Let’s take a moment for you to be truly honest with yourself. Do you find yourself:

• Feeling overwhelmed or worried about work?
• Rushing to meetings or even arriving late?
• Procrastinating on important projects?
• Spending more and more time at work to get it all done? 
• Getting significantly behind when unexpected issues pop up? 

While we all experience every one of those issues from time to time, when they become the norm, it is a clear sign that something isn’t working. And we don’t mean YOU aren’t working. In fact, we bet you are working very hard. When we consult leaders at all levels, we hear their frustration. They’re working long, tiring days and yet, they never seem to catch up. During our coaching sessions, more often than not, we learn they are taking the wrong approach to their workload. 

If you are feeling overwhelmed or even if you just want to get more done during regular business hours, here are some strategies to help you improve your time management. 

Evaluate your to-do list

The work you’re doing must be consistent with your and your team’s short- and long-term goals. Take a look at your to-do list and decide if you should actually be doing tasks at all. Specifically for items that have been on your list for weeks or you keep carrying over to the next day, chances are, they aren’t important, so just get rid of them. If they are important, set a deadline for yourself to get them done. 

Next, figure out what you should be delegating. Even experienced leaders have a hard time with it. They are convinced only they know the “right” way to do the task or they tell themselves it’s easier to just do it than to train someone else to. Instead use delegation to build your employees’ skills AND give you more time to focus on the work only you can do. However, don’t just unload your worst tasks on people. Instead, we recommend you identify your top three to five weaknesses. Then find team members who are stronger in each area than you, and delegate related tasks to them.

Log how you spend your day 

When you are time-strapped, it might seem counterintuitive to take the time to document how you spend your days, but it can be a serious eye-opener. Spend one week calculating and writing down where your time goes. How much time do you spend:

• On tasks you like versus your top priorities? 
• Putting out fires or dealing with urgent, last-minute issues?
• Emailing or instant messaging? 
• Meeting?
• On non-work-related (i.e., social media, web surfing, chatting with co-workers)?

It won’t take long to see where you are wasting time. Then you can put into place best practices to combat time wasters. For example:

• Eliminate unnecessary meetings, shorten them or merge them—and do your best not to book back-to-back meetings
• Allocate blocks of completely uninterrupted time to focus on your most important tasks
• Establish office hours when you are totally available to staff—and alert them when you don’t want to be interrupted (unless there is an emergency)
• Set aside two to three specific times for checking email and responding to messages, rather than checking and responding all day (and let people know to call you or stop by with urgent messages)
• Pad your schedule, building in free time around meetings and projects so you have time to deal with the unexpected things that always come up
• Use timers, alarms and reminders to keep you focused 

Prioritize—ruthlessly 

Every morning, you should start with a to-do list for that day—but here’s the catch: Your to-do list should start with the 3-5 tasks you MUST finish or make progress on each day. And you should do nothing else until those priorities are complete. 

We’ve seen advice through the years that recommends people go ahead and complete tasks that take less than two minutes to “clear the clutter” off your to-do list. If one of those two-minute tasks is a must-do for the day, sure do it, but otherwise push it down the list. It is way too easy to get caught up doing quick tasks all day—just so you can check things off your list. Don’t let those quick “wins” keep you from important work. 

Every morning, revisit your to-do list and identify your top priorities for that day. When they’re done, move onto your next three priorities. 

Break through procrastination

Procrastination is usually the result of a) you dislike the task or b) you’re not sure how to do the task. But remember: Your procrastination is likely impacting other people, so see every task in that light. For tasks you don’t like, unfortunately you just have to power through, so if it falls on your priority list, just go ahead and do it first and get it off your mind. 

We also recommend the “dive in” strategy. The minute you are assigned a project, jump into it right away. Spend 20 or 30 minutes reviewing what needs to be done, setting milestones for yourself, and ensuring you have all the data and resources to complete the project. You’re likely to have the momentum to keep going, but even if you can only allot a half hour right away, you still set yourself up for success. 

As with everything, solid time management takes practice. As you consistently apply this advice to your work, it becomes a habit, and you will accomplish more each day. If you’d like help figuring out how to be more productive and efficient at work, contact us.