Time Management

One of the most common complaints of managers is a lack of time.
Valuable time can be saved by better prioritization and organization. With a few simple tips that anyone can implement immediately, you can literally add a couple of hours to your day.

*  Have clear daily, weekly and monthly goals and priorities, and a plan to achieve them. Have ‘life-time’ goals and ‘as soon as possible’ goals. Make your time-management system work for your success. Treat time as a scarce and valuable resource. There is no time to accomplish everything. Focus on solving the most important key problems. Clarify and fix your objectives for yourself by writing them down. (This will allow you to stay focused, discover patterns and assess your effectiveness later.)

*  Make time-management your habit. Plan on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Focus on high-value priorities verses low-value activities.
Spend 10-15 minutes at the end of your working day reviewing what you have accomplished and planning the next day. Revise your plan for the day in the morning and focus on your priorities.
Make sure you know your three top priorities for the day in the morning when you start your working day, and in the evening before going to sleep.
Sometimes we have to measure time in minutes rather than in days.
Be confident enough to believe you can plan your day and that the plan will work.
If you make time-management your habit it will pay off. (“Failure to plan is a plan to fail.”)

*  Plan taking into account your ‘prime time’.
Most people are the most productive at certain hours of the day.
Try to identify when you work at the peak of your performance.
Most people have two peaks of productivity: one around 11 a.m. and usually a slightly lower peak in the early afternoon.
Plan your day taking this into account. Make sure that your ‘prime time’ is used productively.
Screen out interruptions to protect your prime time.
Use that prime time for the most important and challenging tasks, allowing no distractions, except for emergencies.

*  Free more time for your high-value activities by eliminating time-wasters.
Monitor your performance to track how you use your time to discover patterns.
Make for yourself a report about using time after a certain period of time (day, week, month etc). It will help you to find leaks of time in your schedule.
Find out where you lose time or use it the least efficiently.
Identify your major time-wasters (factors that slow you down and activities that divert you from achieving your goals).
Develop a strategy to minimize or even eliminate these time-losses.
Identify and eliminate one ‘time-waster’ from your life every two weeks.
Learn to say ‘no’, when you think it is necessary and you have to.
(You will be surprised when you recognize how much you can accomplish if you use your time more efficiently.)

*  Allocate (or set aside) time for improving your skills and qualifications.
To be successful in a competitive environment you need to have a constant supply of new ideas. Don’t lose good ideas. Create an ‘idea-factory’.
Use a notebook, notepad or journal to write down ideas as they occur.
Your new efficient skills will allow you to work smarter rather than harder.

*  Multitask or focus all your attention on one important task depending on the tasks and situation.
Multitask when you have to carry out several familiar tasks. Get 100% focused, screen out interruptions and don’t multitask, when you work on important tasks crucial for your goals.
Link activities that can be performed simultaneously – in a multitask mode or in rapid succession.
Don’t plan to accomplish more than it is realistically possible over a given period of time. Some tasks require undivided attention.
Find a way to deal effectively with interruptions when it is necessary.
Draw up your schedule taking into account time for solving possible unexpected problems. With experience people learn to anticipate unexpected problems. Be flexible enough to switch to an urgent task in case of emergency and return back to your major task.

*  Take good care of your health to further improve your productivity.
Eat healthily. Big meals make people drowsy, sluggish and decrease their productivity. When people are tired, their productivity decreases dramatically (sometimes almost to zero).
They make many mistakes and even simple tasks look difficult to them. Develop the most efficient working schedule for yourself; maintain and improve it.
Use creative breaks to increase productivity.  Try to simplify the most unimportant, routine tasks in order to save time for solving the most important key problems.

*  Gradually integrate new effective time-management techniques and technologies into your schedule.
Save time confirming meetings over the telephone, by e-mail etc.
You may have a number of small intervals of free time a day.
Learn to use small intervals of time and don’t neglect them. Spend 15 minutes a day to clean your desk. It will take you less time to find documents.
Improve your communication and listening skills. It often saves time.
Don’t waste your time and mental energy on useless regrets if you did not fully accomplish your time-management plan - just try to function more efficiently the next day.

*  Gradual step-by-step improvements.
Build your perfect time-management system step-by-step.
Don’t try to change everything in one day. Use gradual improvements.
Introduce one little change a week and give your brain some time to get used to it.

Summary
These are important components needed to improve your efficiency:
*  Have clear daily, weekly and monthly goals and priorities.
*  Make time-management your habit.
*  Plan taking into account your ‘prime time’. Screen out interruptions.
*  Take into account time for solving possible unexpected problems.
*  Identify and eliminate one time-waster from your life every two weeks.
*  Take good care of your health to further improve your productivity.
*  Keep gradually improving and refining your time-management skills until they become as natural for you as breathing.


Vocabulary

complaint – жалоба
lack – нехватка, недостаток
valuable – ценный
to save time – экономить время
prioritization – выбор приоритетов
tip – совет (ненавязчивый), подсказка
to implement – реализовывать
immediately – немедленно
literally – буквально
to add – добавлять
goal – цель
priority – приоритет
to achieve – достигать
scarce – скудный
to accomplish – достигать, выполнять
to solve – решать
key – ключ, ключевой
to clarify – прояснять
objective – цель
to assess – оценивать
effectiveness – эффективность
habit – привычка
to make sure – убеждаться
to pay off – окупаться, расплачиваться
to fail – не смочь, потерпеть неудачу
prime time – high productivity period
certain – некоторый, определенный
to identify – идентифицировать, определять
peak – пик
performance – функционирование
slightly – слегка
to take it into account – принимая во внимание
to screen out – to filter
interruption – прерывание
except – за исключением
emergency – чрезвычайная ситуация
to free – высвобождать
to eliminate – исключать
time-waster – пожиратель времени
to monitor – отслеживать
performance – выполнение
to track – отслеживать, прослеживать
to discover – выявлять
pattern – закономерность
leak – утечка
schedule – расписание
efficiently – эффективно
major – основной
to slow somebody down – замедлять кого-либо
to divert – отклонять
to allocate time – выделять время
to set aside = to allocate
environment – среда
supply – приток
to occur – происходить
to multitask – выполнять несколько задач одновременно
to link – связывать
to perform – выполнять
simultaneously – одновременно
multitask mode – многозадачный режим
in rapid succession – непосредственно одно за другим
to require – требовать
to draw up – составлять
to take into account – с учетом
to anticipate – предвосхищать, предугадывать
unexpected – неожиданный
urgent – срочный
further – дальнейший
to improve – улучшать
to improve productivity – повышать производительность
to decrease – уменьшать
to maintain – поддерживать
to increase – увеличивать
to simplify – упрощать
routine – рутинный
in order – с целью
gradual – постепенный
technique – техника
to confirm – подтверждать
to neglect – пренебрегать
regret – сожаление
to get used (to) – привыкать
to refine – усовершенствовать, улучшать
average – средний
to add – добавлять
to measure – измерять, оценивать
criteria (plural from criterion) – критерии
advantage – преимущество
in comparison – по сравнению
advantage – преимущество
to adopt – прививать (о привычке)
to foresee – предвидеть
to prevent – предотвращать

Alex Kritskiy, a private English teacher, Ph.D., 38-067-391-76-62