Of course, the best way to determine where your time is going is to record what’s happening each day. If you find some of these problems are affecting your day-to-day management of your time, think of what could be done to overcome them. Here are some suggestions:

* Work Piling Up – You need to set priorities, and determine the difference between urgent and important. How many times have you gone home from work and realised you’ve been really busy, but not actually accomplished very much? That shows you’ve been working on the urgent at the expense of the important. Set yourself realistic deadlines and see if you can keep to them. And delegate more often!

* Trying to do too much – As stated before, you must set priorities. If it’s impossible to get everything done, ask which deadlines could be changed. Learn to say no, because if you take on more work, everything else will suffer, especially your stress levels.

* Procrastination – Break tasks down into manageable chunks. Approach it from a different angle. If the task will take 3 hours, do 20 minutes now, 30 minutes later, and so on. You need to control it, rather than it controlling you.

* People interrupting you – Make appointments and ask people to stick to them. If people just drop in, tell them you will get back to them when you can give them 100% attention.

* Phone calls interrupting you – Tell them you will call them back. Use voicemail, if practical. Batch phone calls you need to make all together, so you control the timings.

* Too many emails – Divide them into ‘act now, act later’. Have a special file to put the mails you will be dealing with later. Don’t let you inbox pile up, and try not to use it as your ‘pending’ file. Things will drop out of your view and you will forget them. Create rules for emails coming in. Try not to keep your email server open all the time; emails will rule your time. Devote specific times of the day that you control to deal with emails.

* Too many meetings – Ah, the bugbear of many managers! Review all the meetings you attend and eliminate any that are unnecessary. Set limits to the time meetings take and stick to them. Have an agenda and stick to it. Be prepared for each meeting and identify how you can add value to them.

Naturally, there are many other time management situations you will have to deal with, but if you have the correct mindset to how you view time, you will concentrate on the solutions rather than the problems lack of time causes you.

Thanks again

Nick

Nick Hill

Training Director

MTD Management Training Course

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When you forget something, actually the memory hasn’t left you; you simply are unable to retrieve it because your long-term memory has two major components.

These are retrievability and stability. Retrievability is how easy you remember things and depends on how near the surface of our consciousness the information is lurking.

Stability is to do with how deeply the information is anchored in our brains. Some memories have a high level of stability but a low level of retrievability, and some memories are easily retrieved.

Just think of this example: Try to remember one of your old telephone numbers…difficult isn’t it? But if someone showed you that number, you would probably recognise it immediately for what it was.

Now another example: Imagine you are learning a new language and have picked up a few words. Without practice, over time those words will become increasingly difficult to recall.The amount of time it takes for you to forget it completely can be calculated and, ideally, you should be reminded of the word precisely when you are in the process of forgetting it. The more often you are reminded of the words, the longer you will remember them.

So, if you are trying to remember something, keep it in the forefront of your memory. This involves auditory recall (saying something to yourself), kinaesthetic recall (write it down or type it up) and visual recall (burn it into the visual cortex by looking at it, and describing it to yourself from different perspectives).

As a manager, it’s important to know how the memory works so you can keep up-to-date and not be found wanting when it comes to remembering important items.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

(Image by Digital Art)

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It breaks our momentum and mental focus. It causes us frustration. And it tests our resolve when it comes to sticking to something more important.

Here are some solutions to this never-ending concern that you face every day.

Interruptions from others:

• Explain you’re busy and set a time to meet later
• Accept the interruption and state the time you have available now. At the end of that time period, tell them you really do have to get on
• Don’t have chairs right next to your desk. If you have room, put two or three chairs in another area of your office. This means people can’t just drop in. They have to interrupt your flow and get you to move away physically form your desk. If it really isn’t that important now, people will wait until it is convenient for you
• Set open and closed-door times, and make them known
• Meet in someone else’s office, so you can control your exit time
• If it’s really important for you to work without interruptions, consider working from home, a conference room or a spare office where it’s obvious you are there for a specific purpose and can’t be interrupted.

Email or instant messaging:

• Don’t keep compulsively checking email. Turn off the audio signal that tells you an email has come through. Allocate times in the day where you deal with email, timed so YOU control it.
• Go offline if you have to. If you’re uninterruptable, prove it.

Information Requests:

• Give people who work for you enough authority and information to deal with these matters for you. Don’t be a hoarder of information so that people have to come to you and only you
• Let your team know you are incommunicado for a time period
• If you make promises, keep them. Then people won’t have to chase you up when you don’t want them to

Phone:

• If you’re in the middle of something, don’t take unscheduled calls. Have set times when people can reach you
• Make a list of calls you are going to make and bunch them together, so you control the time it takes
• Call people at lunch time or before closing time, so conversations are short and to the point
• Ask people who call you what specifically you can do for them, and say ‘I only have ten minutes. Can we get this done in that time?’
• Leave your phone off in the evenings. Interruptions while you’re away from work should be seen as interfering with the rest of your life with people who deserve better. If it’s that important, they will leave a message and you can get back to them when you are free. That way, you control your time

Interruptions are a natural part of your working day, but using these ideas should minimise the effects and help build your productivity.

Thanks again

Sean

So what can you do?

Firstly, take the initiative. You must recognise what the result might be if this decision can’t be changed. Then you can ask something like, “Would you approve the steps I have to take to meet that delivery deadline?”

Expect a question like, “What do you mean?” You can then state that something will have to give in order to achieve that deadline. It could be the level of quality won’t be as high, or there will be reduced quantities produced, or the presentation won’t be as formal as it could be.

