About/Contact Info I am a business consultant for a leading North American business and [+/-] technology services company and have an MBA specializing in management.
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In his recent article, About.com Management guide John Reh writes of some key ways to reduce your stress at work. He mentions the kinds of things we hear about often: learning not to sweat the small stuff, exercising and taking personal breaks or time-outs to recompose yourself, and improving your time-management and organizational skills, among others.
These are all great tips, and while its not always possible to put all of his suggestions into practice right away, it's important to at least start with one or two of these actions. When describing the tip on improving time-management skills, Reh notes the importance of learning to say 'no' when there's already too much on your plate.
Learning how to say no is an important skill; however for many of you, it won't address the current stressors and issues related to the things that are on your plate right now. So, the question then becomes, how do we improve our processes and work-flows to become more productive and successful and allow us not to lose our composure when new events and situations arise causing us to re-prioritize our activities?
You may have read our recent article entitled 5 Ways to Improve Your Time-Management Skills, which outlined the ways in which you can make the most out of your time and how to continuously look for ways to be more productive and efficient.
As a companion-reading to that article, you may also want to check out this article from the Powerful Conversations website which discusses how time management is essentially energy management and that by thinking of time-management in terms of how you spend your energy, you can further improve your productivity overall.
From the article:
"Time is limited. We ONLY have 24 hours a day. Our energy is unlimited in some respects, because it comes essentially from an unlimited source."
If you find yourself spending a lot of time putting out fires instead of focusing on the things that you actually want to get done, the issue most likely comes down to improving your time management skills.
Sure, there will be times when tending to immediate "high priority" tasks take precedence over everything else, but if this always leaves you or someone you know scrambling to get the other important tasks done, you may want to read and share this article for some sure-fire tips on how to address this issue.
How do improve your time-management:
Make a list of the items that you want to accomplish for the week. Write them down on a whiteboard or put them in your task manager or calendar. The important thing is to have them visible so that you remember them and can organize your workdays around them. By writing them down, you also get the benefit of being able to cross them off your list (believe me, doing this is far more gratifying than it may appear!)
Assign deadlines for these pre-written goals. Placing end-dates on these important tasks will help you re-arrange them in order of priority and will also help you sort out the unanticipated work items which will inevitably come your way. Whenever possible, avoid working on your items at the last moment.
Block off time on your calendar and use this time to work on your personal tasks. By doing this, not only do you give yourself a chance to get your own things done, but you also prevent others from booking your valuable time!
Ask questions. Remember to ask about the urgency of the new items that you suddenly find yourself being asked to work on. It sounds simple, yet too often these questions remain unasked and valuable time is spent on items of lesser importance.
Keep track of how you have been spending your day/week/etc. By doing this, you will have a better idea of where most of your time is spent. Look for ways to improve your productivity and efficiency so that next week, you're spending your time much more wisely.
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