Many leaders have the ability to juggle their business and personal lives. However, time management skill does not come naturally to every leader, and besides, a lot of them tend to procrastinate on their tasks. A study shows that people spend at least two hours and two minutes each day procrastinating. This adds up to at least a handful of hours each week that one could have been spending on meaningful work instead.
There are ways to make the most out of time, and make sure that you do not end up postponing too many of the things crucial to your organization’s stability.
Delegate and Exclude What You Can
When you try to control every part of your business, you deter others from making substantial contributions. Instead of micromanaging, delegate tasks to the right members in your team based on the tasks’ sensitivity. This would empower your workers. Also, when a task is important, make sure you do it yourself. Only do something when you have to, otherwise, delegate it to the appropriate person. In addition, if a task is neither important nor urgent, you should remove it from your current tasks list.
Track Your Activity Time
The minute you identify where you waste your time, and how much of it is wasted, you can more quickly figure out the best ways to reallocate it, and focus on the activities that are essential. You would also gain some insight into whether the amount of time you spend on certain tasks yields good results, based on what you get from completing them. Once you know precisely how much time each activity takes, you would know how to better allocate your working hours in relation to the rate you charge for each different activity.
If you spend three hours on meetings, phone calls, and e-mails, perhaps you could spend that much time on more profitable tasks. By doing that, you would begin to spend your time more efficiently at work.
Make Your Meetings More Productive
While meetings are an essential part of your team’s work, they can easily spiral into unproductive discussions. Here is what you should do to have productive meetings going forward:
- Set clear goals for every meeting. That way, your meetings would have a purpose and stay on track.
- Decide on the time you will spend on your meeting beforehand. When you allocate adequate minutes for it, you are likelier to focus more on your core agenda.
- If you plan to have more than one meetings on a single day, then schedule them back-to-back. Ensure that you choose a specific time slot for these meetings, ideally one that leaves you time to focus on the urgent tasks later on.
