Issue No 154 November 2005

Time management

Few skills are more important than managing time. Time management affects everyone in a variety of ways. Importantly, the lack of time is one of the most common causes of workplace stress.

Time management is often common sense, but we need reminding that the best solutions are usually exactly that. It is important to use time as if there is no tomorrow. Once time is used it is gone forever.

Gathering and processing information is not the best use of your time, unless you are professional at it. We live in the information age, it could also be called the information overload age. Every day a plethora of information lands on desks in the form of emails, letters, memos and reports. People have to stop and focus on what matters.

It is best to concentrate on what you are good at and delegate other jobs to someone else who is more effective at them than you. I have also identified three useful points below.

Prioritise
The real art of managing is to set priorities in relation to the objective of the job. Write down all the jobs you would like to do in one day. Prioritise jobs that must be done as (A), jobs that should be done as (B), jobs that could be done as (C). However traumatic, stay working in the (A) list.

Procrastination
When dealing with procrastination it is best to remember that most tasks look more daunting than they are. The quicker the action the sooner you will have it off your plate.

Paperwork
Open mail at the end of the day. Do you need to reply? Before or afterwork is the best time to do correspondence as it is uninterrupted.

Reg Garters
CEO New Zealand Institute of Management, Management South