12 Daily Self-Management Time Tips
Want to improve your time management skill? Do you think you can manage time? How do you do that?
Each day each of us has 1440 minutes available. Corporate executives, preachers, nurses, lawyers, politicians, and salespeople all have exactly the same amount of time each day, don’t they?
Billionaires and paupers have the same amount of time each day, too. How we manage ourselves during those 1440 minutes is all we can manage, right?
Let’s think differently about time management. Let’s focus on self-management tips to get more done each day.
Self-Management
Self-management is a process that must be engaged every day to be effective because when you manage yourself, you’ll get more out of your time.
As you look around your work environment, you’ll notice that some of the most frustrated, disorganized people in any office are the ones with the most time management books on their shelves.
It’s not that these books are ineffective. They often offer solid systems. Rather, in their frantic workday, these people “didn’t have time” to read their time management books!
The following are quick useful tips offered to help you begin to build or improve your own framework for self-management so you get more done during the time you have available:
Self-Management Time Tips
- Create a hub where you keep all of your important information. Some use day planners, others use apps on their phones or programs on their computers. The key is to pick a system, set it up and use it throughout each day. No more sticky notes with reminders and appointments scattered around your desk, car, and refrigerator at home. Keep all appointments and reminders in just one place, in your day planner or in your phone.
I use a notebook like the Leuchttrum 1917 to take meeting notes, google calendar, and notion.so to manage my calendar and my “to-do” list.
- Set your intention for the day. Take a moment first thing in the morning to identify the most important thing want to accomplish. Some people create a list of 2 or 3 intentions, but I find that can be overwhelming at times. Start with just one intention. After you see the power of setting a daily intention in your life, experiment with adding a second. Make it work for you.
- Take the time to silence alerts on your devices. This will limit distractions while you’re completing important work.
Managing Daily Work
- Create a daily “to do” list. I do this within the Notion app. If you create your “to do” list on your computer, you can easily move around items as you prioritize the day. If you prefer a paper list, you can code the items with numbers or letters for: Urgent, Need to Do Today, Can Do This Week.
- Review your “To-Do” list first thing in the morning. Try doing this before you check email, social media, or even flip on the TV. When you see your road map for your day, you’ll be in a great position to prioritize your work.
- Review your “To-Do” list at mid-day and end of day. Your prioritized list of actions isn’t a static document. You’ll be more effective when you review this list periodically throughout the day. You’ll easily see what was accomplished and what remains to be completed. You’ll also have a chance to reprioritize your work, if needed based on the time remaining in the day and the tasks on your “to do” list.
- At the end of the day, transfer the items remaining to tomorrow’s or Monday’s list. It’s possible that some of your actions are no longer necessary. If that’s the case, make a decision and remove them from your list.
Leverage and Protect Your Time
- Delegate as much work as possible to an assistant, colleague or associate. If you work independently, consider hiring a Virtual Assistant for a few hours per week. The price is right and there’s no obligation as with hiring an employee. This is particularly effective if you travel or spend much time outside the office. Check out Tim Ferriss’s book The 4 Hour Work Week for some practical tips for finding and working with Virtual Assistants (VA’s).
- Attend only the meetings that are absolutely necessary to do your job. Avoid any meetings that you can. It’s often OK to say “No.” Determine whether you’re really needed in the meeting. Also, unless a meeting is run well with an agenda, there is often wasted time.
- Create some privacy. Work in an office? Close your office door when you are focusing on a task. If you’re in a cubicle, put something on the chair in your cube. This will discourage coworkers from popping in and plopping themselves onto your chair. You could also wear headphones while completing deep work.
- Silence your phone and let voice mail answer your phone while you are focusing on an important task.
- Say “no” as often as possible when you have reached your work limits. That means saying no to overtime or taking work home. When you are mentally or physically exhausted you don’t do your best work and you need to say so. Sometimes this seems like it will be hard to do, but give it a try. When you overcommit you run the risk of being overwhelmed and potentially doing substandard work.
These are a few quick tips to help you build out your framework of self-management, improve your effectiveness, and get the work done that’s important to you.
Start with the tips at the top of this list and try implementing a few of these techniques today. Take note of what’s changed for you. Did you have fewer distractions? Get more work done? Feel a little less overwhelmed?
If so, you’re on the right track! Follow this process daily:
- Plan your work
- Work you plan
- Assess your effectiveness
- Make changes
I bet you’ll notice changes in your effectiveness within just a few days. Let me know how it works for you!
Make it a great day!
12 Quick Self Management Time Tips:
- Create a hub where you keep all of your important information.
- Set your intention for the day.
- Take the time to silence alerts on your devices.
- Create a daily “to do” list.
- Review your “To-Do” list first thing in the morning.
- Review your “To-Do” list at mid-day and end of day.
- At the end of the day, transfer the items remaining to tomorrow’s list.
- Delegate as much work as possible.
- Attend only the meetings that are absolutely necessary to do your job.
- Create some privacy.
- Silence your phone and let voice mail answer your phone.
- Say “no” as often as possible when you have reached your work limits.
