So many of us from time to time reflect on how little time we have. Our life seems to consist of running from meeting to meeting, taking care of urgent issues, answering a never ending flood of emails, answering phone calls and sms’s, attending teleconferences, reading truckloads of documents…

I am supremely confident that many of you know exactly what I am talking about. Have you ever wondered why you sometimes feel overwhelmed and question your efficiency? Well, well, well, it’s about time that we started talking about the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. We all know that I hear you say. Just a second, do we really? If we did would we have so many issues with lack of time?

Here are few tips on how to address it:

• To Do, or not To Do? All jokes aside, writing a “To Do” list is a simple yet powerful tool. It allows you to see what needs to be done, prioritise tasks and see if you are making progress.
• Not everything that you do can be equally urgent, so prioritise. Develop your people by allowing them to step up and take some of your responsibility. It will allow them to get a better understanding of the business. They may also come up with good ideas on how to make things better.  I know that this is very difficult but you have to. You know you can.

• Learn how to delegate effectively.  Trust your people to step up to the challenge.
• Does every meeting really have to last for at least 1 hour? Try to reduce meeting times. Even 15 mins that you can save makes a big difference
• Get agreement that meetings are to make decisions rather than having another discussion. Respect other people’s time.
• Let everyone know that you do not need to be cc’d on every email.
• If an email is addressed to you then assume that sender already did his/her homework and is asking you meaningful questions.
• During the day book a little time for “thinking”. If you constantly run like a headless chook and have no time for reflection nothing will ever change.

What are your tips on using your time effectively?

This entry was posted on Friday, November 5th, 2010 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Business, Executive, Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.