Managing your time

How are you managing your time?

Are you managing your time effectively??

Where are you spending your time really??

Try this exercise:

Look back over the last month/week:

How much of your time was spent on activities that are important to you and your goals?

How much of your time was spent on activities that are not important to you and your goals?

(Perhaps the activities were important for someone else..?)

How much of your time was spent firefighting urgent tasks?

…and how much was invested in longer-term planning, relationship-building etc?

What did you learn from this review?

What changes will you make?

What do you want next month/week to look like??

Taking back control

Whether our challenge is to get more done, or to get the important things done, or indeed to feel we have ‘enough’ time to do what we want or need to do, it is essential to manage time effectively and to our advantage.

This blog contains an exercise I do to help me feel more ‘in control’.

How do you ensure you get the important stuff done?

What’s on your ‘to-do’ list?

– unfortunately, ‘to-do’ lists can get longer and longer and become unrealistic…

I’ve simplified my ‘to-do’ list to three items…

Keeping your actions visible – and realistic…

How do you capture the important things that need to be done, the actions you need to take to move you forwards?

How do you keep them visible?

If something is important to me and my goals, rather than add it to a long list or to scraps of paper that may get lost, I schedule time in my calendar (in 90min chunks if it’s a large, important activity) to take the action.

This way I can quickly see if I’m being overly optimistic about what I can get done in a day!

…and it forces me to make conscious choices about how to use my time…

Managing your time

What about you? How are you managing your time?

Let me know by adding your comments below.

To find out how you can make best use of your time, please get in touch via the contact form or call me on +44 7526 740486.

[To get your free copy of the eBook ’10 questions to ask yourself about your business’ with exercises like the ones above, sign up for my fortnightly newsletter using the sign up box on the top right of this page, or at the foot of the page if you’re viewing on a mobile device.]

Best wishes!

Sian