Time management tips
Here are some time management tips that I heard on the radio, courtesy of John Tesh’s site and from Julie Morgenstern’s book, Never Check E-mail in the Morning:
Cut your workday by 30 minutes
Although this sounds like it would just make you have less time to accomplish that which needs doing, apparently you’ll be more efficient because you’ll know you have less time in which to do things. I guess it would force you to prioritize and determine which items really need to be done and which ones can be put off until a later date. My only question is: who is going to sell this idea to my boss?
Don’t multitask
This tip is music to my ears: I am terrible at multitasking (I can’t even eat or drink and walk at the same time) and it’s great to hear that studies have shown that it takes four times longer to do a task if you’re doing it in conjunction with other tasks. And think of all the errors that can happen when you’re doing a few different things at once! I keep thinking I’ll make a terrible mistake at work due to my attempts to multitask; the fact that we deal with confidential information makes it that much more frightening. Of course in an office setting, where people come to you with requests that they always seem to need “as soon as possible”, it might be hard to avoid having a couple of things going at once. But you can jot down a few things and then go back to the original task and finish it off in its entirety instead of jumping from task to task. That way you’re not losing any brilliant ideas that come to mind and you’re (relatively) focused on one task.
Don’t look at email first thing in the morning
I’ve heard different variations of this tip before. You’re (presumably) your most fresh and energetic in the morning so it makes sense that you spend those precious hours on work that requires you to be fresh and alert. Responding to inane email requests is therefore not the best use of alert self.
I’ve also heard that you should check email only once or twice a day (once in the morning and again in the evening). This is a wonderful time saver; I’ve tried it. The only time it gets tricky is when a coworker sends you an email and then comes to your office shortly thereafter to make sure you got their email! This can end up using more of your time as you’re now forced to read the email in the coworker’s presence and respond right away. But once coworkers know when you’ll be checking emails, they’ll know when to send you an email that requires your immediate attention.
Another related tip I’ve heard is to try to touch something only once. For example, if you pick up a file, do all that needs to be done to the file before putting it away. This means you might have to spend more time with the file than you planned but at least when you put it away you know you’ll be done with it for a while. This is a more efficient way of handling large numbers of files, and it also helps with minimizing the chances of mixing things up when multitasking. This is another tips that definitely works!
What time saving tips that you swear by?
time, time management time saving, work, office
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April 13th, 2007 at 6:30 am
I have two time saving tips, but I’m not sure how they would relate to everyday life. I work in two different atmospheres at the same time throughout a day: a manufacturing facility, and an office setting. My time saving techniques are one for each. In manufacturing, I always train the guys that there should never be a reason to be standing around that there is always something that can be done, to think one step ahead, which can be as simple as if you’re walking over to cut a piece of wood, bring your tape measure with you incase you have to measure something while you’re there. Secondly, I only come to my office when I know I have work to make it worthwhile. I don’t run upstairs to see if any emails arrived or anything. I wait until there’s enough folders to enter or jobs to prepare to make it worthwhile so I can get in, get everything done, and return to the shop floor.
Also, a really big time saver is not to read lifetipsdaily during the work day.
April 14th, 2007 at 12:09 am
You make some good points though and the first tip can be applied directly to most work places: be prepared and anticipate future needs/glitches and ensure that you don’t waste time fixing or accomodating them due to lack of forethought.
Nice try: it might seem like a waste of time to read Life Tips Daily but the time invested reading the tips is definitely time well spent!
April 14th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
hehe inane emails? so that means my emails can wait? hahaha
(gigglesnort)
April 14th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Great tips Jummy! Definitely a good idea to cut down your working time. I’m a workaholic(a freelance mom at home workaholic if you can call that workaholic) and can’t seem to stop!:)
April 15th, 2007 at 4:10 am
Great tips, if you must check your computer first thing you could try http://www.netvibes.com which uses AJAX to bring together your calendar, news, your RSS feeds and email on one startpage. It’s pretty good.
M
April 16th, 2007 at 1:37 am
Alright Neel: I’m challenging you to work on cutting down on your workday…I’ll be trying that this week myself!
I checked out netvibes, Mark and it looks quite good! Should I confess that the email wizard particularly appealed to me?
April 16th, 2007 at 1:39 am
[...] It’s difficult, especially if you are in a work environment where promotions are based not only on producing excellent work but alo on working overtime, not to join those who are able to work at all hours of the day, but I encourage you to take a look at these tips and work on being efficient with the time you have rather than chaining yourself to the desk more than your requisite 8 or 9 hours a day (I do understand that on occasion, longer hours may be unavoidable). [...]
October 9th, 2007 at 6:01 am
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November 17th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
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