Learn how to overcome several common time management mistakes.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls
How well do you manage your time? If you're like many people, your answer may not be completely positive! Perhaps you feel overloaded, and you often have to work late to hit your deadlines. Or maybe your days seem to go from one crisis to another, and this is stressful and demoralizing.
Many of us know that we could be managing our time more effectively;
but it can be difficult to identify the mistakes that we're making, and
to know how we could improve. When we do manage our time well,
however, we're exceptionally productive at work, and our stress levels
drop. We can devote time to the interesting, high-reward projects that
can make a real difference to a career. In short, we're happier!
In this article, we're looking at ten of the most common time
management mistakes, as well as identifying strategies and tips that you
can use to overcome them. These ten mistakes are:
Mistake - 1. Failing to Keep a To-Do List
Do you ever have that nagging feeling that you've forgotten to do an
important piece of work? If so, you probably don't use a To-Do List to
keep on top of things. (Or, if you do, you might not be using it
effectively!)
The trick with using To-Do Lists
effectively lies in prioritizing the tasks on your list. Many people
use an A – F coding system (A for high priority items, F for very low
priorities). Alternatively, you can simplify this by using A through D,
or by using numbers.
If you have large projects on your list, then, unless you're careful,
the entries for these can be vague and ineffective. For instance, you
may have written down "Start on budget proposal." But what does this
entail? The lack of specifics here might cause you to procrastinate, or
miss key steps. So make sure that you break large tasks or projects down
into specific, actionable steps – then you won't overlook something
important.
You can also use Action Programs
to manage your work when you have many large projects happening at
once. (Action Programs are "industrial strength" versions of To-Do
Lists.)
Mistake - 2. Not Setting Personal Goals
Do you know where you'd like to be in six months? What about this
time next year, or even 10 years from now? If not, it's time to set some
personal goals!
Personal goal setting
is essential to managing your time well, because goals give you a
destination and vision to work toward. When you know where you want to
go, you can manage your priorities, time, and resources to get there.
Goals also help you decide what's worth spending your time on, and
what's just a distraction.
To learn how to set SMART, effective goals, read up on Locke's Goal Setting Theory . Here, you'll learn how to set clearly defined goals that will keep you motivated.
You might also enjoy our Book Insight into Long Fuse, Big Bang by Eric Haseltine. This book teaches you how to focus on your long-term goals without overlooking your short term priorities.
Mistake - 3. Not Prioritizing
Your assistant has just walked in with a crisis that she needs you to
deal with right now, but you're in the middle of brainstorming ideas
for a new client. You're sure that you've almost come up with a
brilliant idea for their marketing campaign, but now you risk losing
the thread of your thinking because of this "emergency."
Sometimes, it's hard to know how to prioritize ,
especially when you're facing a flood of seemingly-urgent tasks.
However, it's essential to learn how to prioritize tasks effectively if
you want to manage your time better.
One tool that will help you prioritize effectively is the Action Priority Matrix
, which will help you determine if a task is high-yield and
high-priority, or low-value, "fill in" work. You'll manage your time
much better during the day if you know the difference.
You might also want to go through our Bite-Sized Training session How to Prioritize, to further enhance your skills.
Mistake - 4. Failing to Manage Distractions
Do you know that some of us can lose as much as two hours a day to
distractions? Think how much you could get done if you had that time
back!
Whether they come from emails, IM chats, colleagues in a crisis, or
phone calls from clients, distractions prevent us from achieving flow , which is the satisfying and seemingly effortless work that we do when we're 100 percent engaged in a task.
If you want to gain control of your day and do your best work, it's vital to know how to minimize distractions and manage interruptions
effectively. For instance, turn off your IM chat when you need to
focus, and let people know if they're distracting you too often. You
should also learn how to improve your concentration , even when you're faced with distractions.
Additionally, our article on managing email effectively teaches you how to gain control of your email, so that it doesn't eat up your entire day.
