Are you one of those people (like myself!) who wishes there was extra time in the day so you could finish everything on your to-do list? Sometimes it seems like you can be on overdrive from morning til night and yet it’s difficult to really quantify what you accomplished.
Rather than beating yourself up, follow these simple tips so you can work more efficiently and become more productive during your working hours. (Your family will thank you, too, for not taking work home.)
1. Take time to plan your week. Sit down on Monday morning and spend some time thinking about what tasks need to get done that week and start writing everything down. Prioritize each task and then delegate which tasks should be done on which day this week. Add in any conference calls, deadlines or client meetings you’ve already got scheduled and you now have a blueprint for each day of the week.
2. Batch your activities together. “Batching” simply means grouping similar activities together so it can all get done at once instead of starting and stopping the same activity multiple times each day. Let’s take email, for example. Rather than opening your inbox and answering 1 email every 15 minutes during the day, let the emails accumulate for a few hours and then answer them twice a day. Yes, you’ll have a longer list of emails to answer but you won’t feel the need to login 25 times a day and you can focus on other things.
3. Avoid time wasting activities while at work. Whether you run your business from home or you’re actually out in an office, there are countless ways to get distracted from working. You can login to Facebook with the good intention of just checking on some friends or making some posts about your business but that can soon turn into wasted time if you start scanning through other people’s posts. The same can be true if a coworker comes into your office to chat about last night’s big game. Social interaction is certainly fun and necessary but it’s best saved until after your work projects are completed.
4. You’re not a superhero – prioritize your tasks. If you try to move at the speed of light, trying to finish everything on your list, you’ll likely be headed for a tail spin. Focus on what’s most important and if possible, delegate what you’re not able to finish. It’s always better to do a few things well than to do everything half-baked.
Working efficiently takes some practice but it’s not an impossible task. I’d love to hear about any other time management tips you use on a regular basis so leave a comment below!
