Practical Time Saving Tips

Last week I shared with you some tips on how to free up time. Following on from that I thought you might find this list of tips useful.

After all, lost time is never found again.......

LEADERSHIP SYSTEMS	Practical time saving tips
Responsibility of:	Managing Director
Ten time saving strategies		Relevant? ü
The most important way you can ever use your time is to decide what is most important, and then do it. In other words, you must always put first things first.
Look at each task and ask ‘will this move me closer towards achieving my goals?’ If the answer is ‘no’, only do that task after you have done the other tasks that will.
Remember the 80:20 rule… ie that 20% of the effort usually generates 80% of the results. Make sure you identify (and do) everything in that 20% group.
Use the above tests to draw up a prioritised “To Do” list every day.
According to Sir John Harvey-Jones, “leaders should only do what only they can do”. So ask yourself the question ‘How much of my time is spent doing work I am overskilled for?’ Multiply that figure by how much your time is worth an hour (remember motor mechanics are regularly charged out at £40+ an hour) to calculate the money you are wasting every year by being ineffective at delegating. And then multiply that figure by the number of years until you retire to give you an estimate of the money you can save by becoming a really effective delegator. Having terrified yourself at the thought of all those hundreds of thousands of pounds going to waste, invest a mere £5.99 in The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey (Ken Blanchard, Harper Collins). It will show you how to simply, quickly and easily reclaim the time and money that is rightfully yours by mastering the art of delegation.
Having mastered the art of delegation yourself, help everyone else to master it too. That way everybody will be able to delegate large parts of their workload - saving you an enormous amount of money and creating a much more satisfying work environment.
Make meetings quicker, more effective and less wasteful by: holding them standing up (where appropriate), holding them at 5.30pm (will tend to be much shorter than 10am meetings!), circulating a written agenda beforehand (makes objectives clear and allows people to opt out if not relevant) and agreeing an action plan before departing.
Work out your ‘prime time’ (ie the time of the day that you are most creative and productive - which, for me, is early in the morning) and reserve that part of each day for your most important tasks.
Don’t procrastinate - especially with seemingly difficult or unpleasant tasks. As Mark Twain once said, ‘If you have to eat a frog, don’t look at it too long!’
Invest in a small handheld dictating machine (c. £30). Carry it with you whenever you are on the move, and use it to dictate letters etc and (even more importantly) to capture all those great ideas that tend to crop up at the least convenient times.