A Beginner's Guide To Better Time Management

(Or how to do more, in less time and ask the Boss for a raise!)

Whether you are an employee, self employed or at the very top of a company, being organised and efficient and making the best use of your time can only stand you in good stead.

And if you get more done you should be worth more to your employers or if self employed, the amount you can bill out each day should increase, so there is a strong financial argument to improving your time management skills.

1) If your time management skills are non-existent a simple starting point is:

Make a list of things you need to do (and write it down)

Prioritise that list

Get them done, one at a time

And do NOT get distracted.

2) Just following this practice should improve your productivity, but to refine the system, make a habit of ordering your list every night as the last task you undertake. Then, in the morning you know what your important tasks are for the day and can get stuck into them, whilst colleagues are still deciding what they need to be doing.

3) Another good tip is to put tasks you do not like doing (but are important) at the top of the list, so it is harder to avoid them. Start with an easy or a quick task you will enjoy (but not one that will take up the entire morning!) to get you into the swing of the working day and then you will be ready to tackle the jobs you would otherwise leave until they are well overdue.

4) Leave some space during the day for items that crop up but need to be done there and then. This should prevent your whole day being sidetracked and you avoiding your pre-defined structure all together.

5) Email can be a real distraction, as can phone calls, particularly if you are concentrating on completing a project. Try to get into a habit of reading and replying to email twice a day and not just reacting as they come in. If you can group phone calls as well, then your productivity on other matters should improve and your focus on the calls will also be better as you are not switching between written or numerical tasks and the more conversational nature of telephone calls.