Despite all the tools and processes in the world time management fails. Why? We are just going to discuss same in this post.
Are you giving enough “Attention”
All of us have 24 hours in every single day. Some people seem to extract more out of this 24 hours while some seem to do much less. The distinction is human attention – focussed attention gets things done. Even for same person some days are very effective compared to some of the days when things are not effective at all. So the key lies in improving your attention span.
There are research reports which say average attantion span of an individual is about 15 minutes and beyoud this the attetion gets weaker. Here are some ways to increatese your attention span at work
Remove distractions
Put systems into place to ensure that you don’t get distracted
- Remove distracting things – keep you desk decluttered so that other things on desk do not divert your attention
- Use do not disturb sign on your door / cubicle when you are working on somethig important
- Always move the task at hand to logical conclusion befre you attend to the distraction
- Use voice mail and do not pick up calls when you are working on something (and make sure you call back people so that they know you are reliable)
- Keep healthy diet so that your hunger does not distracts you
Shall I shift my workplace?
Do not try to shift your workplace to manage distractions. This may work sometimes but is not always practicle. Many people “work from home” for few days in a week or month to get undistracted time for their tasks. This may not be very popular with your co-workers (because you are not available in next cube). However if you are able to be more productive their complain will go off soon. You just make sure that when you get back to work you attend to their question and query to their satisfaction.
Time management is dead – No! Give it some time
Understanding and implementing a new time management system takes time. By implementing this you are learning (or changing) a habit – so difficulty will be there. It may take about 10-20 weeks to ensure that new habit is learned and is in practice. If it does not seem to be working you may have to fine tune the system. Sometime things just as simple as moving from computer to paper solve the problem. So do not give up hope. Time management is not yet dead!
We recommend
Books on Time Management
- First Things First by Stephen Covey: If you still want to read a book on time management – we recommend Stephen Covey’s First Things First. We are no way related to him and are not going to benefit if you buy his book. Stephen Covey’s Matrix of prioritizing things is very popular.
Time management Tools
- Post it pads
- Diary
- Notebooks
- Importance Tags – like “Do it now” Tags or Tags which classify items
Time management software
- MS Outlook Tasks
- MS Outlook Calendar
- Google Tasks
- Google Calendar
Time management is not difficult. There is no one size fits all in the world of time management process or systems. So you will need to try out one or two before you find the perfect one that works for you.
Share your experiences in Time management – write your comments below.
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