It is pardonable to be defeated, but never be surprised. A famous quote from Frederick the Great. Are you often surprised by time management issues?
Not a good thing, is it? There are many deadly time management mistakes that can surprise you and kill your productivity. We will discuss many of the most significant in this article.
Check out our thoughts on team leverage.
No matter where you are in your career, all of us need all the help we can get managing your time.
Even when you’re working hard, you could be wasting a tremendous amount of time either by trying to multitask or by focusing too much on minute details.
In those cases, you will be surprised often.
Related: Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Let’s dive into a discussion of these mistakes that can be deadly no matter where you are in your career:
Not managing priorities
Time is all about priorities, isn’t it? In fact, I would conclude none of us really run out of time.
If you didn’t finish something by the time it was due, it’s because you didn’t consider it urgent or enjoyable enough to prioritize ahead of whatever else you were doing.
Think about it. How many times is this issue for you?
Time management … forcing your pace
Work more when you are on a roll and in the zone. Back off your pace and relax more when you’re not. Simple enough, isn’t it?
Some days you’ll be off your game, and other times you’ll be able to maintain your focus for 12 hours straight. Take advantage of those times.
Time management examples … not planning for unanticipated events
Everyone needs to build in some buffer time in their plan. As the founder of Ruby on Rails and Basecamp, David Heinemeier Hansson said, “Only plan on four to five hours of real work per day.”
Is this the way you plan and manage your time and activities?
Time management mistakes … multitasking
I can think of nothing worse for time management than multitasking. It is just not the best way to use your brain.
When you multitask, it kills your focus and productivity.
There have been academic studies that found the brain expends energy as it readjusts its focus from one item to the next.
If you’re spending your day multitasking, you’re exhausting your brain.
Not breaking big tasks into smaller ones
The action plan you need to finish may be intimidating at 8 in the morning. To reduce the stress, get your mind on the right path with easy tasks interspersed between the big ones.
An example is how you handle answering important work emails and telephone calls.
Take the big, tough tasks and break them into smaller ones.
Time management techniques … setting too much time for tasks
Work always seems to find a way of filling the space allotted for it, so set shorter time limits for each task.
Not taking advantages of constraints
More work hours doesn’t mean more productivity. Use constraints as opportunities.
Don’t kid yourself into thinking that sitting at your desk will somehow extract work from you.
Do whatever you can to finish your current task by the end of regular work hours instead of working into the night.
Not mixing brainless and strategic tasks
Ideally, you can brainstorm your ideas and then execute them.
If you’re constantly stopping your flow of work to rethink something, you’re slowing yourself down. It is much better to move completely to the next task.
Do another iteration of the old task at a later time.
Not working iteratively
Expectations to do things perfectly are stifling. So don’t set your goals to be perfect. A better approach is to do tasks in an iterative fashion.
Gen. George S. Patton once said, “A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”.
Not organizing important meetings in advance
Not scheduling meetings and communication by email
You’ll disrupt your flow if you’re reaching out to people throughout the day.
The time leading up to an event is often wasted. If you have an important meeting scheduled for 4 p.m., it’s easy for anxiety to set in and keep that meeting at the front of your mind.
Try to get them over with early so you can work without worrying about them.
Not working around procrastination
Procrastinate between intense sprints of work.
Try Francesco Cirillo’s “Pomodoro Technique.” “Pomodoro” is Italian for “tomato,” and it refers to the tomato-shaped cooking timer Cirillo used to break his work into 25-minute increments with 5-minute breaks in between.
You can use the same idea with your own time increments, as long as they inspire bursts of hard work.
Not appreciating priorities
No two tasks ever hold the same importance. Always prioritize. Be really careful with to-do lists.
Daily to-do lists are effective ways of scheduling your day. Just do what you can to keep bullet points from making “clean desk” on par with “file taxes.”
Not delegating
One time management issue for many of new workers is lacking action to delegate. Learn to make use of other people.
To be truly efficient, get over the fear of handing work off to someone else. “If something can be done 80% as well by someone else, delegate!” says John C. Maxwell, author of “How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life.”
Not letting go of yesterday
Only ever think about today and tomorrow. Don’t distract yourself with either the successes or failures of the past. Focus instead on what’s in front of you.
Can be tough to do but nothing is more essential.
Not setting deadlines for everything
Don’t let tasks go on indefinitely. Spending too much time on a project or keeping it on the backburner for too long will lead to stagnation.
Get things done and move on.
Not taking notes
Always take notes. Don’t assume you’ll remember every good idea that comes into your head during the day.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a notebook, whiteboard, or an app like Evernote — just write stuff down.
Write down any unrelated thoughts that pop up when you’re in the zone so that they don’t linger as distractions.
You’ll get them out of the way without losing them.
The bottom line
Remember this: everyone in the time-management consulting business will tell you the same thing – “learn to say no.”
It is very difficult to say no until you have established your own sense of priority and purpose.
Procrastination is not a time management problem.
However, if you’re procrastinating, chances are you’re managing your time very poorly. Why?
It’s because you haven’t clearly established the priorities important in your life – your purpose and meaning.
