Being able to manage your time well is a competency worth building. It not only affects productivity, it increases your confidence level and your ability to work within a team. Most corporate training programs have workshops on time management especially as part of leadership training programs.
Some secrets to time management are breaking down the big picture into steps, learning what you are able to accomplish in a specific time frame, prioritizing and working on the most important and urgent tasks, and creating and sticking to a plan.
Breaking down the big picture
What is the end result you are after? What is your cause or mission? You need to have a very clear picture of what your ultimate goal looks like. Spend some time thinking about it and talking to your supervisor to understand their expectations. Once you are clear and passionate about your cause you'll be able to articulate it to others who you must delegate to or work with on projects. Once you have the big picture, make a list of all the steps that are needed to get there. This is something you may need to brainstorm with others if you feel weak at it or are new to the job. Others with more experience will help you to see things you have forgotten. Checklists are helpful tools and if it is a task that is repetitive, your list can evolve until it is foolproof.
Estimating time
Estimating the time it takes to complete tasks takes practice. If you do not meet a deadline, spend time analyzing what step(s) you underestimated. If you are to repeat this task or a similar one, build in the extra time and monitor it closely. Again, if this is a new job or task, ask someone with experience how long it takes to complete and then add about 20% as you are on a learning curve. Remember also to include in your estimates the time it takes to get work you need done by other team members.
Prioritizing
You have your big picture, your list of tasks and how much time it will take to do each task, but now what do you do first? It can be very overwhelming. Take each task and assign it two ratings - one for urgency (by deadline) and one for importance (to big picture and to the bottom line i.e. $). Once you have identified the tasks that are both urgent and important, start there. Next will be those that are urgent, but less important, then important but not urgent and finally not important or urgent. You can create a four section square with importance (high and low) on one axis and urgency (high and low) on the other. A simple way to do this is to fold a piece of paper in four and list tasks in the appropriate quadrant.
Staying focused
Create a plan and stick to it. You have your priority list now you need to stick to it. This may seem obvious but it is so easy to get distracted and fall off course. Promise yourself that if another task comes up, you'll first ask if it fits into the big picture. If it does, rework your priority plan to include it. This is where an electronic version if the plan is helpful as it is easy to edit. Plan a reward if you stick to the plan and meet deadlines. It can be something simple like a special coffee or a rose for your desk. Remind yourself that you are striving to learn to be a better time manager.
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