Time Management
By Siân Morgan-Owen, The Admin Genie UK
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Time Management
Being able to plan and organise is something we all have the ability to do. Juggling a business and family commitments requires planning and organising.
Some people are lucky enough to be natural at this, whilst others, take more effort. If you are the sort of person who writes ‘to-do’ lists, never goes shopping without a list and rarely late, then you are a natural planner.
However, if when you go shopping you put what you fancy at that moment in the basket, have no idea what you’re doing this weekend because it depends on what you feel like doing and are always in a hurry because you’re going to be late – you are not a natural planner. Not saying that you don’t achieve what you set out to, but you organise yourself differently and adapt accordingly.
To Do Lists are a great way to ensure you are focusing on the right areas.
Recognise Your Distractions
In this modern digital world we live in distraction is EVERYWHERE! So it’s important to recognise what drains your attention, because once you’ve spotted them, you can remove them.
- Switch you phone off and if that’s not possible, turn off all notifications and put it on silent.
- Close browser tabs that you’re not using…especially that Facebook tab. It’s easy to get distracted by a blog, YouTube video, online shopping.
- Close down emails. If you have to check every time the little envelope appears then switch of emails. I’m sure emails can wait for 30 mins at least.
Do this often enough it will eventually become a habit.
My mobile is always on silent. It’s always next to me on my desk and when it isn’t I check it often enough, so there really is no need for it to make a noise.
Planning and Organising Tips
- Save yourself time by prioritsing your tasks each day.
- Appreciate the difference between important tasks and urgent tasks. Important tasks add value to your business / performance. Urgent tasks have tight deadlines associated with them.
- Keep your ‘To Do List’ simple by keeping to bullet points.
- Goals are essential for time management so set yourself a goal to achieve each day.
- Break down large tasks into smaller bite size tasks to help you achieve your goals quicker.
- Before you tackle that larger task see if you have a couple of tasks that can be dealt with swiftly as ‘quick wins.’ Seeing a couple of items ticked off helps with motivation.
- However, don’t put off unpleasant tasks as they can hang over your day.
- If you have too much to do in a day, then move tasks or negotiate deadlines.
- Try and organise your ‘To Do List’ so you have a variety of different tasks to do throughout the day.
- Time block. Use your Outlook/Google calendar to block time out for tasks. If your Calendar is linked to your book system (Calendly for example), its a great way to stop people booking your time mid-task.
Final Thoughts!
Do a task audit. Write a list of your daily, weekly, monthly regular tasks.
- Can any of them be done in bulk? -Content creating, social media scheduling etc.
- Can any of them be outsourced? – Social media, newsletters, bookkeeping etc.
- Can any of them be automated? – Client bookings, newsletters, client questions (chatbots).
Remember – don’t give yourself too much to do and don’t overload your ‘to do’ list as this can become overwhelming.
If you have to, have more than one list. Use a RAG system:
RED – Urgent time sensitive tasks
AMBER – Must do’s at some point.
GREEN – Think’s I’d like to do. Treat yourself to a task off this list when you’ve done a few off the RED list.
