How to Manage your Time Effectively

A number of techniques can be adopted to manage the time effectively. A few important techniques are given below.

• Work closely with your staff as a team and listen to what they say. Your staff is the biggest asset you have and if they are properly involved, they will improve the teams’ performance dramatically.
• Official meetings consumes lot of time. The meetings should be held and attended, if necessary. The meetings should be kept short, as much as possible by proper preparation and discouraging unnecessary discussion.The person who is chairing the meeting has responsibility of keeping the meeting on track.
• Writing and responding to emails become a time wasting exercise, if a few precautions are not taken. Communicate verbally to allow rapid feedback. Communicate in writing only when necessary. Communicate in writing briefly but do not hide important points. Do not swap emails with colleagues that do not add value.
• Develop check lists and a routine for regular tasks.
• Do not do other people's work.
• Do not be unnecessarily pedantic about anything (apart from customer care).
• Plan and organise your day - on your way to work.
• Write down a "to do" list.
• Be aware of the difference between urgent tasks and important tasks. Make sure that time spent on urgent tasks does not make important tasks become both urgent and important.
• Do not let others impose unnecessary work on you or your team (please be diplomatic).
• Use unproductive time, including travelling and waiting time, to analyse important issues.
• Prepare before an arranged encounter.
• Record and review how you use your time.
• Develop a routine.
• When you have a major piece of work to do, gather the information you need and retreat to an isolated place. You will be surprised how much more productive you can be in this type of environment.
• Develop and encourage staff to take over your job to free you to work out the next step forward.
• If you are working on a high position. Encourage people to work through your staff and not with you directly.
• If you are genuinely critically engaged when an interruption occurs then just politely say so, asking forgiveness, it is that simple.
• Learn to say no, constructively and politely.
• Do not tolerate timewasters.
• Don't work hard, work smart.