Time is one of those things which cannot be expanded, however it can be better managed. Every one of us has 24 hours or 1,440 minutes per day. Some business people are better managers of their time than others. Business people need to allocate the number of hours per day that they are prepared to spend at work and then prioritise how they are going to spend that time.
Managers need to consider a lot of things when allocating time covering:
- Technical issues:
– sales
– client/customer work
- Management issues:
– planning
– team leadership
– conferences
– controlling operations
– developing new products and services
– administration
– training and development
How do you better manage your time? Here are some suggestions:
- Establish daily and weekly priority goals/”to do” lists. Mark off the task when it’s completed and periodically prepare a log sheet of the amount of time you spent on various tasks.
- Control the telephone. Do not allow the telephone to control you. Perhaps you could have messages taken during the day and then have very specific time allocations to return telephone calls (e.g. one in the morning, the other in the afternoon). Have a “quiet period” each day so you can use the “quality time” to plan your daily activities and business strategies.
- Consider and analysis those persons or tasks that cause you to waste time. Can you change your management style to overcome these time wasters (e.g. it might be better if you visited others in their offices or business premises rather than meeting in your office?) The visitor can close the meeting and basically leave.
- Meetings. All meetings should have an agenda and should start and finish on time. At meetings, ensure that minutes are taken and distributed and follow these up at the next meeting. If this type of activity continues at all meetings it will speed up the process.
- Delegate. Is there anything currently on your desk or work area that could be delegated to someone else in the organisation?
Management of time is essential if you wish to be successful in business. Effective management involves planning, delegation and eliminating bad time wasting practices. Remember, everyone is allocated the same amount of time each day. How you effectively spend it will have a significant impact on how you perform as a business person.