Managers guide to Time Management - improve performance and efficiency in 15 minutes

Many Managers will organise their priorities in terms of dealing with crisis as they come along. Those that shout the loudest will get the most attention. This takes control out of the hands of the manager, often making him focus solely on employees when the business would benefit from more attention being paid to the customer. Apart from being a stressful situation for the manager there is a risk that of declining customer satisfaction. The allocation of time to making improvements to the company in terms of profit, productivity and customer loyalty is not enough.

Allocating as little as 15 minutes a day to working out how much time you will spend on each task can greatly improve performance and the important steps you need to make to take your company forward will not be ignored and pushed to the bottom of the pile.

Choose a time that works for you, maybe at the beginning of the day or last thing before your leave.

• Decide on which tasks are important and sort out all the papers you will need. Clear your desk of anything else.
• Work out a schedule and plan for interruptions, ie: do not fill your entire day.
• Make 2 categories
  1. things that need more attention
  2. things you can deal with quickly
• Quickly put the 1. category items in the order you will deal with them
• Order category 2 leaving the most interesting till last. This will motivate you to get to the end.
• Give yourself a time limit for each category 2 item
• Work quickly through the category 2 files and then proceed in priority to category 1 files

One of the most important things to remember is to set the time limits and stick to them. This will make this procedure a success and a very effective time management tool. In time customer and staff satisfaction should improve, and generally stress for you and your employees should be reduced.

Spending a proportion of your day devoted to goals or outcomes about the organisation of your work will make any manager more efficient.

For more in-depth coverage of time management skills. Silicon Beach Training run a comprehensive 1-day Time Management training course

For more information call 01273 622272 or e-mail info@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk