One thing is certain as a manager…you will never have enough time to do everything you need to get done. At least, at the quality you would like to.

So, one of the best qualities you can develop as a manager is the ability to make the best possible choices with the time you have available.

Our studies of great managers has revealed a list of techniques they use when deciding how to get the best out of their time. Here are just five:

1) They carry out ‘audits’ of their time to ensure they are spending the right amount on priorities. They decide what their broad goals are, based on their manager’s expectations. They know what barriers and obstacles come up regularly to stop them achieving those goals. And they recognise what tasks will get them the best results in the long-term as well as short-term

2) They initiate action and facilitate action in others. They work within the ‘important’ framework every day, and are not driven by the ‘urgent’ at the expense of the ‘important’. Their to-do lists are manageable, they dump things that are unnecessary, and concentrate on delegating those things that will develop others’ skills, as well as freeling up time to do things only they can do.

3) They work to the 80/20 principle. Managers who master their time recognise that, of all the tasks they need to complete, only 20% are criticakl to the success of the business. They make sure these items get top priority.

4) They use 5 or 10 minute ‘blocks’ of time to get things done. Imagine you have a meeting in ten minute’s time. How would you spend those minutes? What you do in that time could make the meeting valuable or a distraction. Rather than thinking there’s too little time before the meeting to get anything done, time-masters recognise that these ‘blocks’ of time add up during the day and offer great opportunities for ticking off small items on their to-do lists. If you think that you might have four or five of these ‘blocks’ of time during the day, you could get nearly an hour’s work done, when others are just letting that time slip through their fingers.

5) Great time managers really plan effectively. They actually make plans to plan. Either just before they leave for the day, or at the beginning of each day, they plan the best way to spend their time. They have weekly plans that give them a good overview of what they need to accomplish in that period and they have long-term (montly, quarterly, annual) plans that help them think strategically, instead of being side tracked by the ‘urgency’ of tasks.

I suggest you analyse your time-wasters and time-stealers, and see if some of these tips can help you achieve great results as you master time.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

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

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When you’re in a meeting, do you often find your mind wandering to other stuff that needs doing when the meeting’s finished? Are you sometimes looking through emails on your laptop while also talking to someone else on the phone about totally different matters?

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”