Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Managing your time




" Time and tide waits for no man".

Studies show that everyone, on the average, are interrupted every minute or so. Their time is controlled by persistent, bothersome and energetic people. Robert Guest's study found out that an industrial foreman images between 237 and 1073 separate incidents with no real breaks. Interruptions, wasteful, affects almost everyone.

  • Time is inelastic - demand has no influence on supply
  • Time is irreplaceable. Once it has gone, it has gone forever
  • 1/4 of the demands of our time, can be thrown away
  • 600 hours each year spent on things that if we stopped doing, no one will notice
Remember - we are here for "results" not "to do"

Vilfredo Pareto - 80/20 rule. We often spend 80% of our time on work that contribute about 20% to our work objective

"The concept of vital few and trivial many"

Some Tool
  • Daily - to do list
  • Cut the rituals - Coffee breaks, etc
  • Hours in the morning - most creative
  • Successes in the first hour
  • Arrive early
  • THINK - can increase productivity by 30%, can reduce time taken to complete task by 1/3
  • Start with the easiest
  • Interruptions / Diversions - Where? Who? - meet in people / place - stand up " Be ruthless with the time but gracious with people"
  • Apply conversation - ending techniques
  • The telephone : 40% spend more than 2 hours on the phone everyday
  • Plan calls in advance
  • Delegate calls
  • Watch out for interruptions.
TIME is .......

Free

Finite

Fair

Fixed

TIME

A measure of duration
It exists naturally
It exists in the mind / clock / watch / or just about anywhere...