TIME MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES The Managers Tool Kit

Time wastes our bodies and minds, our strength and energy, but we waste Time, therefore, we are quits. Inscription on the Sun Watch, 1746.
Time Management is one of the most important issues in modern business, time is one of the major resources for success. Work pressure, continuous stress do not increase our productivity. How can we use our working time productively in order to do all things and keep our strength for tomorrow? Time is a precious resource, both irreplaceable and irreversible. But how can we learn to save time and spend it wisely? Effective Time Management should help you make the most of every hour. In this guide, John Adair focuses on time available for daily use using a wide range of examples.

Just as well-run business follows a budget in wellspending money, an effective businessperson should also follow a schedule in spending time


Personal feeling of time, clear delegating of your duties, organization of your work space, efficient planning of the conferences and meetings, effective rehabilitation of your mental and physical strength after large workload and stress these are the main tasks, which will be resolved if we study Time Management. Time is a rare resource. We consider a lot of questions to be more important than studying of how we can save time and how we can spend time rationally.

TIME IS LIFE. TO WASTE YOUR TIME IS TO WASTE YOUR LIFE, BUT TO MASTER YOUR TIME IS TO MASTER YOUR LIFE AND MAKE THE MOST OF IT. Alan Lakein


Time Management is very important in all spheres of our life. It is especially important to use Time Management in our everyday activities. We always have the lack of time while our duties increase. We have to choose our goals wisely and have good Time Management skills, which would help us solve all of our tasks. Time Management is one of the elements of effective productivity.

DIAGNOSIS
Where are you currently spending more time than you would like/need to be effective in your job? You may be able to identify ways you can claim back some more time for yourself by reflecting on where you currently spend your time. Meetings Too many meetings, too many/the wrong participants, not well controlled no agenda, not sticking to the agenda, not starting on time, no time allocation Telephone calls Calls taking too long (unstructured discussions, chatting too long), too many calls getting through Not enough delegation feel can do this job better, want to control everything, frightened about whether subordinates can do the job Involved in too much unclear what the priorities are, want to be involved in everything, unrealistic time pressures, cant say no Continually interrupted door always open, lots of questions from subordinates

   

SYNOPSIS
Time Management will help you:  To develop the personal feeling of time.  To think about the future time, set goals and work out new proposals and plans.  To analyze how you spend time where, how and why you spend time now.  To reduce the influence of time deficit.  To get rid of hurry.  To avoid excessive time spending.

SYNOPSIS
  

 

To learn how to save your time through delegating To redistribute your time for achieving the best results. To study the techniques that would allow you to save your time during the meetings, reading, writing the documents, business trips, telephone calls etc. To use more time for creative thinking. To make time your ally, not the enemy.

GETTING STARTED
Visit your office over a weekend and clean house:  Throw away miscellaneous pieces of paper such as Post-it notes. Post Record all your information in one system.  Improve your filing system.  Put things where you can gain access to information quickly and easily.


GETTING STARTED


 

 

Analyze how you spend your time. Use labels: A for time spent serving a customer (internal or external); B for time spent on tasks helping someone who is helping a customer; C for time spent on activities that do not benefit customers directly or indirectly (this includes fun office activities). Record your time spent doing A,B, and C activities over a couple of typical days. Categorize the time.

GETTING STARTED
 

Analyze how much of your time was wasted and make note of the circumstance under which this occurred. Develop a plan to reduce B activities.Write down the plan. Commit to the implementation.Consult the plan often. Plan the occasional C activity. Having fun and doing the things you enjoy should be done to preserve your sanity! But do not get too caught up in those activities unless they interfere with A items. Invest in a time management system manual or computerized to give you a structure to work with.

DAILY
Start each day with a list of all activities you wish to accomplish.  Next, categorize and prioritize each activity as 1 or 2 activities. Activities classified as 1s are those that if not done will either adversely affect your reputation or negatively impact your customer service. Any others are 2s.


DAILY


 

Plan to do all 1 activities first. However, avoid committing more than 70 percent of your day to 1 activities since unforeseen problems will invariably upset your plans and use up unavailable time. Allocate 2 items to other dates in your calendar, not necessarily the next day. Keep your daily checklist handy at all times. The list will have little value if you are constantly searching for it.

