings you truly need to attend. Delegate where necessary.

If some of these seem extreme, remember, if you do not have control over your time your hard work will yield no returns and you’ll be drained with work overload- a perfect recipe for stress. Time killers get in the way of a productive workday and can only be dealt with in a decisive manner.