Time management is a hot topic of conversation around the water cooler in many business settings: people just can't seem to fit more hours into their day no matter how hard they try! Yet, there are deadlines to meet and a mountain of work that still needs to be done. Here are some easy tips to help workers manage their time better.
-- Make sure work spaces are kept organized. Nothing wastes more time, perhaps, than an excess of disorganization on a desk. If you work in a cubicle area, it really isn't difficult at all to maintain an easy, workable system. When possible, keep all transactions paperless to cut down on the clutter. But for inevitable paper that crosses your desk, keep a simple filing system of trays to keep it all organized.
Label your filing areas, and then make sure that no idle paperwork stays on your desk longer than five minutes: after that, it goes into a filing tray. You don't want to be wasting company time looking for lost items or files, whether they be paper or in your computer!
-- Many offices have disorganized workflow systems: the right hand doesn't know what the left one is doing, and countless hours are wasted correcting errors or trying to hunt down files because someone didn't put them where they were supposed to be.
For example, a manager of an animal shelter spent two hours looking for a cat that was missing from a holding area: she had the paperwork for Tiger, but no sign of the cat. As it turned out, a volunteer had moved the cat to the adoption area without notifying anyone. Since then, an organized procedure was set in place whereby all non-authorized employees and volunteers must follow an established series of steps if they want to move an animal themselves.
Having such policies in place may seem like a no-brainer, but many businesses have divisions that don't know what the other ones are doing, or simply operate off the cuff: the results are hundreds of costly man-hours lost to disorganization.
-- Make sure you get your first priorities done right away, first thing in the morning. Most people make a list of must-do tasks at the beginning of the day: the temptation is to do the easier, less labor intensive items first; however, spending all of your energy on the tasks which are least important decrease overall productivity in the long run. Do the most important things first every time.
Effective time management strategies should be taught and practiced in every business setting on a regular basis: at the end of the day, it might even help your bottom line!
Author Resource:-
If you want help in teaching your employees good time management skills, consider doing business simulations to help your company run smoother. Contact the professionals at Executive Perspectives (http://www.executiveperspectives.com). Art Gib is a freelance writer.
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