II. Basic Strategies

Numerous articles have been written on time management. These articles present various strategies for increasing your effectiveness and ultimately your time. They all agree, however, on having a clear mental picture of your lifetime goals and immediate goals (one year or less) and work each day toward reaching those long- and short-term goals. This idea is evident in various planners. Without knowing what your goals are you may be working without a sense of direction and merely putting out fires or handling crises. Remember, you won't know if you get there, if you don't know where you are going or where you want to be.

Note: The following strategies and tips come from personal experience and the various resources found at the end of this article.

1. Identify activities that are robbing you of valuable time. If you're unsure, keep a log of your time culprits (Parks). Once you determine your time culprits, focus your energies on reducing their impact.
2. Work from a to-do list.
   1. Keep track of projects that must be done, check them off when completed. By checking them off you will be more motivated to proceed to your next activity or project.
   2. Set deadlines for yourself, i.e., catch up on memos by 10:00 a.m.
3. Manage by goals and objectives and not crisis management. If you feel that every day all you are doing is putting out fires, it's time to reevaluate why these fires are occurring and focus on eliminating the causes.
4. Manage your time by handling interruptions.
   1. If you have an open-door policy, your staff and colleagues know you're available. Discuss your limited availability or establish times you are available, subsequently, your productivity will increase.
   2. Limit phone calls by having your secretary screen and trouble shoot.
   3. Designate a specific time of the day in which you return calls.
   4. Designate a time of the day in which you are available for consultations.
   5. Respond to emails at pre-determined times, once or twice a day, instead of every time you receive a message.
   6. Be alert to visitors who just drop in. Unexpected visitors can rob you of valuable minutes. Let your visitors know that you are quite busy at present but your secretary would be glad to meet with them and if appropriate, schedule an appointment.
   7. Remove extra chairs from your office.
   8. Meet uninvited visitors outside your office and if they come in, remain standing so your visitor will be less inclined to sit and talk.
   9. Learn to say, "Can we schedule some time to discuss this later?"
   10. To eliminate "phone tag," make phone calls just before lunch or near the end of the day when the other party is most likely to be there.
   11. Reposition your desk so that you don't look directly outside your office door as it may encourage conversations with passersby.
5. Don't procrastinate.
   1. Pretend the deadline is tomorrow.
   2. Outline the whole concept or project in writing.
   3. Delegate parts of the project to staff.
6. When faced with monumental tasks or projects, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN. Break down that major task into small, doable components.
   1. Develop a timetable to complete the project.
   2. Work as a committee, delegate parts of the project.
   3. Focus on completing one step at a time.
   4. Don't Procrastinate, refer to Strategy 4
7. Every piece of paper that crosses your desk should be taken care of by tossing it, referring it, acting on it, or filing it.
   1. Never let paper work accumulate on your desk
8. Eliminate anything that is not essential.
   1. Do NOT open junk mail
   2. Empower your secretary or staff to perform some of these activities.
9. Stop being a designated expert.
   1. Empower your staff to handle questions and complaints.
   2. Identify key individuals who can manage specific areas of the business.
10. Delegate everything you can.
    1. Refer to the business tool When to Delegate.
11. Just say "no." Although this may be a good strategy for some members of the team, be cautious of telling your boss you can't do something. When faced with things you can't say no to, focus on what you can do to make it a win-win situation.
    1. Put together a team that you will supervise to complete this new project.
    2. Change the time frames for project completion for this new project or prior ones.
    3. Be realistic about what you can and can't do.
12. Make every moment count!
    1. Campbell stresses the need to take advantage of time spent on the road by using downtime to return voice mail and email.
    2. Balancing a growing business and a growing family requires squeezing maximum productivity out of the available time. Some tricks include traveling at night, sleeping less, and deploying labor-saving devices.
13. Clear your desk so you can focus on your task at hand.
14. Concentration is a key to each component; it is critical to stay focused on the task at hand. That alone can increase your available time by making you more efficient.
    1. Focus on critical information when looking through publications..
    2. Close your door.
    3. Take notes on tasks at hand.
15. Use technology to enhance your skills.
16. Be flexible.
    1. Anticipate interruptions such as phone calls, visitors or a problem arising.
17. Meetings can also be major time-zappers; including the time to get to the meeting, waiting for late arrivals, inefficiently run meetings that take on personal agendas.
    1. Use meeting announcements with agendas to remind individuals and keep focused.
    2. Designate specific time frames for discussion.
    3. When meetings stray from the topic, bring people back on target by asking specific questions related to the agenda item.
    4. Consider the alternatives to meetings that are discussed below.
18. Ensure that all new employees are properly oriented and hold them accountable for their jobs. You do not have the time or energy to continually explain things or assist them on their jobs when you need to focus on doing your own.
    1. Develop, or better yet, delegate to a staff member the responsibility of developing an orientation Program.
    2. Designate key individuals to orient new employees.
    3. Make sure all job descriptions and performance standards are up to date and reflective of the job.
    4. Use a probationary period to make sure you have the right person for the position. If they continue to have difficulty performing tasks assigned, consider dismissing them.
19. Follow your internal clock to enhance your effectiveness. Are you doing your most important tasks during your most productive hours or are you scheduling your most important tasks when your brain is shutting down?
    1. Rearrange your schedule. If you work best in the early morning, do your most important tasks then.
20. Don't be afraid to hire someone to help with chores and tasks at home so you can enjoy your friends, family and self. Getting help does not mean you can't do the work; it means you are smart enough to realize that your time is valued and should be spent with those people you value and doing things you value.
21. Focus on your wellness!
    1. Eat right.
    2. Exercise.
    3. Get an appropriate amount of rest.
    4. Take time to relax.
    5. Stop bad habits, like smoking, and decrease your caffeine intake.
    6. Keep in touch with your spiritual side.
    7. Never forget to do the things that bring you enjoyment; if you are frustrated, exhausted or sick your efficiency will decrease, and you will have even less time.
    8. Spend time with family and friends.
    9. Value yourself.

