Do you struggle trying to get every task completed during the work day, not matter how early you get into the office, or how late you leave? Are you constantly feeling the stress of trying to meet strict deadlines for getting that contract proposal completed? Do you feel as though you are spreading yourself too thin, or trying to work on too many projects at one time? You could have a problem with your time management skills.
Not being able to manage your time well at work will ultimately lead to your stress levels being raised, and business failure. The more stress you are under, the worse you will perform at work.
Many of us business owners have trouble effectively managing our time. It is true that, at some points in our careers, we will feel overwhelmed by the amount of work we need to complete with the hands of the clock ticking down. However, for some business owners, time management is a concept which is hard to get a handle on.
Bad time management leads to bad work performance. Business owners who can not effectively manage their time will find themselves in a constant rush to meet deadlines, or will find themselves spread so thin trying to complete every task that they will not be able to focus on the most important aspects of running their business well. This is where time management coaching comes in.
Learning the key to successful time management is paramount for any business owner. With strong time management skills in place, business owners will find that they are able to get more done throughout the day and, as a result, will be able to generate more income.
Time management coaching will allow business owners to focus in on the important aspects of running a business. By learning how to prioritize your tasks, business owners will find that they will not only be able to do more throughout the day, but will also be able to focus on the most important and demanding tasks at hand.
Learning to develop strong time management skills can really help you to get your business on track. Not only that, but good time management will help to keep you focused on tasks and help you to become more productive on a daily basis.
The first most important step in time management optimization is to keep track of your regular daily routine. While it might seem counter productive to start a time management system without really starting anything other than a time record sheet, this evaluation process will be the most helpful guide to show you where you are wasting important time. For example, if you spend an hour on a phone call which should only take 10 minutes, noting this in your time record sheet will show you how much time you are losing on trivial tasks throughout the day. It will also show you where you need to dedicate more time.
For the first week, you should focus on keeping track of time taken to perform all of your daily tasks. You should also note if you actually completed your tasks during the day, or if you had a ‘run on’ until the next day. Additionally, it is important to note if you start more than one task at a time. Doing this can make you lose focus and can extend time, or reduce time, on tasks which require your immediate attention.
Once you have evaluated your time skills for a week, you can use this data to set daily goals, make plans and plot an appropriate time table for the next week.
When goal setting, planning and time tabling, always make sure that you prioritize your daily tasks and set realistic time goals to completing them. As a priority, you should ‘clean up’ any tasks which were not completed the day before. After that, focus on getting ahead of yourself and completing the other vital tasks before finishing your day with more trivial tasks. Don’t put off until tomorrow what you need to do today. Also, set realistic time goals and make sure you leave time aside during the day for breaks and emergency situations. Factoring in 30 mins a day to deal with important tasks which might crop up, such as urgent phone calls or staff meetings, will mean a lot in the long run. Again, do not over extend your time dealing with trivial tasks.
During the process of time management training, you should always keep a time record sheet. This will always help you to see where you are losing time and also where your time management skills are improving.
Keep building on your time management strengths and keep evaluating your time spent on tasks. Before too long you will find that you are becoming more focused and productive at work, and taking less worry home at night.