Theme 1 - Leadership

Managing your time

It may seem that there is always more that you have to do and less time you have to do it in! Since nobody can do it all, you may have to set priorities and manage your time well to survive and to get the project done. Managing your time will also help prevent burnout.

Some good time management strategies are:

Tips for Managing Your Time

1. Set Goals - Goals are essential for setting priorities. Using the goals you have identified for youself, separate what you need to do into: (i) critical (ii) important to get done (iii) nice if there is time left (iv) not central to what you are trying to achieve. When faced with choices or multiple things to do, apply the scale.
2. Lay out Tasks and Work on a Time Line - A time plan consists of answers to the following questions (i) what do I need to accomplish? (ii) what are the goals? (iii) What is crfitical and what is trivial? (iv) what is the time line? (v) how will I track it? When this is done have a flow chart visible in the work place. This will ensure you write down the sequence and parts.
3. Manage Time Efficiently - Become time sensitive by valuing it. Figure out a cost factor (time away from family) or per hour time ($100 per hour) then ask yourself, is what I am doing worth this value? List your three biggest time wasters. Make a conscious decision to reduce these by 50%.
4. Create More Time for Yourself - taking time to plan and set priorities frees up more time for yourself later. Diving in and hoping things will get done always leaves people out of time!!
5. Delegate - give away as much time-consuming work as you can. If you believe only you have time to do these things others will believe you too! when you delegate people can feel empowered which is a win win.
6. Learn to Say No - others will always ask you to do more than you can. An important time saver is the ability to say no. One technique to do this successfully is to ask the requester which of the other things they have asked you to do would they like to cancel

You may enjoy using some of the resources at the Mind Tools site.