10 ways to manage your time more effectively

These suggestions are based on what is coming up currently with my clients. Do you know how expensive it is to ineffectively manage your time? It’s expensive to yourself (burnout and stress) and expensive to the organization (lowered productivity). 

 

 

Proactively block out chunks of focus time and enforce those boundaries. Of course, use best judgment, but, exceptions should only be exceptions. Think about it like this: you are training others how you like to work and what your boundaries are. If you don’t train them, you’re enabling them to walk all over you. Practice saying “no.” If someone is asking you for your time and you enforce your boundaries, say “no” and offer another time or suggest a different way of collaborating/communicating. 

 

If your day mostly consists of ‘free time’ that is 30-minute blocks in between meetings, what are you realistically working on in those 30 minutes? Chances are, not much deep work or focus is happening. Research has said that it takes 15-20 minutes to get into a deep work flow state and every time you’re distracted or interrupted, the clock resets. Fractured time and interruptions are expensive! 

 

 

Another thing that’s expensive? Meetings that shouldn’t be meetings. When someone requests a meeting with you, make your own version and send them a questionnaire like this one – https://form.jotform.com/230814973989070. Let them know that you only accept meetings that (a) thoughtfully require you to be together in real-time; (b) that have a clear purpose; and (c) you understand what value you are expected to provide by being there or what value you should expect to receive from the meeting. Often times, meetings keep happening because it’s the way it’s always been done. It’s up to you to advocate for change. 

 

 

Define “urgency” for yourself and your team. We assume that others assign the same meaning we do; this isn’t the case. Tell others what your definition is and ask them how they define it. Get on the same page.

 

When everything is urgent, nothing is urgent. Make it mean something that is uncommon and communicate this. 

 

 

I know this is scary. Interruptions like notifications often trigger a negative reaction in us. Notifications on smartphones were found to alter brain chemistry, creating an imbalance in our brain. There is also a link between constant notifications and anxiety, depression, and impulsivity.  

 

Email notifications are definitely a source of stress and it takes people an average of 20 minutes to regain focus. Take charge of this, get in control – turn off your notifications and intentionally schedule email time. Communicate with others what you are doing and how to reach you in case of an urgent matter (see #3 – define “urgency”). 

 

What else can you turn off notifications for? 

 

Me personally: I am so sensitive to the anxiety from notifications that I keep all of mine turned off all of the time – including on my phone. 

 

 

Fill out the Work Style & Communication preferences worksheets and share them with your team. Have each person also fill them out and share theirs with the team. Figure out what tools you want to utilize to work best together. Where do you need to flex? Where do others need to flex? 

 

 

In what situations do you find it difficult to say “no,” even when you want to or feel you should? How does people pleasing benefit you? How does it hurt you? How does it benefit/hurt others? The organization? If you’re saying “yes” to something, that means you’re saying “no” to something else – what are you saying yes and no to? 

 

Ironically, people pleasing typically leads to feeling unseen and unknown because you don’t feel accepted for who you really are. Additionally, it often leads to a lack of respect and trust from others when they see you’re agreeable to everything. It’s expensive and exhausting to be constantly pleasing others. It also sets a precedent and an expectation for them, which someone else later will have to work harder to establish proper boundaries and enforce accountability. 

 

See this article: http://awcoach.co/the-downsides-of-saying-yes-to-every-request/ 

 

 

Stop enabling others and holding them back from being resourceful or thinking for themselves. This is eating up your time and it’s a disservice to others. One of my clients didn’t even realize he was holding people back from thinking for themselves and when he started checking his email two times per day, his biggest takeaway was that it empowered people to problem-solve, take initiative, and be resourceful without relying on him. 

 

“It’s faster if I just do this myself.” – Have you said and done that? If so, you’re enabling others by not setting boundaries, you’re burning yourself out, and you’re most likely the bottleneck and this negatively affects others (and is extremely expensive and unproductive). 

 

See these articles: 

http://awcoach.co/help-your-employees-think-for-themselves/ 

http://awcoach.co/its-faster-if-i-do-this-myself/ 

 

 

Be realistic with your time and try to over-estimate / build in buffers. In order to do this, you must keep a log of your tasks/projects with the amount of time you estimated and how much the actual time was over/under; this allows you to have a clear picture of where you aren’t accurately estimating your time. When you estimate your time, you can tack on an hour as a buffer. Where is it better to over-estimate rather than under-estimate?

 

 

The time you spend setting these up will save you a lot in the long-run. Which emails do you get that can skip the inbox and go straight to a folder for you to check later? 

 

Additionally, set up auto-replies if applicable. Did you transition to a new role or team? Perhaps someone is emailing you and they should be reaching out to someone else. Use an auto-reply to respond and let them know who they should be connecting with. Is there anyone you need to set boundaries with? Use an auto-reply. You can also use auto-replies to let people know when to expect a response. 

 

Check out this valuable resource for how to set-up auto replies for a specific sender in Outlook. 

 

Here is how to set-up auto replies (canned responses) using filters in Gmail. 

 

 

Designate “communications” leaders on your team. These people are responsible for keeping your communication efforts moving in the right direction. When real-time conversations aren’t needed, collaboration can be done asynchronously. One thing to be aware of is: how does your audience prefer to receive information? What method will be more likely to get a response? Video? Text? Bullet points? A visual diagram or table? 

 

Check out some of these tools:

 

 

If you’re in a leadership role, it’s your responsibility to ensure your team is managing their time effectively. It’s baffling to me when I learn of leaders who are not doing anything about their team working 50-70 hours per week and burning out. When I was in a leadership role, one thing I made sure of was that my team worked the appropriate number of hours and that they set boundaries. If they needed to work extra hours, I would question what was keeping them from getting their work done in their 40-hour work week: was it a lack of training? Was it a lack of delegation? Was it ineffective time management? Was it people pleasing and not setting boundaries? Was it not enforcing boundaries? I would get to the bottom of it. You need to too. Why are you okay with your employees working crazy hours? 

 

The theme among these recommendations is that they require a strong behavior of self-discipline. Need to work on your self-discipline? Let’s chat.