5 Steps to Conquering
the Time Management Devil

It is so easy for work to suddenly pile up when you are running your own business, even when you have help, staff to deal with it.

Letters and emails need to be read, decisions made, contracts checked, customers seen to, sick staff to cover for.

The list goes on and on.

The only way round this is to be systematic. This simple 5 step process may seem obvious, but its strength is in the doing.

1. Start by listing what is most important to you and/or your business

This will include: email correspondence, direct correspondence, contracts/sales, accounts, people issues, projects, reports, meetings, traveling etc.

Decide how much time you spend each week on each item - to make sure that everything is done properly. Add it up and see what you come to. Then add 20% on top - I've never come across anyone who can cover all items!

Is it 100 hours or 40 hours?

2. Set your target at 40 hours. Now to get started.....

Get your diary, internet scheduler or whatever tool you have with dates and times. I prefer the one in my Microsoft Outlook as it is easy to set up and can be set to remind me.

First set your meetings up - I'll be coming back to this in Step 4

Then set a regular time to deal with your emails. Depending on your business, it may be half an hour in the morning, or half an hour in both morning and afternoon.

Do the same for paper correspondence, contracts, sales, people (eg "walk to job", making sure you and your staff are working together), and all other items on your list.

Fit it all in 9am to 5pm or 6pm - don't worry about the time being less than you need, but note where you are squeezing. Remember to add your 20% in - that's one whole day per week!!!

3. You now have a diary with all your tasks.

Have you found it straightforward? If you now feel the load lifting, then all you ever needed was to organize yourself.

In that case, off you go - stick to it and you have sorted your workload...........

Er..... it didn't work for me............

You're probably like me, and have an impractically crammed week, with impossibly many tasks

So what next? We examine each area systematically, and cut, prune and delegate.

4. Rather than go through each area, I will give examples.

After all, everyone is different, every business isn't the same. These examples, however, are where I have found the greatest savings.

EMAIL: When email first came along, I found it took little of my time, both reading, answering and composing emails. For most people it was a boon, and much more work was getting done. Now, everyone and his dog sends email, with copies to everyone - what I call "covering their backsides". Set up your email (Microsoft Outlook is easy for this), to send all copies (cc emails) to a folder which you can name "Copies". Let everyone know you don't read copies.

My emails reduced by 60% this way . I just scanned through my "cc" folder once a week and binned them.

Next, read and bin "information" emails, noting anything you need.

If you keep them, they accumulate and simply clutter up your email folders.

Then read and act on the rest - including referring the sender to someone else if that other person is better at answering.

MEETINGS: look at all your meetings. Do you need to be there? Is there a need for a meeting at all? Could an email with request for comments achieve the same objective? I found a third of meetings could be either avoided or cancelled by taking this approach - and the rest could be shortened by sticking to the subject........ .

REPORTS: when did you last review the reports produced - financial, business, etc? Do you still need them all? Can they be simplified? Can they be automated?

PEOPLE: talk to your people (maybe during that 20% of time I suggested you plan). Find out their issues. Get there before the next crisis comes.

It can be very satisfying solving a crisis and winning through, but how much better and how much less time would it be if you didn't have the crisis in the first place??

Time management is the key to discipline, and without crises, you can be more relaxed and alert to coping better with your life and work.

Carry on through all your activities the same way.

5. Now put it into effect - DO IT.......

Then do Step 2 again, with the experience of your last week.

You will win through and have more time - your other half might actually see more of you!

Books & Courses

Rather than recommend specific tools designed for Time Management, I recommend using "goal setting" tools, as much of time management is about setting targets.

First, as a matter of course you should be listing your activities as in Item 1 above.

Then, using the tools described on my Goals page, you can maintain a log and prompt to ensure you never get ground down by that Time Management Devil!:

1. For routine jobs, enter your Goal into your email calendar - easy to set up on Microsoft Outlook. You can set it to repeat every day or every week. When it pops up, it's time to take action.

For example, if you are forever forgetting to "walk the job", you can quickly become remote from your staff. But with a reminder at a fixed time each week, you became a familiar face, and as a result become more in touch with your business, and can take action before things go wrong

2. For clear cut Projects, there are many propriety tools, such as Microsoft Project. However, most smaller projects just need a spreadsheet, where you list all the steps with target dates, then highlight them as you do them. 3. As I research further in this area, I will be adding my recommended tools, courses and books. However, as I only recommend what I have tried out myself, there will be a gap in time till I have finished this work