III. New Strategies for Today's Technology

Imagine a day without pagers, cell phones, email, facsimiles and other technologies. Using these items may help us to get things done more efficiently, but they may also enable us to take on even more work. Using new technologies increases our ability to multi-task, or accomplish many activities at one time.

Multi-tasking is not just a term used to describe a computer's capability to do multiple functions simultaneously. It can be used to describe today's worker. While driving to a meeting, it's not uncommon for a busy executive or business owner to make some phone calls, listen to voice mail, and open up some mail. Although this may be an efficient use of time, it can be dangerous when done behind the wheel of a car! Multi-tasking can overwhelm you by creating problems with focusing on the task at hand yet provide you with those precious extra minutes in the day. When doing multi-tasking, remember if the task requires you to focus on it, do not attempt to do another task simultaneously.

Here are some strategies for multi-tasking:

1. The Internet is a valuable resource that can do more than deliver email messages.
   1. By using the attachment function on your email program. You can move information over the data network in a more expedient and less costly format than regular fax or voice mail. In fact, the number of fax pages rerouted from the voice network is growing from 44 million in 1997 to an expected 5.6 billion in 2000.
2. Consider the alternative to a direct face-to-face meeting with staff, especially when the meeting entails travel.
   1. Electronic mail -- Using a listserv can allow you to attain feedback and comments on key information.
   2. Voice mail
   3. "Just the fax ..." For companies that don't have computers linked to the Internet or a network, a fax can be used similarly. You or an appropriate individual outlines key issues and faxes it to first person on a routing list, who adds comments and suggestions then faxes the original and their comments to the next person in a round-robin fashion.
   4. Online meetings can be done with software packages such as First Class TM. These programs are especially conducive to brainstorming.
   5. Teleconferencing
   6. Videoconferencing
3. When using online services, filter through the information and focus on key information (Beck).
4. Whenever possible use email.
   1. Correspond to colleagues at your convenience; don't be interrupted by making phone calls or answering phone calls.
   2. A word of caution: Although email fits almost everyone's schedule, messages may be misconstrued and not interpreted as intended.
5. If you receive numerous pages each day and can only return calls at key times, notify your family and immediate staff to put a tail on their return number, such as 911, for especially important messages.
6. If you have limited keyboarding skills, consider using a voice-activated word processing software package.