Wish you could have 25 hours a day? It is incredible how we never seem to get things done because most of our time at work is spent wasted on irrelevant activity. If you feel overloaded and you want to improve the way you manage your day, it’s time to step back and analyse where you’re going wrong. Shelley Fishel of The IT Training Surgery, gives us some tips on improving productivity and time management.
Organise yourself
Sometimes stopping what we do and spending a little bit of time to plan our day really helps to clear the mind. Start by making a small list of your most important tasks or deadlines, and then prioritise them by importance. If you do this at the start of each day you will never feel overloaded, because psychologically you will only be dealing with a few tasks at a time.
Organise your desk or workspace
It is often said that a tidy desk is a tidy mind, and this is certainly true in the workplace. You can cut down on the time it takes to find an important document or printout if you have a clutter free desk and an organised workspace.
Avoid unnecessary meetings
It’s amazing how much time is wasted by meetings. You can spend hours discussing topics to the core, only to find that follow up meetings cover the same topics you have already discussed. People believe that meetings are important for moving a project forward, and this is true, but sometimes are overly long and repetitive. If possible, decline some meetings invitations, so that you can focus on more pressing tasks.
Use the phone
Sending emails can be an enormous time waster. By the time you have typed your message and waited for the other person to respond, half a day could have passed and you still haven’t resolved the issue. In fact, the situation can be exasperated by long email conversations that become increasingly impossible to follow. Break the habit, and simply pick up the phone to your work colleagues. This not only cuts down on email trails, but forces a discussion and hopefully a decision in much less time.
Use apps
Apps are all over the place; no matter your industry, position or task, there is an app that can surely help you make your life easier, and even get your job done in a better way. You can choose from a wide range of sources, paid and unpaid, and benefit from its usage both personally and professionally. Most of them are also available for any device, so you can even manage on the go.
Stay in control of your time management and you’ll be more likely to meet those important deadlines. Do you have any tips to share on how to get more done in less time?
To help you on this (almost) impossible mission, we’ve selected a list of the best apps for busy professionals, so you can make it harder, better, faster, stronger! Download your copy now:
How to get more things done in less time