Three Tips for Effective Time Management for Professionals

Is time management one of your biggest challenges? You are certainly not alone if that is the case. Many small business owners and other professionals are always looking for ways to make better use of their time. If finding a way to implement strategies for effective time management is something that appeals to you, you may find the tips and ideas presented here to be beneficial. Keep in mind that not everyone has the same time management problems. Look for tips that can have a positive impact on your own personal time management challenges.

3 Time Management Tips for Professionals
1. Get Organized – If you are disorganized, you’ll end up spending a lot of time each day looking for things, which is a complete waste of your time. Instead of wasting time searching for items, set aside a chunk of time to get organized and include time in each week’s to-do list to spend time getting re-organized. When you get in the habit of doing this, everything in your office will be in it’s proper place so you won’t find yourself wasting time searching for items that aren’t where they should be.

2. Reduce Socializing at Work – If people tend to stop by your office regularly to socialize, and you find yourself getting embroiled in lengthy conversations that keep you from taking care of your work responsibilities, you have a time management challenge caused by too much socializing. Consider rearranging your workspace so that it’s difficult for people to camp out in your workspace for long periods of time. Try placing the visitor’s chairs in your office so they aren’t right by the entrance to your office, or place stacks of books or files in the chairs. You may also want to get into the habit of standing up when people enter your office. This can be a signal to them to keep the conversation short and sweet.

3. Plan Your Work Wisely – When coming up with a plan for getting your work completed, think about what times of day or days of the week seem to work best for certain tasks. If you experience a drop in energy during the afternoon, schedule tasks that you consider mundane – such as filing or updating your computerized contact directory – for that time of day. If you are at your most energetic during the morning hours, use that time to contact prospective clients and to work on those parts of your job that require maximum creativity and energy. If the phone seems to ring endlessly on Friday afternoons, make sure that you’ve taken care of all of your deadline work for the week before then.

Article taken from the Small Business Channel at American Banking News - October 11

A Day Without My Sunshine (My Blackberry)

I hear many successful business owners state that they will never get a blackberry or any other PDA, because they don't want to be THAT accessible ALL the time. While I get that, I think of my PDA as my friend that keeps me in the loop with just one glance. Since I manage other peoples' businesses/business operations, I have multiple email boxes including my own and just one look at my Blackberry keeps me in the loop with everyone.

Well today, was the day the Blackberry was not with me - well it was, but AT&T had inadvertently deactivated my SIM card and cannot transfer the data until I go into the store AGAIN *I was just there yesterday*. So I had an inactive PDA all day - very annoying.

BUT, I survived even though I felt like a piece of me was missing. This experience really helped me to practice what I preach regarding productivity - checking email at an appointed time and not all day, and batching. This happened by necessity and not by choice. But the experience taught me that I can, in fact, survive a day without my blackberry and leads me to think...

Blackberry and other PDAs....
Do they really assist with efficiency or are they just cool distractions?