Get advanced recognition of these results. You might need more resources to achieve the goal. If so, state what you need to achieve it.

If you still get a firm “no”, be certain that the problems you encounter on the way are recognised, but don’t complain about the conditions you faced. It makes no sense to make an issue of something you can’t influence after the event.

You can, though, reflect on what caused the deadline to be moved and find out what you could do to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Also, ask yourself some searching questions;

Did you leave starting the project too late in the first place, thinking you had ample time to complete it?

Did you ask too much of yourself and tried to achieve perfection with the project?

Whatever the outcome, find out what you can learn from the experience, and spend some time with your boss after the project is completed to discuss the implications and create a proactive plan to make sure, if it happens again, what standards your boss is looking for. That way, you reduce the risk of being caught out next time.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

I’ve listed below some tips that I’ve found useful in minimising the impact of interruptions in my working day:

First, the phone: If you are reachable at all times, then expect to be interrupted. Instead, have specific times during the day where you put your phone through to voicemail, and return the calls when you have planned to do so. Also, bunch your outgoing calls so you control when you call. Call people just before lunch or just before closing time…you tend to keep conversations short and have more time to get things done.

Uninvited visitors: State you’re busy and tell the visitor you will be free in xx minutes. That way, you control when you have visitors. Have a chair for visitors away from your desk so they don’t automatically sit down when they come into your office or workspace. Tell colleagues that if your door is shut, you are undisturbable for that short time period.

Requests for information: Make sure the people you delegate work to have sufficient information and authority without having to regularly refer back to you. If you say you will get back to people, keep to your promises.

Email: Have specific times during the day when you check email. Make those times generous but controllable. Turn off the email notifier so you can concentrate on your real work instead of being controlled by the incoming mail.

If you follow out these suggestions, you have to take responsibility for the quality of the work you complete when you are not unterruptable. If you do, you’ll find you are more productive and less likely to be at the beck and call of interruptions that are within your control.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

If so, you are probably practicing multi-tasking without realising it. But is this the most effective way of getting work completed?

Well, recent research at Stanford University has unearthed some interesting results concerning when we try to get more done by multi-tasking. They found that people who multi-tasked regularly performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to the reduced ability to filter out interference from other tasks.

They concluded that we, as humans, are not suited to paying attention to multiple tasks, and having multiple things to do at the same time.

Professor Earl Miller of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that our brains have to skip inefficiently between tasks, because it finds it difficult to concentrate on more than one task at a time, as it causes an overload on its processing capacity.

When we try to multi-task, we are often using the same part of our brain to do two different things, like when we are talking on the phone and writing an email. The processing power simply slows down.

When students took part in an American study, it took them up to 40% longer to completely solve problems when they had to switch to other tasks, than when they spent time solely concentrating on the problem itself.

And Glen Wilson, from the University of London, found that trying to multi-task similar situations could knock a whole 10 points off your IQ: the equivalent of losing a whole night’s sleep.

Does this mean we shouldn’t be doing more than one thing at a time? Naturally, we are able to flit our thoughts around while working on a task, but it seems that we are unable to work faster and accomplish more. In fact it can produce more stress, worry and frustration. We tend to go onto autopilot when we multi-task, and so we don’t use parts of the brain that form strong neural connections.

The obvious answer is to concentrate as much as possible on one thing at a time. But if you have to multi-task, here are some ideas:

• Overload often happens when you’re tired, so try to accomplish more things in the mornings, rather than leaving them to later in the day
• Multi-task with simple things that don’t take much brain work
• Try not to do too many similar things at once, as our brains will be using processing power that will slow down our responses if we do
• Take a break (5 minutes or so) every 90 minutes, so you refresh yourself

By the way, it’s a myth that women can multi-task better than men! Women have learned to do more diverse things better, so their brains are being utilised in a different way. Men can learn that, too!

Anyway, back to those e-mails, before another phone call comes through!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Manager Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

I’ve seen far too many good employees get sucked into the time management trap. They spend a considerable amount of time worrying about or trying to plan their personal lives and eventually the quality of their work project begins to suffer. This is especially difficult to handle when the employee in question is in a management position and his or her subordinates begin floundering because they have no one to turn to with their questions and problems. A supervisor with personal time management concerns can easily become unorganized and cause the entire department to crumble apart.

It’s important to take the steps necessary to ensure your personal time is as organized as possible so that your day to day concerns don’t have a negative impact on your work life.

Try incorporating the following tips into your daily routine, whether you’re a manager or not:

• Make a prioritized to-do list on a daily basis. Write down everything that needs to be done and then break those tasks down into categories. For example, activities marked with an “A” might be the most important; “B” may be the second most important; and so forth. Make a separate list for your personal life and work life.

• Keep a log of your daily activities. Writing down everything you do each day, from brushing your teeth to checking your email, will help you identify the things you are doing that simply waste time. You don’t need to check your email 20 times each morning!

• Set some personal goals. Setting both short-term and long-term goals will help you to focus and develop a sense of direction. People focused on a goal have less trouble managing their time. These goals can be personal or professional, but I recommend writing a few goals for both aspects of your life.

I personally experienced a huge boost in productivity when I started keeping track of my daily tasks and prioritizing what really needed to be done. I was able to clear my mind at the start of each day, approach my work tasks at work, manage my team, and then effectively switch gears and address my personal tasks after hours.

Start with these exercises and let me know whether or not they help you to both manage your time and keep your personal and professional lives separated. I’m positive you’ll see great improvements!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”