Too busy? Or not in control of your time?

We all have periods at work when we struggle to have enough time in the day to get everything done. But what interests us are the many studies on how people control their time and some of the ways they can truly save time and be more efficient if only they could take a step back and reflect!

Well anyone can, so why not give it a try if you feel hard pressed with these few ideas we have to help you save your time.....your alternative is to keep going under pressure for ever!

“Eating the FROG”

If there is one job that definitely has to be done in the day, do it as a priority and get it out of the way! This can apply to both undesirable tasks and difficult tasks and the longer you leave them the more you find other things to do that are not important

“Email – Who’s in control?”

Don’t check your email constantly unless you are waiting for an email to process your priority work for the day! The reason is that reading or responding to ad hoc emails from colleagues, managers, and customers is a waste of time! Check emails once / twice per day, (depending how important they are to your productivity), that way you select what’s important and deal with it in PRIORITY order as part of your workload. If you check emails all day long you are letting others dictate your daily work, how “out of control” is that?

"Grouping similar tasks"

By grouping together tasks that are similar in nature and working on them in one concentrated effort is much more efficient than doing them at different times of the day. Examples: processing payments, updating spreadsheets, dealing with quick response emails, updating budgets, updating action plans, ….any routine work which requires you to either set up, log in to something or use common actions.

"Creating Red Time"

If you manage staff often you allow yourself to be too accessible all of the time. So if you are needing to get things done more efficiently, set "red time" periods when staff are encouraged to manage themselves until you are free again. Be sure to make it clear to staff when your red time is and put a note on your desk or door to remind them.

If you want to learn more about working efficiently, drop us a line at info@cbisengland.co.uk