“Of all losses, time is the most irrecuperable for it can never be redeemed.” – King Henry VIII
We never seem to have enough time. Yet, even if there were more hours in the day, we would probably be just as busy and overwhelmed.
The key to managing time is to not manage it. Don’t try to stretch it. You can’t. Don’t wish you had more time for this or that. You don’t. The trick is to manage your expectations about what you can get done in a certain amount of time.
Here are five time management tips that you may be overlooking.
1. Prioritizing Is Not Optional
Don’t expect to get more important things done without defining each task’s importance. You can’t do every task at once, so you need to decide which tasks should come first, second and so forth. Then you can put your focus and energy into the things that matter most.
2. Schedule Blank Time
Let’s debunk another unrealistic expectation: the perfect calendar. You can schedule tasks with stopwatch precision, but some will take longer than planned. So schedule some blank time, and save yourself the stress. It’s a win-win: if something unforeseen happens, you’ll have that time to tackle it; if nothing urgent happens, you’ll have that time to do something else.
3. Run Efficient Meetings
Let’s face it, a lot of time is wasted in meetings. Make them more efficient by insisting on punctuality and staying on topic. Consider scheduling shorter meetings. That way, there’s less time to waste.
4. Say No
If you expect to please everyone, excel at everything, and do it all, you will fail. You must say “no” to some things in order to say “yes” to others. Run every request through your filter of goals and commitments, that is, determine if the task requested is aligned with your business, professional and personal goals.
5. Control Your Email
People in the U.S. daily spend about 172 minutes checking their personal emails and 149 minutes checking their work emails (Statista, 2021). That’s 5.35 hours a day! If time is money … well … you do the math.
Set up time slots to work on emails: morning, afternoon and evening. Prioritize emails based on topic and whether or not you can assign them to someone else. Keep your replies short. Greet the recipient and go straight to the point.
So there you have it. And we did it in fewer tips and less time than the average time management article!
