Effective Time Management to Take Control Today

It is more than simple to-do lists and organizing principles. Good time management is about aligning your life with your priorities and getting the best return on your investment of time.

As Benjamin Franklin observed:

"Dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of."

As a time management consultant I see people working hard but doing it with lots of stress and pressure.

They feel overwhelmed by what they have to do and often the cost is feeling frazzled and not spending enough time on other areas of their life.

Unfortunately, today "normal" means stressed out, rushed, and constantly jumping from crises to crises.

Are you looking for a better way to do things?

The fact that you are looking at this website means that you are prepared to do someting about it!

Effective time management is more than having good organizing skills or email management. It involves a mind-shift in the way that you approach your work by:

1. identifying what is important to you in your work and personal life.
2. planning your time on those high impact activities, and
3. executing your plan

Basically effective time management is about weaving a life that aligns with your priorities.

But this is not easy, especially when we have so many competing demands for our time and attention.

Step 1. Identify what is important: Thinking quarterly

Clarity of purpose is important for effective time management.

Clarity of purpose enables you:

• to defend your priorities
• to say "No" to less important tasks or requests
• to measure your overall effectiveness
• to be proactive rather than reactive.

When I coach clients in their work setting what is important is often very different to what they are working on.

What is happening at the coal-face is very different to what is important to the company, team, or individual.

We can spend so much of the workday answering and replying to emails, dealing with trivial interruptions....that it feels like society and organizations pull us toward what is reactive...rather than proactive.

Whether at work or in your personal life, annual planning is important. But every good business reports on a quarterly level, and so should you.

These time management exercises enable you to plan at the annual level and do a quarterly check in.

Why is this important?

The quarterly check-in becomes your compass to ensure that you are heading in the right direction. You are able to track your progress, and see how you are doing against your major goals.

Step 2. Schedule your work: Weekly planning

Weekly planning is the linchpin that holds effective time management together.

As a time management consultant I visit many different work locations and I notice many different ways that people use to stay on top of their work.

Some like post-it notes stuck around their computer, others like sheets of paper on their desk....afraid of the if it is 'out of sight then it is out of mind'.

Other people like to write down their daily to do list.

Now I know it can feel great to tick off items on a to-do list......heck, I have even written things down that I have already done so that I could enjoy the pleasure of ticking them off.

While a to-do list is simple, in today's world a to-do list is an inadequate time management strategy.

In today's world, daily planning will mean that you are susceptible to being pulled into reactive mode - which is paved with crises and stress. See our story on the time management matrix.

A better time management system is to use a weekly plan to schedule your big rocks in.

These big rocks are your most important activities that you identified above in step 1 of effective time management.

You can construct your weekly plan using:

• these weekly planner tools
• purchasing a personal organizer with a weekly view
• or using time management software such as Achieve Planner

Personally, I like Achieve Planner because it allows me to set up an ideal week and then to schedule my high impact activities. I also like this time management software because it allows me to schedule by projects (which have their prioritized task lists attached).

Whatever option you choose for your weekly plan there are some important steps to setting up your time management schedule because even the most high performing organizations spend 20-30% of their time in reactive mode.

Step 3. Act daily

Once you have done your quarterly planning and you are doing your weekly planning every week, you have gone a long way to being an effective time manager.

If I was to shadow most white collar workers (or if you were to conduct your own time management log) the numbers are likely to reflect that you are working hard but:

• spending 2 hours reading and responding to emails
• dealing with interruptions every several times and hour, or
• attending too many unproductive meetings.

No wonder many people are finding it difficult to have focused time on their key projects!

But you are not like most workers!

This is because you have aligned what is important to you, your family, or your work, with the way that you spend your time.

Does this mean that you follow your plan to the letter. Of course not, as life has a way of throwing even the best-laid plans to waste.

However, if your plan has enough fat around the edges, breathing space between appointments, and is realistic, it is a very good start to effective time management.

Planning your week and then acting daily is a habit of success for many people.

Changing your personal time management habits can be hard! We provide a number of inspirational time management quotes that reinforce positive time management habits and beliefs.

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