Time Management and Small Shop Development

What things prevent you from making the best use of your time?

Time Wasters Indecision Inefficiency Unanticipated interruptions Procrastination Unrealistic time estimates Unnecessary errors Poor organisation Micro-management Doing urgent rather than important things Poor planning and lack of contingency plans Bureaucracy

Effective time managers Consider everything they HAVE to do and WANT to do Understand how much time each activity in a day will take Make a plan that helps them to get through the day, week, month without running round like a headless chicken

Have-To Tasks which are part of every day, includes: –Family responsibilities –Work –Sleep –Eating and personal hygiene

Want-To Make your life a little more fulfilling –Socialising –Physical activities –Cultural activities –Relaxation time

9 Rules to Avoid Wasting Time 1. Get Started Get down to work quickly and efficiently 2. Get into a routine Plan a time every day to accomplish certain tasks and stick to it. Use a day planner to help keep your schedule 3. Do not say yes to too many things This overextends energies, forces us to live to others priorities rather than focus on our own

4. Dont commit yourself to unimportant activities, no matter how far ahead they are it is still a commitment & will still take up your time 5. Divide larger tasks by having small, manageable goals & tasks, you can eventually complete the larger projects. Also smaller projects will be more easily fit into an already tight schedule

6. Do not put unneeded effort into a project learn to recognise each situation and put the attention to detail only in those situations that need it. 7. Deal with it for once and for all Schedule the appropriate amount of time for it and get it done. Dont continually start and stop a task

8. Set start and stop time this improves your scheduling. As you continually get better at setting start and stop times, see if you cant shave time off your deadlines 9. Plan your activities schedule a regular time to schedule your activities. This will help you focus on your time management

Prioritisation Important/urgent matrix 2 Important but not urgent 1 Important and urgent 4 Not important and not urgent 3 Not important but urgent Focus on Box 1 Make a decision about Box 2, if they are important but not urgent you may be able to spend less time on them or postpone them temporarily. But you dont want to forget about them. Boxes 3 & 4 – eliminate if you are short of time

Time Management Software Software is available if you find that time management is necessary more often than not. Consider using this to plan multiple tasks over the long term Electronic calendars (such as outlook) with alerts MS Project iPhone and Android Apps