Managing Your Time

You only have so much time – use it on the things that are really important. Here are some ideas for doing that.

• Prioritize. Decide what is crucial to your success.
o Do you have a long-range plan for your job, career, business, life?
 Write a vision statement that describes the state of your life in some long time range: "I will be running my own small business and have enough savings to retire to the Southwest."
 Make shorter term goals that will lead you to that visionary state. These will be intermediate in term, maybe 2 to 5 years.
 Support these goals with shorter term objectives (see below).
o Make your objectives SMART:
 Significant – is it important?
 Measurable – how will you know it’s been done?
 Agreed upon – do you and whomever else is involved agree on goals, deadlines and methods?
 Realistic – Do you really believe it can be done?
 Time-bound – what is the deadline?

• After you have your plan – DO THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS FIRST.

• Recognize the difference between "urgent" and "important." Some jobs are important, but not urgent, e.g., planning is often put off because there is no outside deadline pressure. Don't let the important things get swamped by the urgent things.
o What tasks aren’t necessary? Put them at the bottom of the pile
o What responsibilities can you delegate? Do it.

o Some important things that are often replaced by the urgent:
• Networking. Spend time forging alliances and partnerships with co-workers, customers and competitors.
• Planning: "Failing to plan is planning to fail".
• Rest and exercise
• Organizing
• Set up a daily schedule (do it the night before). Decide what your number one, two and three most important tasks are for the day, schedule a time for them, and stick to it. Make it realistic:
o Schedule more time than you think you really need.
o Plan for interruptions
o Include time for planning
o Realize your limitations - do you really expect to work on that report after the kids go to bed?
o Schedule the hardest stuff during your best hours

• Keep a time use log. Put down your plan for the day ("8 AM to 9AM: work on report to boss"). Each time you stop working on the scheduled task, enter the time and the reason for stopping. After two weeks, compare how you actually spent your time and what interrupted the valuable tasks. Then use that information in future planning.

• Get organized. Choose a personal organization system that works for you and use it consistently.
o Set up a filing system that makes sense to you
o File hard copy or digital files regularly
o Don’t file it away until you are finished with the task
o Schedule time for filing – when you need a break for a mindless task
o Clean out your files regularly. If you don’t use it or don’t need it, get rid of it

• Take care of yourself: schedule rest, meals, and exercise. You can’t be at your best if you don’t have the energy.

George Krafcisin is a small business and executive coach and trainer. More information is at www.MosaicCoaching.biz