Mistake - 5. Procrastination
Procrastination occurs when you put off tasks that you should be
focusing on right now. When you procrastinate, you feel guilty that you
haven't started; you come to dread doing the task; and, eventually,
everything catches up with you when you fail to complete the work on
time.
Start by taking our procrastination quiz to find out if procrastination is a problem in your life. If it is, then learn the strategies you need to beat procrastination .
For instance, one useful strategy is to tell yourself that you're
only going to start on a project for ten minutes. Often, procrastinators
feel that they have to complete a task from start to finish, and this
high expectation makes them feel overwhelmed and anxious. Instead, focus
on devoting a small amount of time to starting. That's all!
You might also find it helpful to use Action Plans .
These help you break large projects down into manageable steps, so that
it's easy to see everything that you need to get done, and so that you
can complete small chunks at a time. Doing this can stop you from
feeling overwhelmed at the start of a new project.
Mistake - 6. Taking on too Much
Are you a person who has a hard time saying "no" to people? If so,
you probably have far too many projects and commitments on your plate.
This can lead to poor performance, stress, and low morale.
Or, you might be a micromanager :
someone who insists on controlling or doing all of the work themselves,
because they can't trust anyone else to do it correctly. (This can be a
problem for everyone – not just managers!)
Either way, taking on too much is a poor use of your time, and it can get you a reputation for producing rushed, sloppy work.
To stop this, learn the subtle art of saying "yes" to the person, but "no" to the task .
This skill helps you assert yourself, while still maintaining good
feelings within the group. If the other person starts leaning on you to
say "yes" to their request, learn how to think on your feet , and stay cool under pressure.
Mistake - 7. Thriving on "Busy"
Some people get a rush from being busy. The narrowly-met deadlines,
the endless emails, the piles of files needing attention on the desk,
the frantic race to the meeting... What an adrenaline buzz!
The problem is that an "addiction to busyness" rarely means that you're effective, and it can lead to stress.
Instead, try to slow down, and learn to manage your time better.
Mistake - 8. Multitasking
To get on top of her workload, Linda regularly writes emails while
she chats on the phone to her clients. However, while Linda thinks that
this is a good use of her time, the truth is that it can take 20-40
percent more time to finish a list of jobs when you multitask, compared
with completing the same list of tasks in sequence. The result is also
that she does both tasks poorly – her emails are full of errors, and her
clients are frustrated by her lack of concentration.
So, the best thing is to forget about multitasking , and, instead, focus on one task at a time. That way, you'll produce higher quality work.
Our Expert Interview with Dave Crenshaw, looking at The Myth of Multitasking,
will give you an enlightening look at multitasking, and will help you
explore how you can manage simultaneous projects more effectively.
Mistake - 9. Not Taking Breaks
It's nice to think that you can work for 8-10 hours straight,
especially when you're working to a deadline. But it's impossible for
anyone to focus and produce really high-quality work without giving
their brains some time to rest and recharge.
So, don't dismiss breaks as "wasting time." They provide valuable
down-time, which will enable you to think creatively and work
effectively.
If it's hard for you to stop working, then schedule breaks for
yourself, or set an alarm as a reminder. Go for a quick walk, grab a cup
of coffee, or just sit and meditate
at your desk. Try to take a five minute break every hour or two. And
make sure that you give yourself ample time for lunch – you won't
produce top quality work if you're hungry!
Mistake - 10. Ineffectively Scheduling Tasks
Are you a morning person? Or do you find your energy picking up once
the sun begins to set in the evening? All of us have different rhythms,
that is, different times of day when we feel most productive and
energetic.
You can make best use of your time by scheduling high-value work
during your peak time, and low-energy work (like returning phone calls
and checking email), during your "down" time. Our article, Is This a Morning Task? will teach you how to do this.
Key Points
One of the most effective ways of improving your productivity is to recognize and rectify time management mistakes.
When you take the time to overcome these mistakes, it will make a
huge difference in your productivity – and you'll also be happier, and
experience less stress!
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