Top 10 Tips To Build Excellent Time Management Skills

Posted on April 27, 2006
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After setting my New Year’s resolutions I did manage to maintain most of my goals. The main one being to set myself realistic goals to do on a daily basis. I have outsourced some tasks to alleviate my work load and that has proven to be a welcome relief.

However, there is one major bad habit I tend to fall into and that is to attempt several different ‘Things To Do’ without completing each in full. This wrecks havoc on my work and social life. Too many little mistakes build up and before you know it you’re spending more time fixing things. All of which prompted me to include today’s article on the subject of time management.

I hope you’ll follow the tips and manage your time more effectively as well as taking sufficient breaks.

Top 10 Tips To Build Excellent Time Management Skills

By Rob Brown

How much have you achieved in the last few weeks?
Could you have done more if you managed your time better?

If you’re like most other busy professionals, you’re probably
bombarded with all the things you have to do and this can
lead to stress.

Stress is the feeling of being overwhelmed, with far too
much to do and having too little time to do it in. In fact,
“time poverty” is the biggest single problem facing most
professionals today. You simply do not have enough time
to fulfil all your responsibilities. Because of budget
limitations, staff cutbacks, downsizing, and competitive
pressures, you are forced to take on more and more work,
all of which appears to be indispensable to the smooth
functioning of your company and department.

The solution to this problem of work overload is for you
to become an expert on time management. There is probably
no other skill that you can learn that will give you a
‘bigger bang for your buck’ than to become extremely
knowledgeable and experienced in managing your time.
But we are going to take a different slant on this skill,
as there is a fundamental problem in the term
‘time management’.

The thing is, you cannot manage time itself. It whistles
along merrily, doing its own thing, whether you like it
or not. And the problem with all the books, planners and
diaries is that they often don’t work and leave you with
less time than before.

The key, then, is to forget managing ‘time’ and start
manage ‘self’ This basically means managing your actions,
and is the secret to getting all your work done, achieving
your goals and doubling your output in the same time.
Success guru, Tony Robbins, puts it simply;

‘Action is destiny’.

So now when you talk about Time Management, talk about
Self-Management. And that means self-discipline. Success
in any area requires lots of discipline. Self-discipline,
self-mastery and self-control are the basic building
blocks of character and high performance.

“Self discipline is the ability to make yourself do what
you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel
like it or not." Elbert Hubbard

Here are Rob’s Top 10 Time and Self Management Tips that
have helped make me and my clients more productive, and
helped me increase my business by a factor of ten in the
last year!

1. Decide What Is Important. Write down a master list of
5 to 7 actions that are your highest return on your time
investment. For many, this would be fee or income generating
tasks such as prospecting, client relationships, phone time,
face to face time and proposals. Call these your Top Tasks,
or Action Tasks, or Prime Goals.

2. Schedule the Time. Set aside some core time every day
where all you do is those Top Tasks. I call this Prime Time.
Instead of crossing each one off, try a highlighter pen.
During your Prime Time, you should not…take phone calls,
check your email, break for meetings, do routine filing and
admin, chat with colleagues or read the mail. You need to
get rid of current outside distractions to support your new
routine.

If you run a home office, get agreement from your
family to only interrupt you in an emergency during Prime
Time. Anywhere between one and four hours of Prime Time is
realistic, as you’ll still need to do the other necessaries
like meetings, managing staff, emails and phone calls.

3. Focus Clearly on Your Number One Task. By focusing clearly
on your most valuable task and concentrating single-mindedly
until it is 100% complete, you actually shape and mold your
own character. You become a stronger, more competent,
confident and happier person. You feel more powerful and
productive. Your actions shape your destiny!

4. Be Disciplined. Do what you say you’re going to do, how
you’re going to do it and when you’re going to do it. See it
as a “test” to determine whether you are the kind of person
who can make a decision to complete something and then carry
it out. Once you begin, refuse to stop until the job is finished.

5. Get A Timer. Set it to 50 or 55 minutes This works in three
ways. One, you work intensively for a short burst, and will
probably get more done than if you’d gone for a full hour.
Two, it gives you some time to break and refresh. And three,
that length of time is natural for the brain to work at full
concentration.

6. Capture Your Ideas. If you carry a pen and small notepad or
a voice recorder with you during your breaks, new ideas, thoughts
and strategies will surface in your mind. The brain often makes
new connections as you relax after a very focused session. Make
sure you jot them down to record them. You’ll find them invaluable.
Neglect this and risk all of your unrecorded great ideas forever!

7. Reward Yourself. Set yourself some income (financial) or
activity (result) targets that trigger a reward when you nail
them. Incentives are a big part of reinforcing good habits and
creating long term change over short term impact. As you get
better, push the bar upwards with your goals.

8. Educate Yourself. Continually look at ways of freeing up
your time, seeking good ideas from others and trying them out
for yourself.

9. Let Go. Examine your old habits and search for ways to change
or eliminate them. Often there are things you need to let go
of to make the time to do important stuff.

10. Use Dead Time. Whenever you’re waiting in line, sat around
killing time or travelling (safely), can you review notes, catch
up on reading, reply to messages? Squeezing tasks like that into
the nooks and crannies of your day give you more quality Print Time.

So, there you have it. Ten top tips to give you great time
management skills. Keep an eye out for other interesting and
exciting articles in this ‘Time Management’ series.

About The Author

Rob Brown can help you network more effectively, build your
personal brand and Turn Relationships Into Profits. For a host
of great articles and resources on networking, personal branding,
and referral generation, visit http://www.rob-brown.com

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