by Kimberly Klein, Administrative Assistant
The New Year is slowly approaching, and I know everyone is starting to make that list of their New Year’s Resolutions. Maybe you want to lose a few pounds, be less stressed, spend more time with your family, learn something new, or manage your time better? I’m hoping this blog can help you cross one of those items off your list.
Managing your time better.
I can already tell you are rolling your eyes and you do not want to read a blog on time management. Don’t worry, it will short and sweet, and then in the end you will be eager to get started managing your time better if you aren’t doing it already. Please keep in mind though; this is my own strategy for own my career goals and personal needs.
Let’s first examine the definition of time management. “It is a set of principles, practices, skills, tools and systems that help you use your time to accomplish what you want.” – Source, http://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/time-management/importance-of-time-management/ It is important to know in advance, that time management is very personal. Only you know your energy level, your attention span, eating and sleeping needs, and all these needs have to be taken into consideration with time management. That is why, it’s essential to develop your own strategy that best tailors YOU.
I was recently asked in a past training, who here has to juggle a lot of projects and how do you do it? I hesitantly raised my hand and was chosen by the speaker who awaited my answer. I’ll tell you later on how I answered this question, but for now keep on reading. In being the Administrative Technician for the Texas Main Street Program, I am responsible for various projects for the program throughout the year, in addition to projects assigned by the Community Heritage Development Division. Just this past year, even more than in the years I’ve been with the agency, I’ve had more duties / tasks assigned to me. With no prior training on time management, I knew I need to come up with a quick solution on how to juggle everything effectively. Here’s how I did it in 3 easy steps.
Step 1. Make a list of all my projects and establish which are the most important.
Step 2. Create your day-to-day schedule. What’s most important here is to notate when you are commuting, eating lunch, when you are alert, when you are fatigued, etc. Also, make sure you allow yourself some personal time to get away from your desk for a small break. For Main Street Managers who may have a job that extends beyond the 9 to 5 time frame, please keep this in consideration. Include those weekly meetings that occur after business hours, etc.
Step 3. Assign projects to your day-to-day schedule.
See below a graph from PARK University Enterprises, INC. This is what your energy level can look like for a day that is unbalanced for work and play and with no proper time management.
You can notice on various times of the day where this individual was tired and not stopping to take a quick break to stretch or get proper nourishment. Now if you used the 3 step strategy we created earlier, you can make an unbalanced day look like this. See graph below.
As it was mentioned before, it’s essential to develop your own strategy that best tailors YOU. See what works best for you and be sure to incorporate them into your daily life. Learning how to properly develop time management now, will help you throughout your personal life and professional career.
“You become more productive using improved time management skills and tools, and can accomplish more with less effort and time. Time management can help you reduce wasted time and energy, help you become more creative and productive, and enable you to do the right thing at the right time. This will of course lead to more balance and fulfillment in your life.” – Source, http://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/time-management/importance-of-time-management/
Using the graphs that you just saw, see below what my day-to-day schedule looks like and what my answer to the speaker entailed.
My own notes. Where you see asterisk, this notates my top projects and tasks. My top priority project is first thing in the morning, and it can range from anything regarding logging in MS Manager’s reports, updating the manager’s list, assembling the MS Matters publication, creating invoices/contract, etc. My second top priority project, I always make sure it’s something I can walk away from to allow myself a walk and/or lunch and then come back to it. The records retention work I do can be very nitty-gritty, so I make sure it goes in my weakest time of the day. This allows me to be up moving around, accessing files, scanning etc. I also make sure I have earplugs on with some music to keep me moving. Design work I do for the TMSP Design Team is not part of my job description, I help when I can. I find I’m the most creative towards the end of the day. Chances are I’ve grabbed a snack or caffeine, I got my music playing and I’m grooving.
It’s also important to know I don’t follow this schedule every day. It’s important to listen to your own body and take cues from it. If you get into the office at 8:00 in the morning, and you there’s a project you don’t want to work on, start with something else first. Grab yourself a healthy snack, listen to music, or do something afterwards to get you energized and then tackle that project you were putting off.
I cannot stress enough how important it is take brief breaks throughout the day, even if it’s for a few minutes. If it is to stretch, meditate, get a cup of coffee or take a brief walk, we all need to recharge in some way. Find what is best for you and take advantage of it. Also, a very important key, and I have learned this the hard way over the years, it is okay to say NO sometimes. People can eventually reach a point that you can wear yourself out and not perform top quality work. Listen to your body, and know how much you can balance. Remember that YOU have the power on how you manage YOUR own time.
There are unlimited amounts of trainings, classes, books, webinars, available at your fingertips when it comes to Time Management. If this blog has not answered any of your questions or helped you, please do your own research. A couple of websites that I found very helpful are listed below.