Perhaps you are afraid of failing? (And some people are actually afraid of success!) The best way to beat it is to recognize that you do indeed procrastinate. Procrastination is as tempting as it is deadly. After too many "laters" the work piles up so high that any task seems insurmountable. "I'll get to it later" has led to the downfall of many a good employee. Here, do what you sensibly can to minimize it, but make sure you don't scare people away from interrupting you when they should. However, some jobs need you to be available for people when they need help – interruption is a natural and necessary part of life. Our article on Managing Interruptions discusses how you can minimize your interrupted time.
Some do need to be dealt with immediately, but others need to be managed. There are phone calls, information requests, questions from employees, and a whole host of events that crop up unexpectedly. It is widely recognized that managers get very little uninterrupted time to work on their priority tasks. The next issue is knowing what to do to minimize the interruptions you face during your day.
#Time manager how to#
Having a plan and knowing how to prioritize it is one thing. For information on how to start prioritizing your tasks, see Activity Logs, Prioritized To Do Lists, Prioritization, The Action Priority Matrix, and Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle. This way you won't get caught scrambling to get something critical done as the deadline approaches. To work efficiently you need to work on the most important, highest value tasks. So how do you work on To Do List tasks – top down, bottom up, easiest to hardest? There is no rhyme or reason to the list and, because of this, the work they do is just as unstructured. The problem with many of these lists is they are just a collection of things that need to get done. Most people have a "to-do" list of some sort. Without it, you may work very hard, but you won't be achieving the results you desire because what you are working on is not of strategic importance. Prioritizing what needs to be done is especially important. If you are serious about time management, we suggest you start with Personal Goal Setting and The Golden Rules of Goal Setting. Mind Tools has two great articles on goal setting that are must-reads for everyone. What they fail to consider is that a little time and effort put in now saves an enormous amount of time, effort and frustration in the future. People tend to neglect goal setting because it requires time and effort. Without proper goal setting, you'll fritter your time away on a confusion of conflicting priorities. When you know where you're going, you can then figure out what exactly needs to be done, in what order. To start managing time effectively, you need to set goals. I prioritize my To-Do List or Action Program.īefore I take on a task, I check that the results will be worth the time put in. I have to take work home in order to get it done. I am stressed about deadlines and commitments.ĭistractions keep me from working on critical tasks. When I am given a new assignment, I analyze it for importance and prioritize it accordingly. I know whether the tasks I am working on are high, medium, or low value. I leave contingency time in my schedule to deal with "the unexpected"? I use goal setting to decide what tasks and activities I should work on. I find myself dealing with interruptions.
I know how much time I spend on each of the various task I do. I set aside time for planning and scheduling.
I find myself completing tasks at the last minute, or asking for extensions. The tasks I work on are the ones with the highest priority.
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