Time Management
- 1. Time Management 1 Time Management is no longer just a concept – it’s a necessity Out of Control African time – The enemy of time management? African time is something most of us are aware of. Once perceived as a cultural tendency to be late, we have started to accept it as a way of life. It involves a “relaxed” attitude to time, as opposed to the clock-based Western way of life. But, given the fast –past world of business, is there really still room for this attitude? The answer is: not if we want to keep up with the rest of the world. Tight deadlines, increasing workloads and lack of time are all impossible to manage without a more proactive attitude to time. This is where time management comes in. Many years ago, you knew what your job was. You showed up for work, you completed your tasks for the day, taking your union-standard lunch hour and tea breaks, and you went home. Nowadays our job responsibilities are no longer cut-and - dried. We may have vague job titles that secretly mean we do five different jobs. We may run projects over a number of months, involving huge amounts of money and, more often we also run a number of these simultaneously. If we don’t manage our time, we can never hope to get anything done to the standards required. Seven Steps to better time management 1.Be prepared If you have a big project looming, get your admin in order and start preparing for the workload. You need to hire new people, get the
- 2. Time Management 2 right tools for the job or decide which members of staff can handle the job. 2.Set Goals These serve as a call to action and a motivation to get through the work in a timely manner. If you set weekly goals, you have something concrete to work towards. Let the team be involved in setting these goals. 3.Allocate and Delegate Don’t try to control all aspects yourself or heap the work on one person. Delegate tasks to each member of the team and allow them to take responsibility –let them make decisions too so they feel valued and invested. Also make sure to define each person’s role so no one can “pass the buck “. 4.Improve Tools and processes If there a calendar, spreadsheet, computer programme or technique to make things easier, make use of them. This will increase efficiency and rule out a bit of human error –if your PC reminds you of a deadline, the work is more likely to get done on time. 5.Banish Bad Practices If any process are outdated, cumbersome or more complicated than they need to be, you need to re-look at them. If something stops the flow of work (for example, if one person holds up the process because they need to sign off on something before the project can
- 3. Time Management 3 move forward) then address the issue, and find a workable solution. 6.Set Priorities Make a-to do list and learn how to priorities. If you have a large workload you need to have a systematic approach to the tasks at hand. Lists can be a very useful aide. 7.Monitor and Analyse Hold a weekly meeting so you can get updates on progress and check that the deadlines and goals are being met .Speak to team members that are not coping and assess why .Do they need help ?Are their time management skills not effective ?How can this be fixed? Methods There are a number of different methods that can be used to maximise your time. These include: POSEC method Prioritise by Organising Economising and Contributing PomodoroTechnique This advocates that mental agility is improved by sectioning work into set intervals with frequent breaks in between.
- 4. Time Management 4 GTD(Getting Things Done )Method You need to record externally in order to free your Mind to concentrate on the task at hand. This is because the human brain is not reliable enough to store all the information itself. Pareto Analysis (The 80-20 Rule) The Premise is that 80% of tasks can be completed in 20%of the time available and the remaining 20% can be completed in 80% of the time. You need to prioritise the first category. Eisenhower Method For this you need to divide tasks into four categories: Important and urgent – sort out personally and immediately Important but not urgent –action personally with a set end date Not important but urgent – delegate Not important and not urgent - drop