Have you ever wondered why your manager seems to get so much done without getting much work done? It’s not that they’re not doing anything; it is more because they are doing things well. If you take the time to watch your manager, you’ll probably notice that he or she does five things that you may not be doing. These five things are easy tricks for successful time management in the office.
- Manage what arrives in the inbox. You need to audit the kinds of things that arrive in your inbox, whether it’s paper or electronic. Information you don’t need to see may be copied, if so please ask to be removed from the distribution list. You may be seeing things that require action, but are not in your area of skill or responsibility, if so please pass the information on to the appropriate person and possibly suggest that you request that your name be replaced with theirs in future correspondence. That should leave only what you need to know or need to act on. For the remaining items, act on them in some way so you don’t have to go back to them.
- Keep the desktop clean. Clutter is distracting and makes it hard to find what you need when you need it. Put photos and keepsakes on a shelf or bulletin board, not on your desk. Get in the habit of putting everything away before finishing the day or heading out to lunch, so you can return to a clean work area. Develop a working filing system for the things you want to keep. Then recycle or immediately dispose of things you don’t need to keep.
- Go for lunch before or after noon. Most people go to lunch at noon, so you will always be wasting time queuing for a table, waiting for your food order, waiting for the bill and paying it, plus traffic to and from where you eat. It doesn’t matter if you go out or eat in the company cafeteria; midday is always a crowded time. Instead, go at 11:00am or 1:00pm for a quicker, quieter lunch experience.
- Keep track of who is interrupting and why. If you know who is always stopping by to ask questions or just talk, then you can work together to reduce unnecessary interruptions. This will work for both of you to better manage your time. Together you should set aside 10-15 minutes to meet once or twice a day instead of having multiple interruptions during the workday. Since you keep meetings short, you can stand during the meeting to make sure they don’t last longer.
- Prepare for meetings. Gather everything you need for the meeting you are participating in or leading. Put the meeting on your calendar 5-10 minutes before and a few minutes after. In the minutes leading up, you have time to prepare and be on time. In the minutes afterward, you can start working on any action items you got from the meeting. Also, make sure the meeting has an agenda so everyone’s time is used efficiently when you’re all together. If an agenda was not sent to you, request it before the meeting starts.
Now that you’ve reviewed the five time management tricks most managers successfully use, will you consider using them, too? If you apply these simple concepts to your work at the office, you should find that you can do more, too.