Have you ever needed more hours in the day to get everything done? If you could manage your time more effectively, would you be more productive?
I recently attended a presentation delivered by Paul Bellows, a local business consultant and leadership coach. This was one of the topics he discussed.
Instead of delivering a pre-prepared presentation, Bellows simply stated what he does and asked the audience if there were certain challenges he could help them with. This was a bold move because all of his responses had to be delivered spontaneously.
A member of the audience asked βmy biggest challenge is time management and productivity. Do you have any suggestions that could help?β
Bellows suggested the first step in time management is to establish clearly defined goals for the organization. Then define the specific goals you need to achieve if the organization is going to be successful.
Once the goals have been established, it is important to know how you are currently investing your time. At the end of each day make a list of what you did. Then assign the amount of time you spent doing each task. Do this every day for two weeks, and be as accurate as you can. After two weeks look at the results and see how you are spending your time. What percentage of your time was spent on tasks directly related to your personal goals?
According to Bellows, business owners who suffer from time management and productivity issues typically spend a majority of their time on tasks that are not directly related to achieving their goals.
By understanding exactly what your goals and responsibilities are, you can easily identify which tasks need to be delegated to someone else. Effective delegation will reduce the time you spend on those distracting tasks and it should improve your productivity.
For more information, visit paulcbellows.com.