DAILY
 

Keep your desk clean. Put things where you can find them. Use your travel time effectively. Most planes and trains now have phones, and you can use your laptop computer with little interruption. Your car can be turned into an education center where you listen to management audiocassettes. Challenge yourself to write down the highlights of cassette while you are enjoying your first morning coffee.

DAILY
Avoid meetings that are non-critical. If nonyour sole purpose for going to a meeting is to get information, you can get it from the minutes.  Delegate your routine work to associates so that you can tackle planning, problems, and challenging tasks.  Do only one thing at a time, and complete it before taking on the next task.


DAILY


Get those you work with to respect your quiet time, time when you are planning the days activities (first hour) or cleaning your desk at the end of the day. Avoid procrastination. Identify and deal with the source of your discomfort. The longer you procrastinate, the higher your stress level would be. Do less pleasant but important items first. You will gain a sense of relief and achievement.

TIME MANAGEMENT: AVOIDING TIME WASTERS

PROCRASTINATION IS THE THIEF OF TIME No one is perfect. Everyone wastes some time. The three activities that waste the most time are long meetings, interruptions, and telephone calls. Here is how you can reduce each dramatically.
 

MEETINGS Avoid setting or attending unnecessary meetings. Prepare a detailed agenda.

MEETINGS
 

 

Get someone to monitor time and inform the participants if they are falling behind the schedule. At the start of meeting obtain agreement on the objective(s) to keep a focus and avoid timetimeconsuming discussions on unrelated topics. Record ideas on a flipchart to reduce repetition. People receive biggest part of the information through the eyes, not through the ears. The Chinese say: The picture is worth a thousand words words. Therefore, visual aids(Slides,diagrams, charts) can save your time if they are simple and easy to understand.

MEETINGS
Avoid dealing with items that are not on the agenda. If someone goes off on a tangent:  Politely ask what the matter has to do with the agreedagreed-upon objective.  Ask if the item can be dealt with later or outside the meeting. PREPARATION TO THE MEETING -Goals determination -Topic study -Discussion Scheme -Final preparation


MEETINGS
Goals Determination  For example, to involve consultants of the company.  Improvement of the production process. Topic study  Collection of the facts and information.  Determination of the main discussion subjects  Discussion of the different view points.

MEETINGS
Discussion scheme  Setting of the ultimate goal.  Consideration of the intermediate goals.  Discussion questions.  Planning of introductory speech before the beginning of discussion.  Making the meeting agenda.

MEETINGS
Final preparation  Printing and distribution of the invitations.  Preparation of the conference hall.  Preparation of the handouts, slides, transparencies etc. These materials should be distributed before the meeting starts. Clear questions should be set at the beginning and at the end of agenda. This way the meeting will be started and finished on a high note. The most important issues should be discussed at the beginning when the minds of participants are not yet overload..

OFFICE INTERRUPTIONS
  

Stand when people come in to chat. This will prevent them from getting comfortable. Ask them if its important. Ask them if you can talk later in their office, a place where you can control the length of the conversation. Walk out long enough to get them out of your office and then sneak back to continue your work. Close your door.

TELEPHONE
Leave complete messages for people who are not available so they wont have to call back.  Install a voice-mail system. voice Return calls to peoples voice mail after business hours.  Train your associates to deal with routine issues on your behalf and to screen your calls when you are under pressure.


TELEPHONE


 

Avoid unnecessary chitchat by answering with your name followed by a question such as How may I help you? Increase your chances of speaking to someone after you are told that the person is away from the desk or in a meeting by asking: Could you find her for me? Can he be interrupted? Im returning her call, which was important.

PAPERWORK
Keep your desk clean. Put things where you can find them. Dont put documents in temporary places.  Deal with each piece of paper once. File it, respond to it, or dump it.  Reduce time by responding to correspondence in writing on the letter. Fax it back, or photocopy it and send it back.


Key Moments


  

Do not allow procrastination capture you. A procrastination is a main thief of time. Remember Franklins words One today is worth two tomorrows. The delegating does not save the company time, but it saves your time. The purpose of the delegating is to give you the opportunity to solve main tasks. Your office and desk have to be clean. Determine the duration of every meeting at the beginning. You have to know a purpose, an intention and the object of your work. Importance and urgency of the work can clarify the situation.

