Five (+5+5)= 15 Time Management Tips for Business

Time Management

I am sure I have given these time management tips before in my books, on this blog, or in other articles.  However, I thought a refresher would be a good idea.

1. Keep a log of what you are doing to make sure you are always doing the most important tasks.  You do not want to fill your days with minor efforts or unnecessary jobs. So plan your workday by setting high, medium, and low priorities on tasks. 
2. Keep interruptions short by not letting the other person sit down.  Once they sit down, it will be harder to get them out of your office or workspace.  So stand up when they come in and they will typically stay standing too. 
3. Arrange your work area where you do not see people traffic flow, if possible.  If you are in line of the traffic flow, you will get distracted.  Being close to the people moving about also makes it easier for them to drop-in, which disrupts your workflow (see #2). 
4. Ask the members of your team about time wasters.  Find out what you do that they feel wastes their time.  This may be a little hard for them to say so let them know it is for mutual benefit in managing time.  Knowing everyone’s time-wasters could save you and others time in the future. 
5. Make your meetings more effective and efficient!  I had said this before - plan your time together so none of you wastes each other’s time.  That means having an agenda (3 T's) for efficiency (getting the right things done) during the meeting and recording actions (3 W’s) for effectiveness afterwards.

The Plus 5’s in my post title refers to articles I have recently published with either five additional time management tips/tricks or that provide a little more detail for the above tips.  If you review those articles too you will have a total of fifteen tips.  To review the additional time management tips, visit these links.

• 5 Time Management Tricks Managers Use for inbox, desk, lunch, interruptions, and meetings.
• 5 Tried and True Time Management Tips for prioritizing, delegating, paperwork and emails.