4 Ways to Manage Time Effectively
There are two key components of being productive: doing tasks the right way, and doing the right tasks. The first is known as efficiency; the second is effectiveness. Today we will talk about how to manage your time effectively.
For too many years I approached time and tasks as my mother had shown me by example: you do all the tasks that need to be done. What I failed to realize is that her time structure as a stay-at-home mother was very different from mine as a working professional. Yes, we both had homes with the same tasks and a child to raise; but I had much less time every day that I could call my own. I have to use my time more effectively if I am going to get things done while still having a life.
What Is Effective?
Effective, according to Dictionary.com is “adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result”.
If a task is not effective, it is not producing the desired results.
If you are want to ski down a hill, drinking hot chocolate will not get you to the bottom. Neither will sitting in a hot tub. But putting your skis on, getting on the lift and doing the skiing will.
Effective actions are those that move you directly toward the desired end goal.
How Do You Make Time Management Effective?
Being effective with time management is all about picking your battles. You have a limited amount of time; you need to pick the tasks that will move you toward your goal, and eliminate anything that doesn’t.
Once that initial culling of activities is done, you have to take it further: do the tasks that will move you furthest toward your goal, while leaving the tasks that give smaller returns for if you have time.
4 Ways to Manage Time Effectively
So pulling time management into your goals can help you become more effective – but only if you are using it properly. Here are 4 ways to manage your time effectively.
Know What Needs To Be Done
The first thing is that you have to know what needs to be done. This has an important corrolary: you also have to know what doesn’t need to be done.
Pareto’s 80/20 principle holds: 80% of your results are going to come from 20% of your effort. After that, you are facing diminishing returns. Do you really want to be putting in full effort to do something no one – including yourself – really cares about?
Get Rid of Unnecessary Appointments
I love meetings. No, actually I don’t. In fact I think them so little of value that I will ask the person inviting me to explain exactly why I am being invited. I once had a supervisor who implemented daily meetings to find out why we were so behind on a project (and I wish I were kidding, but I’m not)
So in order to make effective use of my time, I will ask what the goal of my being in the meeting is, and if I can do it some other way, I will do that. Many times an email or report will suffice and free me up to use my time elsewhere.
Sometimes this becomes about activities. We humans are creatures of habit, and we can be involved in things that no longer interest us or give us any benefit far longer than we realize. I believe it’s a good idea to go through your calendar once a year and see what has crept in and what doesn’t serve you.
You might be surprised at what you find.
Know How Long Things Take
Most people that I know seriously underestimate how long things take in general. They might be a wizard at doing it in their job, but be abysmal at home tasks or commute time. While I can give a very accurate estimate of how long any given programming task will be, I still routinely underestimate how long I need to complete personal projects and tasks at home.
Without that accurate sense of timing, you can’t manage your time effectively. You will either end up wasting large chunks of time from underestimating, or not have enough time to complete what you set out to do.
If you overestimate how long things take, you will be tempted to either push off the following tasks as you complete the one you are doing, or leave a task undone, causing double set-up time.
Don’t Overload
Those of us that need time management need it because we don’t have enough time to accomplish everything we want to. This is true whether your are a CEO, working parent or retired person. Unfortunately, I rarely get to talk to anyone who doesn’t try to cram as much as possible into that time.
Effective time management means that you leave time in your schedule for transitioning between activities (like driving to the next appointment). It also means leaving time in your schedule as a buffer for when things don’t go according to plan (like always). And last, it means leaving time in your schedule to relax and unwind.
Overloading on tasks is a sure path to burnout, which sends effective time usage out the window, so be careful!
Summary
Effective time management means that you use your time to do the right things. Paring down tasks, cutting unnecessary appointments, knowing how longs things take and being careful not to overload yourself are the pillars to being effective.