DELEGATING


As a leader, you will be judged as much by what happens when you are present as by what happens when you are absent. Good managers never put off till tomorrow what they can delegate today. A major cause of stress and poor time management is an unwillingness, or inability, to delegate responsibility to people who work for us. Delegating responsibility to others allows you to concentrate on your duties as manager: planning, problem solving, and other proactive matters. Failure to delegate forces you to spend too much time on trivial issues and neglect critical opportunities. Heres what you can do to correct the situation:

DELEGATING
GENERAL  Write down all your activities for one week. Categorize them as A and B activities. All or most of A activities can be delegated, including:  Routine work;  Data collection;  Attending meetings unrelated to adding value for internal or external clients.

DELEGATING


      

You will be left with more enriching tasks, the B activities that will use your conceptual and communication abilities, including: Strategic planning; Coaching; Goal setting; Updating your people; Problem solving; Liaising with customers; Carrying messages between those above and below you.

Delegating is the great motivation; it enriches the work, increases the labor productivity and contributes to the increase of the team moral.  Accept that you cannot do everything, be everywhere, and make all decisions. Believe that your people are capable of doing more of your mundane work without much difficulty.  Identify people who could take some of the load off your shoulders. These people:  Have an interest in the job;  Have or will make the time to do jobs you delegate;  Have the skills to do the jobs;  If people have the time and inclination but not the skills, train them.

DELEGATION MEETING
Set up a meeting (formal or informal depending on the circumstances). At the meeting, address the following:  Explain the purpose.  Describe the task you want done.  Be specific about the goal.  Stress how important it is that the task is done in a timely and accurate manner.


DELEGATION MEETING
   

Obtain agreement about the goal. Agree on a date by which the task will be completed. If the task is big, establish minigoals with corresponding time lines. Discuss benefits that people might enjoy as a result of taking on the new job. These might include increased responsibility, learning opportunities, added exposure in the organization, or promotion opportunities.

DELEGATION MEETING


Make sure that the person accepts the task and its scope. A handshake is an acceptable way of acknowledging acceptance. Assign responsibility and authority. Tell your associates how confident you are in their ability to do the job. Ask if the associate foresees any problems in achieving the task. Help to resolve any problems.

LATER
 

 

Monitor people as needed to ensure directions are clearly understood. Monitor performance closely at first and then less frequently. If associates are performing well, let them know. If not, give them appropriate feedback, focusing on the behavior, not the person. Show confidence in people by giving them some freedom to do the task their way. Ensure that people who work with you and your associate know that you have delegated the task and that you have given the associate the authority to do the job.

A SOLID PERSONAL GOAL SETTING SYSTEM IS THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT AND LIFE PLANNING

Many people eventually realize how important goal setting is for their personal and business success. Only very few have gone so far as to actually sit and put their goals in writing.  This is an unfortunate situation. It is well established that it is the process of writing your goals that actually puts your goals to work.


NICE AND EASY GOAL WRITING



It is in this goal writing process that your subconscious mind starts taking your goals seriously. Your mind gets all the necessary signals to start moving you forward. And those signals are better to be very clear and direct, no confusing or conflicting messages. They should include clear visual images of your written goals. You almost certainly know from experience that there is a big barrier between reading books or listening to tapes and actually taking the hard and necessary action steps towards changing your habits.

ABOUT YOUR HEALTH AND HOLIDAYS



Keep your energy and improve your health with the help of the right diet, good sleep and regular rest. Remember the gold rule about the moderation. Learn to recognize the symptoms of the stress and to determine factors, which accompany it. Use the 7 steps Strategy for struggle with the stress act: express your feelings; determine priorities; take into consideration things, which you cant change; better use your experience. Change the sign - on the sign +; check your skills of Time Management; count your joys, not the sadness.

ABOUT YOUR HEALTH AND HOLIDAYS



 

Gratitude is your best ally. Write right now on the paper five most important events of your life you are thankful to your destiny for. Live today. You can not change yesterday, but you can improve tomorrow, if you have a good day today. Working time of the person during all of his life consists of 100000 hours. Spend it wisely. Time Management principles and techniques are not that complicated. They do not require intense thinking or research to understand them. What is much more important is how much they become a part of you, how deeply they penetrate into your mind.

MAY ALREADY BE A WINNER!

Each day is a new beginning Another chance to learn more about ourselves, To care more about others, To laugh more than we did, To accomplish more than we thought we could, To be more than we were before. Wishing you a life of wonderful, New beginnings, successful outcome of your initiatives