We live in a fast-paced world, filled with infinite possibilities and opportunities and it is easy to feel overwhelmed. What do we choose to concentrate our efforts on? How much can we keep saying yes to? How long will all this work take? How do we handle unexpected interruptions?

To deal with this situation, many of us try to cram more into 24 hours than is humanly possible to do and get so caught up in urgent demands that we never get to see what is most important. In many organisations, it’s not absenteeism that’s the most pressing people challenge, it’s ‘presenteeism’ that’s the real issue: people who seem to think it’s a great idea to stay in the office from 8am to 9pm.

Being a professional, you’ll have learned some techniques to improve your management of that most precious resource: TIME. But do you find yourself slipping back sometimes into bad habits? In this article, we will remind you of a few proven techniques for managing your time and show you how to:

• Plan the day realistically to build in a feeling of excitement at the prospect rather than feeling overwhelmed
• Stay on track throughout the day to ensure the right things get done
• Connect what is done on a day to day basis to ‘big picture’ goals to rebuild job satisfaction
• Create the potential for a happy balance between work and well being

Firstly, take a moment to reflect on your ‘normal’ working day and answer the following questions:

Working?	Not Working?
I always find time to… I never procrastinate about… Meeting deadlines is easiest when… Things I can delegate are…	I never have time to… I spend way too much time on… It’s hard for me to say ‘No’ to… I always underestimate how long…

What did you discover? Are there any common themes?

We wouldn’t mind betting that one of the biggest challenges you face in getting the most from your time at work is how to manage the Time Nibblers. These are distractions that sabotage your day, gnaw at your ability to concentrate and steal hours every day. There are internal nibblers such as perfectionism and procrastination; and external nibblers, interruptions such as emails, calls and unexpected drop-bys.

It is unrealistic to expect that you can eliminate all if these nibblers, what counts is how you deal with them in the moment and how you get back in control of your day. Here are some of our tips to deal with the most common time eaters:

• Tasks:
  • Do one thing at a time, in order of priority. Set daily targets.
  • Show some faith in your staff and delegate. Give them something important to work on. You may be pleasantly surprised.
• Emails – Set up your automatic email filters, so that incoming mails are routed appropriately
• Meetings – Stick to the allocated meeting time and always have an agenda
• Calls – Manage incoming calls: voicemail was invented for a very good reason
• Requests – Just say ‘No’, but positively and assertively. Offer alternatives.

Think about your most common Time Nibblers. How could you deal with them differently?

Every day you face a myriad of choices about your daily to do’s. Things you have to do, stuff you’d like to do and jobs other people ask you to do. It’s easy to dive in at the top of the list, endeavour to work your way to the bottom in chronological order and then wonder why you are still left fighting deadlines and feeling overwhelmed.

By prioritising tasks using a simple classification system, you can focus more on what is the most important task that needs your attention rather than giving in to urgency. You may also find it helpful to sketch out a Schedule of your tasks then apply the 4 D’s of Time Management to each one:

Delete Delay Diminish Delegate

There is one perspective on time management which we haven’t yet considered (but might tomorrow, if we feel like it!): PROCRASTINATION. We’ve recently come across a very simple model that might help, called STING:

• S – Select one task (break it down if it’s complicated)
• T – Time yourself, be strict with the amount of time you’re allowed to complete it
• I – Ignore everything else
• N – No breaks
• G – Give yourself a reward
• (thanks to Matthew Cornell’s blog)

Don’t know about you, but the ‘Reward’ stage certainly inspired the Matchett team to give it a go! Hotel Chocolat order already placed…