Time Management

21 Questions to Assess Your Readiness for Time Management

Are you ready to begin improving your time management skills? Much is written on HOW to manage your time while little mentions the first step of time management...

Follow the Red Threads

To spot an area where you would like to improve your management of time keep a log of your activities. Often time management difficulties are caused by common threads or red threads...

A Word About Time Management Fanaticism

Do you have a fear of being labeled as a Time Management freak by your associates? Do people say to you, "I don't want to be so obsessed with Time Management that I can't enjoy life!" Perhaps you are taking this thing too seriously...

Time is Money

Benjamin Franklin was frugal with time and money. When we think of money, as business persons, we soon begin thinking of budgets. We think, too, of the best investments for our money. So it is with time...

Overlook Two Things Today

Are you a busy person who adds tasks to your "To Do List" because it seemed like a good idea at the time?

Call in the Fire Investigators

Do you have an "arsonist" in your midst? A person who boasts of excelling at solving crises could be a suspect for being the person who started the crisis. You may find that some time management issues may be the result of sabotage...

Put a Price On Your Info, Time and Advice

We all know the value of a dollar, but do you know the value of your time? Why not calculate a dollar amount for your time? If your time is worth a hundred dollars an hour you and others will treat your time with more respect...

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Attempting Too Much At Once

A common mistake of many managers is to miscalculate the amount of time required for performing a task. Learn how to avoid the stress of having attempted too much at one time...

Unrealistic Time Estimates

Unrealistic time estimates are a common mistake in the management of time. These poor estimates could relate to a reluctance to make logs of your activities...

Reluctance to do a Time Log

Good data is the first step in problem solving. If you expect to solve your time management problems you need good data...

Apply the Concepts of Critical Path Methods

Critical Path Methods aren't just for big business. The principles can be applied to the smallest of enterprises...

Reap the Benefits of Planning

The return on investment of planning time has a high yield. Planning reduces the amount of time wasted during execution...

Lack of Objectives, Priorities and Deadlines

Lacking objectives, priorities and deadlines is an internal time management issue requiring modification of your personal behavior...

Calculate Your Per-Minute Wage

Want to be able to answer the question: "is this a good use of my time?" Try calculating your per-minute wage...

Plan Your Earliest Quitting Time

A well-written news story is written in such a way that after the first few paragraphs an editor can lob off paragraphs without destroying the critical elements of the story. Your working day can be organized in the same way...

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Challenge Every Call to a Meeting

Meetings are a great time waster. Whenever possible find a valid reason to excuse yourself from a meeting or a reason to avoid calling the meeting in the first place...

Hold Stand-up Meetings

Managers tend to spend a lot of time in meetings. One method to reduce the amount of time spent in a meeting is to hold stand-up meetings...

Make Use of Your Time at Obligatory Meetings

There are some meetings you just can't avoid. This doesn't mean you have to waste the entire meeting time...

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Manage Telephone Interruptions

If any time waster can benefit from a log analysis it is the interruptions caused by random incoming telephone calls...

Outgoing Telephone Calls

The standard advice for managing outgoing calls is batching. There are several methods you can use to effectively batch your outgoing phone calls...

Shorten Incoming Sales Calls

If you know anything about selling techniques you know a good sales presentation progresses through several stages. You will save time if you can intercept at any one of the stages...

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Identify the Interrupters

Interruptions are a major factor in time management. Learn to identify who or what is interrupting you...

Have an Inventory of Stops

Have you ever wanted to end a conversation because you had other matters to attend to? Develop a number of phrases and actions designed to cut conversations short...

Drop-in Visitors

Drop-in visitors can consume a lot of your time (Usually when you don't have any time to spare). Eliminating visitors is a key aspect to managing your time...

Know What to do Next

After completing a task, take notice of the time it takes for you to start the next task...

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Personal Disorganization

Personal disorganization is another time management 'red thread'. Disorganization can be a major cause for your lack of time...

Do It Now!

One cure for preventing your Do List from becoming an overwhelming stressor is to reduce additions to the list...

Indecision and Procrastination

A key factor in time management is the elimination of indecision and procrastination. Although they may seem to be caused by others, difficulties in this area are internal matters requiring modification of your own behavior...

Lack of Self-discipline

We have all experienced some form of discipline. Some of us have done quite well when it was imposed by others. Discipline's not the obstacle the self part is...

Think Departure Time

Improve punctuality and reduce stress by thinking of the departure time when recording a meeting time...

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Earn Respect for the Value of Your Time

Your success in business will improve if you can do fewer less important tasks. The first step in achieving this goal is to condition others to respect the value of your time...

Overcome the Fear of Delegating

Is your reluctance to delegate tasks based on fear? Until you confront your fear of delegating to others, your management of time will not change...

Know How to Delegate

Delegating is a time management skill that must be learned if you expect to use your time efficiently. Why waste time on a task if someone else can do it for you? The delegation of tasks offers many benefits...

Asking for Results Sustains Delegation

Do you want to manage for results without appearing dictatorial? Do you want to guide your associates toward positive outcomes as promptly as possible without appearing bossy?

Have a Regular Quiet Hour

Setting a regular quiet hour is an effective way to accomplish a task without unnecessary distractions or interruptions. One or two quiet times a day is a good habit to develop...

Since Time is Money, You Have to Earn It

Instead of assuming the right to say, "No," to the demands on your time, earn that right by having the reputation of saying, "Yes."

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Record Your Inefficiencies as They Occur

People in Time Management workshops often have difficulty making a list of their inefficiencies. An effective way of listing your time wasters and inefficiencies is to record them as they occur...

Save Hours of Time by Reducing Excess Handlings

Excess handlings accumulate to wasted hours. Excess handlings refers to handling an object a number of times when one single handling would have completed a task...

Handling To-Do's Requires Efficiency

When you leave your "To-Do" projects exposed in your active work space, you are putting yourself at risk to waste-time...

Processing Email Efficiently - Part 1

Do you waste a lot of time processing your email? Here are some tips to improve the efficiency of your email processing...

The Principle of Materiality

In accounting there is the Principle of Materiality that guides a record-keeper in deciding when and where to place insignificant items. Basically, if it requires more effort than it's worth - forget it. This principle can be applied to your management of time...

Compare the Efficiencies

If you are having doubts about the advantages of managing your time better, compare the efficiencies...

File 12

File 12 is in reference to the tradition of naming a wastebasket as 'File 13.' File 12 is the penultimate wastebasket. If it's not critical information for your essential data collection, toss it in the File 12...

Shorten Time Between Tasks

Have you ever completed a task and wasted time admiring your handiwork? Or, do you tend to be distracted between tasks? Do you plan only one task at a time instead of a sequence of tasks? This is valuable time slipping through the cracks...

Involvement in Routine and Detail

Routines and paying attention to details are important aspects to any manager's life. What is more important is how these consumers of valuable time are managed...

A Cluttered Desk

People make jokes by saying a clean desk is a sign of a sick mind. Managers of a clean desk believe a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind...

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