How to organize your work time?
16 April 2014
Read by 3452 persons
"Time is money" is a saying deeply rooted in everyone's philosophy of life. Everyone is rushing towards their own goals, and you, entrepreneurs, are no exception! Say goodbye to evenings spent in the office, under the glow of the last remaining neon lights after all your colleagues have left... Optimizing your time is just a matter of willingness!
From simple emails, to external professional appointments, to lengthy meetings... everything seems to conspire against you, leaving you in a difficult situation with endless files under your arm! First, reassure yourself, you are far from being the only victim of time, since 40% of managers admit to leading a 100 km/h life. However, the solutions to remedy this problem are not the same for everyone, since everyone has their own way of working, with their strengths and weaknesses. A period of self-observation will allow you to identify your own areas for improvement.
Organization
It's difficult to feel calm when you are aware of the amount of work you need to complete before a certain deadline... On the contrary, we quickly tend to feel overwhelmed, and disorder attracts disorder. Start with simple solutions: meticulously tidy your desk and do the same for your work tool, which is most often your computer. Create folders and subfolders, including in your email inbox, organizing everything by priority. Current files must be quickly accessible! Giving a clear and defined structure to your surroundings will improve your concentration and productivity. Also, even if you look like a 'post-it' enthusiast, use to-do lists. On these, you will note all your tasks in order of importance, regularly updating them because your priorities can vary from one day to the next... You know it!
Time management as such
One year of entrepreneurship is like ten years of employment, some of you say. It's difficult to reconcile everything when your days are punctuated by ten heterogeneous activities and decisions. Mike Schmid said "You have to be ready to lose to win." So don't shy away from regular breaks (similar to those recommended when driving). A break every two hours and/or a break to mark the transition between two different files allows you to distance yourself from the situations you face throughout the day. Whatever you do during this break, the important thing is to take your head out of the game and take time to breathe. However, don't confuse "breaks" and "external professional appointments." The latter, subtly, disrupt your day and take an incredible amount of time in your schedule, even when you've done the sorting. Ideally, agree with your contact for appointments either in the morning or "late" - that is, at the end of the day - so that you go there either before joining your premises, or afterwards, thus avoiding unnecessary and time-consuming round trips! Moreover, it would be wise to avoid meetings at lunchtime... where you will tend to extend your availability time without realizing it! The same goes for coffee or cigarette breaks. Professional friendships have their limits when they affect efficiency.
Learning to compromise
If the number of tasks that occupy your day is considerable, the distractions suffered are also numerous... Emails and calls are flying from all sides, between sound and visual alerts, it's no wonder you end up with a migraine! Learn to ignore these disturbances: don't open your mailbox when you are dealing with large files (you can also schedule time slots during which you will process your emails, instead of doing it on the fly). As for your mobile phone, delegate the reception of calls to a colleague to whom you will return the favor in due course, or simply put yourself on voicemail, specifying your availability or the reason for your unavailability. Also, if you work in an open-space, you will quickly realize how conducive this place can be to distraction... Everyone speaks, among other things, and asks you for X reasons whenever they feel like it. These requests slow you down in processing your tasks since, after having dealt with them, you will need some time to readjust in order to get back to work efficiently.
Be mono-tasking
Even as an entrepreneur, you don't escape the rule: There is no superman. Don't try to manage several things at the same time, or a little bit of everything in a single day. Indeed, this behavior is conducive to small mistakes that you will be obliged to correct later. So, yes, working hard on a file to close it requires a lot of energy and concentration in order not to lack perspective on the subject. However, scattering yourself by dealing with several files at once is a considerable waste of time in the sense that you will each time have to take into account the parameters specific to the subject in question at time T.
In short, you will not all be concerned by the same type of advice, but the important thing is that you manage to identify the bad habits you are prisoners of and which cost you dearly, in order to remedy them. Don't forget that trying is already a victory over those who do nothing.
Dynamique-mag.com
Published April 16, 2014.
From simple emails, to external professional appointments, to lengthy meetings... everything seems to conspire against you, leaving you in a difficult situation with endless files under your arm! First, reassure yourself, you are far from being the only victim of time, since 40% of managers admit to leading a 100 km/h life. However, the solutions to remedy this problem are not the same for everyone, since everyone has their own way of working, with their strengths and weaknesses. A period of self-observation will allow you to identify your own areas for improvement.
Organization
It's difficult to feel calm when you are aware of the amount of work you need to complete before a certain deadline... On the contrary, we quickly tend to feel overwhelmed, and disorder attracts disorder. Start with simple solutions: meticulously tidy your desk and do the same for your work tool, which is most often your computer. Create folders and subfolders, including in your email inbox, organizing everything by priority. Current files must be quickly accessible! Giving a clear and defined structure to your surroundings will improve your concentration and productivity. Also, even if you look like a 'post-it' enthusiast, use to-do lists. On these, you will note all your tasks in order of importance, regularly updating them because your priorities can vary from one day to the next... You know it!
Time management as such
One year of entrepreneurship is like ten years of employment, some of you say. It's difficult to reconcile everything when your days are punctuated by ten heterogeneous activities and decisions. Mike Schmid said "You have to be ready to lose to win." So don't shy away from regular breaks (similar to those recommended when driving). A break every two hours and/or a break to mark the transition between two different files allows you to distance yourself from the situations you face throughout the day. Whatever you do during this break, the important thing is to take your head out of the game and take time to breathe. However, don't confuse "breaks" and "external professional appointments." The latter, subtly, disrupt your day and take an incredible amount of time in your schedule, even when you've done the sorting. Ideally, agree with your contact for appointments either in the morning or "late" - that is, at the end of the day - so that you go there either before joining your premises, or afterwards, thus avoiding unnecessary and time-consuming round trips! Moreover, it would be wise to avoid meetings at lunchtime... where you will tend to extend your availability time without realizing it! The same goes for coffee or cigarette breaks. Professional friendships have their limits when they affect efficiency.
Learning to compromise
If the number of tasks that occupy your day is considerable, the distractions suffered are also numerous... Emails and calls are flying from all sides, between sound and visual alerts, it's no wonder you end up with a migraine! Learn to ignore these disturbances: don't open your mailbox when you are dealing with large files (you can also schedule time slots during which you will process your emails, instead of doing it on the fly). As for your mobile phone, delegate the reception of calls to a colleague to whom you will return the favor in due course, or simply put yourself on voicemail, specifying your availability or the reason for your unavailability. Also, if you work in an open-space, you will quickly realize how conducive this place can be to distraction... Everyone speaks, among other things, and asks you for X reasons whenever they feel like it. These requests slow you down in processing your tasks since, after having dealt with them, you will need some time to readjust in order to get back to work efficiently.
Be mono-tasking
Even as an entrepreneur, you don't escape the rule: There is no superman. Don't try to manage several things at the same time, or a little bit of everything in a single day. Indeed, this behavior is conducive to small mistakes that you will be obliged to correct later. So, yes, working hard on a file to close it requires a lot of energy and concentration in order not to lack perspective on the subject. However, scattering yourself by dealing with several files at once is a considerable waste of time in the sense that you will each time have to take into account the parameters specific to the subject in question at time T.
In short, you will not all be concerned by the same type of advice, but the important thing is that you manage to identify the bad habits you are prisoners of and which cost you dearly, in order to remedy them. Don't forget that trying is already a victory over those who do nothing.
Dynamique-mag.com
Published April 16, 2014.
