Life consists of seven areas:

1. Health
2. Family
3. Financial
4. Intellectual
5. Social
6. Professional
7. Spiritual

Although you will not spend equal amounts of time on each of these areas, neglecting any of them will jeopardize your success in all of them.

1. First, write things down – whether in a Day Planner or a Palm Pilot. The actual process of writing down a task helps you remember to complete it. You are also able to see the big picture and evaluate where the new task fits in with other tasks you have already been assigned.

2. Plan each day’s work and then stick to your plan. If you do not have a plan, you will be easily distracted and therefore, less productive. You will spend your work day responding to others, their requests and crisis situations, rather than completing your own tasks.

3. When you are planning a day’s work, prioritize. Your list of things to be accomplished will include those that are crucial and those that can wait. Make sure you do not spend all your time working on tasks that really aren’t as important just because they are smaller and easier to complete. Work your list in order of importance. Do no procrastinate. If you are tempted to put an item off, break down the task into smaller manageable pieces.

According to surveys, the average person gets 50 interruptions a day that take about five minutes a piece. This means that we spend over four hours each day dealing with unplanned events. Sorting through the deluge of paper that crosses your desk in a single day can be exhausting.

Between email printouts, telephone messages, mail, memos, advertisements and faxes, your work area can quickly become overwhelming. Try to stick to the rule of handling each item only once. If you don’t need it, get rid of it. If you can’t handle it in a few minutes, consider delegating it. If it is your responsibility and will take time to address, schedule it on your calendar and put it away.

4. Get into a routine. Good routines can increase energy and save time while mindless routines can curb creativity. Make sure any routines you use are serving a purpose other than just to fill up time. Plan times to accomplish certain tasks every day.

Repetitive tasks, such as answering email or completing paper work, can be scheduled to be completed during a certain time period each day. This will allow you to devote your full attention to these tasks once a day, instead of partially addressing them several times a day. Set start and stop times for all major tasks during your day.

5. Make sure you do not take on more than you can handle. You may want to impress your clients but it can be a mistake to say yes to too many things. You can only accomplish a finite amount of work during the day and taking on more than this will result in the parts of your life becoming imbalanced. Every time you take something home from work that you said you would do but just didn’t quite finish, some area of your personal life is suffering.

6. Do not put extra effort into tasks that are not worth it. Some tasks will require your full attention and should be completed to the best of your ability. However, there are other tasks that just have to get done. Don’t let perfectionism get in the way of completing less important tasks quickly so that you have more time to devote to those projects that really deserve it.

You should only have eight to nine things on your work surface at any one time. Items used on a daily basis should be kept within reach but those that are used every other day or less frequently can be relegated to nearby drawers. Items that you may only need weekly or monthly can be stored in a supply closet.

Filing must be done on a regular basis. It is okay to keep a file out that you need to use within the next two days but anything else should be returned as soon as possible. You are wasting time looking for files when you allow them to stack up in your work area and, in turn, other people are unable to access them at all.

Set discard dates for all your paper and computer files. These dates may be regulated by law depending what type of industry you are working in so make sure you check if there are any laws governing file retention.

Make a spot on your desk just for incoming items. Label it and make others aware of it. You might even wish to put an inbox on the wall outside your door. This will further reduce interruptions to your busy day.

Keep a master calendar which lists deadlines for all the projects you are currently working on. You don’t have to remember everything. Writing down deadlines and appointments not only frees your mind to deal with other problems, it gives you a visual image of what your days and weeks look like. Keeping everything in one place allows you to refer to it easily.

Finally, improving your telephone skills can improve your productivity. When you have to leave a message, make sure to speak slowly and clearly. Give your number at the beginning and the end of the message. Even when you are leaving a message for a repeat customer, do not assume that they already have your number. If you have an unusual name, spell it.

Following these tips will greatly increase your chances of getting a response to your message. Since you make business phone calls to procure some sort of information that is necessary for the completion of a task, it is vital that your calls be returned.

I’m sure you’ve heard people say, “I wish I had more time.” They jump from task to task and event to event at light speed, trying to find ways to accomplish more.

Some people seem to accomplish far more than others in their day, week, and lifetime. For instance, Benjamin Franklin was a successful author, politician, scientist, philosopher, printer, inventor, activist, and diplomat. His accomplishments are astounding. Benjamin Franklin is also credited for the statement; ‘Time is money.’

So, how did he find the time to accomplish so many things? The answer is effective time management.

And here’s the good news: Time is limited.

