Time management: do you know how to organize your activities?

Do you ever feel like time is passing by so fast, that the day should have 48 hours for you to account for all your activities?

This kind of sensation surrounds most people, after all we live in a world where all results are constantly being demand.

However, not being able to perform all the necessary activities during the time frame can lead to negative consequences in both the work environment and personal development.

It is important that you learn how to manage your time in the best possible way. So, if you want to go further and learn how to effectively organize your routine follow the reading through the topics:

• What is a good time management?
• 1 - Make a weekly schedule
• 2 - Prioritize tasks
• 3 - Optimize Your Team Time
• 4 - Learn to delegate functions
• 5 - Focus on quality

What is a good time management?

Good time management is about the success and productivity of a company, after all, no customer is satisfied with a product that is not delivered within the established delivery deadline.

Lean Six Sigma projects, for example, have a pre-set time for execution. The longer this methodology takes to be deployed, the more money an organization can lose.

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However, it is not only in this type of project that time management is essential. Knowing how to control the time of day-to-day tasks is also important when taking a test or organizing to start practicing physical activity.

In addition, good time management allows numerous benefits, such as:

• Greater control of work and projects in the short and long term;
• Scope of objectives with safety and objectivity;
• Success and increase in performance;
• Feeling of accomplishment;

So if you want to learn how time management can optimize your results, keep reading this text and put it into practice through our five quick and effective tips!

1 - Make a weekly schedule

As mentioned earlier, planning the time for each activity is of utmost importance for the success of a project, so nothing better than using schedules.

The schedule is a time management strategy which can be used to organize and stipulate the time of each task.

It is advisable for each schedule to correspond to a one-week period, as it becomes easier to control the activities done and to ensure that you are completing tasks at the correct time.

However, it is not always that a project goes as planned.

In this way, the use of this tool also allows us to compare the expected time for each task and the time spent, so that the best measures can be taken to deliver the project on time.

Also, be sure to use the technology to your advantage. There are several applications and softwares that can be used as time management tools and may help you organizing the activities of your project, for example:

• Excel;
• MS Project;
• Outlook;
• Evernote.

2 - Prioritize tasks

Do you know the Pareto Principle? According to the concepts surrounding this tool, 20% of its efforts account for 80% of its results.

So if you can prioritize the most important activities, the chance of you optimizing the time spent on your tasks and presenting the best results is much greater.

To help you prioritize and manage your tasks' time, you label them as below:

• Important and urgent
• Important but not urgent
• Urgent but not important
• Not urgent and not important

Important and urgent

You should list all pending issues that are classified as urgent or important tasks, that is, everything that needs to be done immediately and with sufficient dedication time so that it can be completed.

Important but not urgent

All tasks here are important but not of an urgent nature, so it is possible to plan the date and time of their execution according to the degree of importance.

Urgent but not important

Represents all the non-important activities that are most urgent, that is, they are small tasks that need to be done but that do not have as much relevance.

For this type of case, the best option is to delegate this task to a team member who has the time and ability to solve it, because these are not activities of great responsibility.

Not urgent and not important

And finally the non-important and non-urgent activities, those in which, for the time being, no time is required for its execution.

As the task lists are executed, it is important that the prioritization framework is redone and the activities reclassified according to the degree of importance and urgency.

After all, it is normal for new information to emerge and the classification of tasks to accompany the company's demand.

3 - Optimize Your Team Time

In most organizations, meetings are viewed as a waste of time for many employees, since many are unproductive, time-consuming, or occurring more frequently than necessary.

However, these meetings are essential for the maintenance of what is being done within a company and the alignment of what is intended to be achieved.

In this way, it is necessary for every manager to understand how best to conduct a meeting so that it is highly productive and has the collaboration of all its employees.

Continue reading this article and see the most important tips regarding time management in setting up a meeting.

Set timetables

The time for each meeting is crucial for it to be productive. Therefore, it is essential that the entire meeting begin at the scheduled time and not be extended for a longer time than necessary.

The ideal time for a meeting is around 30 minutes.

Identify the people who are relevant

Not all meetings require the participation of all company’s employees.

Depending on the meeting subject, the manager should only call people who really have involvement with the subject, since the possibility of distractions with a larger group of people and parallel conversations is higher.

Keep an agenda

Every meeting should have a clear theme and purpose.It is important that the manager informs the meeting participants in advance what the issues will be.

In this way, everyone will be able to prepare for the subject that will be addressed, through the research on the subject that is on the agenda and, consequently, will carry constructive information on the meeting day.

Focus

For good time management and a highly productive meeting, it's critical that everyone involved is focused on the meeting.

The meeting time should be helpful for making important decisions.

Therefore, it is advisable that there are no parallel conversations and that staff keep personal communication devices off.

Have an assertive communication

The leader of these meetings should be clear and concise when presenting his ideas.

Non-assertive communication is not only a good strategy, it also causes you and the others involved to lose time and productivity.

Generate actions when needed

What attitudes can be taken by what was discussed at the meeting?

It is important that the whole matter discussed generates positive action for the company. It should also be defined who will be responsible and the time limit for completing this action.

Record meetings

It is common for people to not remember everything that has been discussed at meetings, so it is necessary that all the information discussed be documented.

In addition, all members must be aware of and agree to the document produced so that there is no divergence and loss of time in the future.

Summarize the key points

At the end of each stage, the project participants should come together to define improvement points and which decisions should be maintained.

Throughout the meeting, regardless of whether the content is related to the project execution, it is advisable to summarize everything that needs to be done.

In this way, the participants get aware of all the points that were agreed in the meeting.

And, just as it was mentioned in the previous topic and according to the lessons learned, these summaries can be documented.

4 - Learn to delegate functions

Time management also has a close relationship with the delegation of functions. So if you are responsible for a project, do not want to "embrace the world with your hands".

Practices like this, besides making you spend time with activities that are not your responsibility, also interfere directly in your quality of life.

A good manager also needs to know how to divide the roles among the team so that everyone can commit to the execution of a project and that it is well executed in the shortest time possible

5 - Focus on quality

You have a limited amount of time, energy and attention. It means that, besides scheduling tasks appropriately, you need to complete them in a focused and efficient way.

Lean Six Sigma is one of the most valued methodologies in the market for its ability to reduce waste and increase revenue through a focus on quality.

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