Do you ever wonder how some people seemingly get a lot of tasks completed with relative ease? It all comes down to time management. The only way to get things done successfully is to manage your time. Allowing outside thoughts and others to hijack your time will derail your momentum. As a leader, you need to manage your time effectively with the following skills.
Importance Of Time Management
Understand The Timeline
Some may be familiar with cramming for exams back in high school and university. It’s a stressful way to exist. Life and other tasks had to be paused to cram—all for the sake of a single test. The reality is that life doesn’t’ work very well when you ignore responsibilities and other commitments to perform a single task at the last minute. With this in mind, be sure to understand the deliverables and the timeline. Create a work-back schedule – this can be very helpful when setting up the timeline to execute a project. The more you know about the timeline, the better organized you will be. Especially when you are working with multiple departments and outside consultants and clients – this ensures that everyone, including yourself, is working towards the correct timeline.
Prioritize
When you’re multi-million dollar deal that has taken years to close is just on the horizon, you likely aren’t thinking about how many staples you have left in the office stapler. Staples simply isn’t a priority. Yes, this may seem like an odd thing to state. But, let’s be real; when the pressure and money are on the line you need to be focused and prioritize your tasks to ensure that the deal closes or the project is completed. Take some time to rank the order of importance of your daily, weekly, monthly and annual tasks. Keeping an eye not only on today’s tasks but also on what the more significant projects and goals are down the road. Prioritizing your activities ensures both short-term and long-term objectives are met.
Delegate
Delegate tasks that are better suited to others. Stop and consider what your strengths are, also what the strengths of other team members are. Knowing what your strengths are and focusing/channelling this skillset in the direction needed to achieve your and company goals is critical. If you have a weakness but someone else excels at this task, delegate it to them. The more time you spend on activities that are not in your wheelhouse, the longer and less effective the performance will be. The team needs you to be at your best, so delegate what you aren’t as strong at. This is essential, especially in larger teams. Everyone plays a part. Utilize their most vital skills.
Stay Focused
Be in the moment, focus on the specific task that you need to accomplish. Can you think of any times in your life when you felt like time was flying by, there was a seemingly ease to whatever ever it was you were doing? This is what psychologists call “Flow” state. Our minds function exceptionally well when we are focus and at the moment. If the task isn’t your’s leave it alone, if someone is interrupting you with irrelevant content during a deadline, then politely ask for privacy so that you can return to the task at hand. No matter how much we may want to multi-task, it is impossible. Our minds can only focus effectively on one thing at a time. The more focused you can be, the more powerful the outcome will be.