Do you feel the need to be more organized or more productive? Do you spend your day in a frenzy of activity and then wonder why you haven't accomplished much?
Time management skills are especially important for small business people, who often find themselves performing many different jobs during the course of a day.
These time management tips will help you increase productivity while staying cool and collected.
1. REALIZE THAT TIME MANAGEMENT IS A MYTH
No matter how organized we are, there are always only 24 hours in a day. Time doesn't change. All we can actually manage is ourselves and what we do with the time that we have.
2. FIND OUT WHERE YOU'RE WASTING TIME
Many of us are prey to time-wasters that steal time we could be using much more productively. What are your time bandits? Do you spend too much time web surfing, reading emails, on Facebook, texting, or making personal calls?
In a survey by salary.com, 89 percent of respondents admitted to wasting time every day at work.
Tracking Daily Activities explains how to track your activities so you can form an accurate picture of how much time you spend on various activities. This is the first step to effective time management.
3. CREATE TIME MANAGEMENT GOALS
Remember, the focus of time management is actually changing your behaviors, not changing time. A good place to start is by eliminating your personal time-wasters.
For one week, for example, set a goal that you're not going to take personal phone calls or respond to non-work related text messages while you're working.
4. IMPLEMENT A TIME MANAGEMENT PLAN
Think of this as an extension of the third tip. The objective is to change your behaviors over time to achieve whatever general goal you've set for yourself, such as increasing your productivity or decreasing your stress.
So you need to not only set your specific goals, but track them over time to see whether or not you're accomplishing them.
5. USE TIME MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Whether it's a Day-Timer or a software program, the first step to physically managing your time is to know where it's going now and planning how you're going to spend your time in the future.
A software program such as Outlook lets you schedule events easily and can be set to remind you of events in advance, making your time management easier.
6. PRIORITIZE RUTHLESSLY
You should start each day with a session prioritizing the tasks for that day and setting your performance benchmark.
If you have 20 tasks for a given day, how many of them do you truly need to accomplish?
7. LEARN TO DELEGATE AND/OR OUTSOURCE
In my experience, delegation is one of the hardest things to learn how to do for many business owners. But no matter how small your business is, there's no need for you to be a one-person show.
Determining Your Personal ROI explains two ways to pinpoint which tasks you'd be better off delegating or outsourcing, while Decide to Delegate provides tips for actually getting on with the job of delegating.
8. ESTABLISH ROUTINES AND STICK TO THEM
While crises will arise, you'll be much more productive if you can follow routines most of the time.
9. SET TIME LIMITS FOR TASKS
For instance, reading and answering email can consume your whole day if you let it. Instead, set a limit of one hour a day for this task and stick to it.
10. BE SURE YOUR SYSTEMS ARE ORGANIZED
Are you wasting a lot of time looking for files on your computer? Take the time to organize a file management system.
Is your filing system slowing you down? Redo it, so it's organized to the point that you can quickly lay your hands on what you need.
11. DON'T WASTE TIME WAITING
From client meetings to dentist appointments, it's impossible to avoid waiting for someone or something. But you don't need to just sit there and twiddle your thumbs.
Technology makes it easy to work wherever you are; your tablet or smartphone will help you stay connected. You can be reading a report, checking a spreadsheet, or planning your next marketing campaign.
YOUR TIME BELONGS TO YOU
You can be in control and accomplish what you want to accomplish — once you've come to grips with the time management myth and take control of your own time.
Originally published on thebalance.com.