London PA Magazine

Time Management – in association with Filofax – “it’s a way of life”

Spring is finally here, so what better time for a thorough spring clean? However if rubber gloves and Mr Muscle aren’t what you had in mind, why not start with something easier such as a spring clean of your working day?

Matt Watson from Filofax, brand leaders in personal organisation, shares some tips and tricks to streamline 
your working day, and leave more time to do the fun 
things after work.

Time management has been very much the buzzword for several years. But if things were that easy we would all work strict office hours, take an hour for lunch, and never miss a deadline. There are some easy steps that you can take to make your day more productive – they’re not hard and fast rules, and not all of them may fit with your particular job, so adapt them to your personal working style and environment.At the beginning of the week write a list of objectives and deadlines – this may sound obvious, or you may think that writing lists is a sign of impending old age, but it really does help. And the action of physically writing something down, rather than typing it, is thought to ingrain it more into your memory. It is helpful to have an organiser or diary with a blank notes page opposite your week’s schedule – if not, insert a loose blank page into your diary.

Every morning, take 10 minutes out to plan your day, rather than diving head-first into your inbox. But don’t over-do it – we’ve all fallen into the trap of spending hours creating elaborate time plans with carefully shaded boxes (remember school revision timetables?).

Don’t take on too much – be realistic and only prioritise 2-3 important tasks per day of the week – there is nothing worse than being confronted with a never-ending To Do list, as tasks can easily get lost. Transfer the ‘A list’ tasks into the relevant day in your diary, and then keep the ‘B list’ tasks for the week on a page next to your diary.

Your body and brain has a natural in-built rhythm and chemical balance which makes certain tasks easier at different times during the day. Wake your brain up with repetitive tasks first thing in the morning, move onto analytical areas before midday, then creative work is best after lunch.

Avoid distraction – that little yellow envelope at the bottom of your screen announcing new email doesn’t mean drop everything and check your inbox. The chances are it will be a ‘hilarious’ joke from the boys in accounts, or an update from your Facebook page. Try to restrict checking your inbox to once every 10 minutes.

Last thing on Friday, before your brain switches off from work mode, write a list of things to remember for the following week.

In an ideal world, if you could stick to the above rules your life would be a lot easier. But inevitably you will get requests from colleagues that do not fit into your daily plan. You can deal with this in one of two ways – confirm a deadline, or say no.

Confirming a deadline establishes just how urgent a request is. How often have you dropped everything to complete a last minute request, only to then find that the so-called ‘urgent’ report you slaved over has been languishing in your colleague’s in-tray for a week? Establish just how urgent the request really is, and try to fit it into your plan.

Alternatively, be prepared to say “no” to requests that will prevent you from achieving your objectives. But learn to say no in an acceptable way – be assertive, rather than aggressive (getting a reputation as the stroppy one in the office isn’t going to win you many friends).

If you don’t want to bite the bullet and say “no” (and there are obviously going to be situations where you can’t), explain that you could start the new task, but changing your schedule will delay another piece of work, and ask your colleague to make that decision. Confirm the conversation by email if necessary to avoid any future repercussions.

Finally, if you know you are going to unavoidably miss a deadline, deal with it before the time. Nobody’s perfect, deadlines are often flexible, but you run less of a risk of annoying the person that is waiting for your work if you give them fair warning it is going to be late.

Hopefully by applying some of these tips, you’ll be able to speed through your workload and leave the office at a reasonable time! But we’d love to know your top time-saving tips – simply email your tip and your details to competitions@filofax.co.uk by 31st May and the best ten tips will win a Filofax Finsbury personal organiser in raspberry grained leather.

For a whole variety of ways to brighten up your desk, and get organised in the process, visit www.filofax.co.uk.

Tags: Apr/May 09

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 11:36 am and is filed under Time 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.