How is that good news? It’s good because it means that the playing field is level.

• Everyone gets the same twenty-four hours in a day.
• Your competition has no more hours in a day than you.
• The richest man cannot buy even one more minute of time in a day.
• Only you can manage yourself and activities more effectively.

In a typical forty-hour workweek, it’s estimated that the average person spends:

1.7 hours looking for things
1.0 hour rescheduling appointments and tasks
1.4 hours wasted because of rescheduled appointments and tasks
2.2 hours wasted because of disorganization and lack of priority

That is a total of over 6 hours wasted due to poor planning and a lack of organization.

When people are asked why they are disorganized, the number one reason given is: ‘I just don’t have the time.’

The fact is people choose to be disorganized. Most people could avoid wasting time by spending just two hours a week organizing and planning. In just two hours of planning, you could free an additional three to four hours every week.

Effective time management is about behavioral change. It’s about learning how to spend more time acting instead of reacting. The skills described herein will help you become better organized and manage time more effectively, which will increase productivity but only if you adapt the behavioral changes as outlined throughout this report.

The fact that most organizations do not have a time management program in place suggests that they do not feel that this is an issue that needs to be addressed. However, nothing affects the ability of a company to function and be productive more than the ability of its employees to use organizational skills to save time during a typical business day.

Companies must take action in order to encourage their employees to become more skilled in organization and time management. Even if you are an extremely organized person, all of your efforts will be wasted if your colleagues are not picking up where you leave off. There are several things you can do as a manager to encourage your staff to become more efficient managers of time.

Managing Your Employee’s Time

First, think of your employees’ time as an asset. It is a tangible asset that is worth a great deal of money and must be dealt with accordingly. Your job is to manage this incredibly valuable asset. You cannot assume that your employees know how to regulate their use of time on their own.

As a manager, it is your job to use the 40 hours per week an employee gives you in the most efficient manner possible.

Next, when you are hiring new employees, make sure to evaluate their time management skills. This is particularly important when the job position being filled will require self-regulation. You want to hire self-starters with good self-discipline.

Ask appropriate questions such as “How good are you at setting deadlines and meeting them?” Do ask previous employers about the candidate’s time management skills.

All of your employees should be working at their fullest capability. Down-sizing over the previous years has lead to the elimination of many assistant positions. Managers and executives are now forced to do their own clerical tasks. If they are performing these tasks on a regular basis, it would be more cost-effective to hire an hourly employee.

When an employee demonstrates above average time management skills, reinforce their actions. In other words, reward them for good behavior. Behavior that is noticed and pleasantly remembered is much more likely to be repeated. In addition, other employees will follow their example.

If you are a good time manager and have good organizational skills, share them with those around you. Teach them how to manage their time. You might begin by asking all employees to bring paper and a pen to meetings in order to take notes. This way they can transfer the items from your assignment list to their to-do list. Arrange meetings in which you refer back to the tasks that were given to them.

Meetings must be conducted in a time-conscious manner. An unorganized meeting can be one of the biggest drains a company has on productivity. If you have trouble believing this, calculate the wages you are paying all the people who are sitting in your next meeting. Meetings should begin on time. Otherwise, people will get into the habit of being late.

You should have an agenda. However, be flexible enough so that intellectual breakthroughs can occur. End the meeting after all of your goals have been addressed. Do not let it drag on any further than necessary. Let attendees begin work on the items discussed in the meeting instead of continuing to just talk about them.

Lastly, emphasize how important good time management is to the success of your organization. You could include time management tips in your newsletter. If your company does not have a newsletter, present these tips at staff meetings.

• Provide time management training opportunities for your employees.
• Purchase books and CD’s on the subject and make them available for use.
• Conduct on-site organization seminars.
• Provide employees with personal organizers, whether manual or electronic.

Making organization and time management visible at the work place will remind employees of the importance of these skills.

Time is a constant. When poor organizational skills lead to wasted time, this time cannot be retrieved. Each person in an organization needs to evaluate where their time is going on any given day and then implement a few time saving methods to overcome their biggest time wasters.

Implementation of too many techniques at one time can result in an employee spending more time organizing than working or becoming overwhelmed and just returning to their old ways out of frustration.

There are numerous time wasters in the work place. Indecision and procrastination are perhaps the two biggest offenders. However, they are closely followed by inefficiency, interruptions, unnecessary errors, crisis management, poor organization, ineffective meetings, micro-managing, failure to delegate and lack of policies, procedures or standards to be followed.