Time Management Tips

• Think with a pen in your hand
• Master your software systems, learning the most frequently used skills
• With E-mail, learn how to send a message to large groups at once
• With fax broadcast software, learn how to fax to an entire group at once
• Use powerful contact management software such as ACT to keep important information and records at your fingertips
• Program your mobile phone, office phone and fax machine with commonly needed numbers
• Take a speed-reading course to double your reading / learning capacity
• Be selective in what you read
• Use an accordion file marked A-Z to file or store information alphabetically
• Use an accordion file marked 1-31 to file or store information by day.
• Instead of meetings, use teleconference calls for client communication.
• When leading a meeting, begin and end on time
• Accumulate telephone calls and/or voice messages and return them during a designated time each day
• Be certain your verbal and written communication with your team is clear so each project, task or request can be done correctly the first time
• Groom and grow those you lead so they can handle projects and tasks with increased productivity
• Move the decision-making process to the lowest level within your company/organization and tie compensation to these decisions
• With those on your team, ask them to bring you multiple solutions to any problems they want you to help them with
• Ask yourself, "what am I doing right now that doesn't need to be done by me?"
• Ask yourself, "am I doing genius work today, the kind of work that only I can do…the kind of work that delivers maximum revenue and profits?"
• Master your delegation skills
• Create a training system for new employees that allows error-free learning and anticipates their questions or obstacles
• Double your meeting preparation and cut the actual meeting time in half
• Use a carefully planned meeting agenda
• Prioritise paper stacks in your office
• Remove everything from your desk except what you're working on
• Handle every piece of paper, every E-mail, every fax page…only once
• Master the system of the four-D's… Do it, Delegate it, Decide or Dump it
• Learn to say "no" when a request is not vital and say "no" often
• Hire a personal assistant to take care of personal projects or errands that need to be done while you are working
• Shift your most important projects/tasks to the time in the day when you have peak energy
• Set a deadline for every task
• When working on a large project or task, start with the big steps first and use this momentum to quickly finish the smaller steps
• Establish a regular exercise program as a healthy body makes for a healthy mind and increase time efficiencies
• Simplify everything in your professional and personal life…less is more!