Are you one that pays attention to your time in managing your work? If you stress the words pay attention, I would answer yes to this question. Especially if we were discussing a topic like managing your work.
Related: To do what you love, you must be so good they can’t ignore you.
Nothing else can be managed if time is not managed. Pretty tough quote by Peter Drucker, but if you think about it carefully, you will agree. Managing your work doesn’t come easy and it starts and ends with productive use of time.
Managing your work is all about the ability to plan and control how you spend the hours in your day to effectively accomplish your goals. Poor time management is related to procrastination, as well as problems with self-control. Skills involved in managing your time include planning ahead, setting and prioritizing goals, and paying attention to what you have accomplished.
Before going further in telling you how to be more productive in managing your work, let me tell a story to set the stage. The story is really an effective analogy and here it is:
This story is about a big game prize. Your prize winnings are in the form of a daily deposit by your bank into your account. Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400 in your private account for your use.
However, this prize has rules :
Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.
You may not simply transfer money into some other account.
You may only spend it.
Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400 for that day.
The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, ”Game Over!” It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.
So what would be your plan of action?
You would buy anything and everything you wanted right?
Not only for yourself but for all the people you love and care for. Even for people, you don’t know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right?
You would try to spend every penny, and use it all, because you knew it would be replenished in the morning, right?
ACTUALLY, This GAME is REAL …..
Each of us is already a winner of this “prize”.
Only instead of money, this prize is TIME.
Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life.
And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.
What we haven’t used up that day is forever lost.
Yesterday is forever gone.
Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time WITHOUT WARNING …
So, what is your plan of action for this precious commodity each day? What is your plan of action for getting things done with your time?
Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars. Think about that and enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.
Start spending ….. But spend wisely.
It often feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things we want to accomplish, let alone find a moment to relax. The demands of work and social life, combined with our basic needs for sleep, food, and exercise, can quickly add up and overflow, producing the sense that time is constantly slipping away.
Time may be limited, but it doesn’t have to always feel that way. New research suggests that our state of mind can change the way we perceive and experience time, and in turn, make us happier and more successful in getting things done.
In addition, follow these 10 ways to help you in managing your work done:
Know yourself
Know the details of your personality. Make sure you appreciate how putting things off will affect you.
What to do
Pay attention to all the insights into your habits and use these insights to muster as many self-corrections as possible.
Establish your plan
In order to have your priorities lined up for each day, make a list of things that you have to do the night before and evaluate the importance of those projects. By committing your priorities to paper, you psychologically enter into a contract with yourself because it creates a greater responsibility in your mind to manage your tasks.
What to do
Make sure the plan you establish doesn’t overwhelm you. It definitely needs to add some flexibility.
More time management
Coming up short on time toward the end of the day? Get started 30 minutes early. It will give you some breathing room in the day and start the day with important alone time. There’s nothing better than starting the day fully organized and ready to go. It could also give you some time to re-think today’s priorities.
What to do
Estimate time goals for each of the day’s tasks. See how well you do and use the feedback for better planning and learning.
Change perspectives
Plan to spend at least 50 percent of your time engaged in the thoughts, activities, and conversations that produce most of your results.
What to do
Reevaluate what interests and affects you. Apply this to reassess all work tasks.
Make commitments
Oftentimes, we don’t do the essential things that need to be done because we get sidetracked — in many cases by tasks we’d rather be doing.
What to do
In order to avoid this trap, it’s important to keep the focus on the plan of attack on your priority tasks.
Be realistic
When you’ve created a plan and a schedule, it’s important to be realistic about what you can actually accomplish in a workday and prioritize accordingly.
When you can visualize how you plan your day to go, you can cut back the downtime. Got enough work done? Put some time in the gym or talk to your family.
What to do
If you can schedule and plan accordingly, you’ll never run out of time when well managed.
Schedule time for interruptions
Plan time to be pulled away from what you’re doing. It will happen, as it happens to us all.
What to do
Accommodate these interruptions in your plan with good flexibility.
Break up big tasks
Break up all major tasks into the smallest subtasks possible. Understand the relationships and dependencies of the subtasks.
What to do
Keeping up with an organizer that holds every subtask plan effort will permit better work management. Most people think they can get away with just creating mental notes, but that’s not good planning. Plan time to be pulled away from what you’re doing.
Avoid distractions
Easily the hardest thing to do all day at work is to be able to focus at all times. We all struggle with distraction, but being able to get back on the horse and stay focused is a great talent.
What to do
Learn how to improve your ability to say no effectively.
Anticipate and plan for the unexpected
Remember this: everyone in the managing work tasks business will tell you the same thing – “anticipate and plan for the unexpected.”
What to do
It is very difficult to manage your work until you have established your own sense of priority and purpose. Get the details of your plan worked out as early as possible.
Do you have a lesson about managing your work better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s work management skills, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas for running or facilitating a project management workshop?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way
More reading on continuous learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
10 Ways Personal Development Can Improve Long-Term Success
Creative Ideas to Build Collaborative Teams in Organizations
The Story and Zen of Getting Things Done
How to Take Charge of Your Peace of Mind
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