Archive for the ‘Personal Effectiveness & Time Management’ Category

If you are heading off on your holiday soon I’m sure you are hoping for some rest and recuperation. But before you go, do you find yourself being extra busy just before you go away?

You rush around trying to squeeze in as many jobs as possible to meet a self imposed deadline. As your final day in the office draws closer it may be frantic but you find yourself getting more and more focused.

You find yourself making better decisions about what is important and what isn’t.
You are prepared to delegate more or bat things away and not add more to your workload.
You decide to actually ditch a few jobs.
And you work more on the basis of getting things 80% right rather than aiming for perfection.

It’s amazing how much you can get done when you really do have to be away from the office.

So why do you work in this way when you know you won’t be around for a few weeks yet don’t do it the rest of the year?

If we allow it to, work will always expand to fill the time available. The only thing that changes is your perception and attitude.

So this time around have a good rest and come back with a changed attitude as well as a suntan.

One of the biggest problems many managers and business owners have is delegating tasks to other people. If a task is not done correctly it is easy to say to ourselves that no one does it to my standard or I always have to redo it and so might as well do it myself.

However, the key to effective delegation is effective communication. If you want to get the job done well then communicate exactly what you want, when you want it and how you want it.

Here are some tips:

• Identify exactly what needs to be done – include your expectations of the outcome you want, if necessary what format you want it in, and how you want the piece of work done if this needs specifying. Communication is key and is your responsibility. If something isn’t done properly, check your own instructions first and see where the gaps were.
• The task is clearly assigned to someone. That means they know how far they are expected to go with this piece of work and where the boundaries are. If you want them to check back with you on every decision then tell them that. If they have licence to make their own decisions then tell them that. Give them the guidelines or framework that they can work within.
• Support – ensure your delegate has the support they require when needed. If they need help, get them to formulate a solution for you to discuss or if they are really stuck advise them but explain why you are giving them the solution you have. This gives them the opportunity to learn for the future – don’t take the work back!
• Regular feedback – ensure there is regular and appropriate follow up.  This does not mean standing over someone’s shoulder and checking up on them every five minutes but allowing them the space to get on with the task. Regular planned check-ups on progress will help to avoid any misunderstandings.

1. Only check emails twice a day.
This is difficult as, in this information age, we feel the need to be in contact with everything that is going on. However, the constant bombardment of information coming from different angles is very distracting and reduces our performance. By scheduling fixed times of the day to focus on your emails you will be more in control of your time. The best times to check your emails are just before lunch and then again later in the afternoon.

2. Create some email rules.
Both Outlook and Lotus Notes have the feature of allowing you to set up rules for your emails. You can create various rules to help you make your life easier. Here is an example. Create a separate folder and call it ‘Inbox – copy’. Then create a rule to automatically send all emails that you are just copied in on, rather than being directly addressed to you,  straight to this new folder and avoid clogging up your inbox. You can then check this new folder once a week to catch up on anything that you need some background on. You’ll be amazed how fewer emails you need to read.

3. Action each email straight away.
So now that you have your focus time to review your emails, when you are checking through them you need to ensure that you action them straight away and clear them out of your inbox. There are four options with each email. Either respond to it immediately, schedule time in your calendar to complete any tasks required and file in a ‘current’ folder, forward it onto someone in your team with clear instructions of what action you want taken and by when, or delete it and move on.

Take these actions now to manage your inbox more effectively and see how much time you save.