Planning

Time Management

The following are tips that I have gleaned from various Time Management Courses which if implemented should help you to better manage your available time & increase you capability to deal with your workloads & enjoy life more. I have given this to my team & I hope you find useful.

1. Use a daily "To Do List" if possible prepare this before you go home ready for next day & Keep visible at your desk. Plan your week ahead on Friday or very early Monday. Schedule time with others early in outlook to ensure they are available.

2. Do the most important things first so you can go home at a reasonable hour without stressing. Use the 20/80 - what tasks are going have the biggest benefit/payback - do these first. (Remember the Mayonnaise Jar - refer below) 

3. Plan to start tasks don't plan to finish i.e. If a piece a work takes 2-3 Hours to complete plan to work on this for 1 Hour & then put it aside. Then work on something else or have a break for 10 min & come back & do the next bit. Break down big tasks into small chunks.

4. Distractions - Only check your emails at set times during the day so that you are not distracting yourself. Focus on task at hand complete this before jumping to the next. Do things in batches when this means you get thru it quicker without delaying responses.

5. Do it now - When you open an email act straight away - Do It /Delegate it/Dump-file it -  but don't handle more than once.

6. Delegate - If you can - look opportunities for people to assist e.g Chairing meetings/recording action items/setting up meetings/drafting letters/following up matters - emails- filling in for you while you are at meetings/travelling. All delegation must be free of emotion.

7. Concurrent Activity - Don't be the bottleneck - Have people work on parts of the issue or task at the same time as not all steps are dependent on completing the previous step.

8. Contingency Plan - Have things you can do (e.g reading/planning/phone calls/admin) when you have unexpected free time or while travelling, when meetings are cancelled or start late finish early.

9. Discipline - If you go off the plan don't give up/despair - just reschedule - you may have to reschedule/reprioritise things 2-5 times a day - This is normal. Very few things go to plan.

10. Out of Office Assistant/Voice Mail/Red Flag on Emails & Tasks - Use these to maximum effect. Your message lets people know when you are not around & who is covering for you & saves follow-ups.  This buys you time/gives customer/colleague a choice depending on urgency  i.e less stress on you to have check in and increases the available time as to when they expect a response.

11. File & Organise - A place for everything - File stuff as you go so you don't waste time trying to find things - e.g Many email folders/dividers in folders

12. Set Goals - People who have goals & visualise what it would look like to achieve these things are less likely to be distracted and are more likely to make choices that will make them happier.

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Testimonials

Dear Andrea,This is a short note to let you know the huge impact that your systems & advice has made over the last 3 months.For a start  you got us to review our overheads and look for ways to make savings. The savings we have found has just paid for our $10,000 Yellow pages ad.
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After 6 years in our business we found that we could do with some new ideas in growing our business to take us to the next level. After meeting Andrea and Kevin from TMS we know we have succeeded in taking the right step. They have shown us the need to put a strategic plan in place and how to follow it to create achievable goals in growing our business.
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After meeting Kevin & Andrea from Time Management Solutions we uncovered some hurdles in our business which was inhibiting our growth. Kevin & Andrea  wrote a yellow pages ad for us in which 90% of our window cleans have resulted from that ad.
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