Time Management 10 Common Mistakes Excerpts from a presentation by Jin Daleo VSRF

How well do you manage your time? If you are like many people, maybe the answer is not completely positive Many of us would like to be more effective Can we identify the mistakes we make Can we improve YES, we can! Let’s be more productive and reduce our stress!

Mistake # 1 Failure to Make a To Do List – Do you ever have that nagging feeling that you’ve forgotten to do something? – If so, you probably don’t have a to do list, or aren’t using it effectively – The trick is to effectively prioritize a task – Many use an A to F coding, with A being highest priority, some use a number system – Try to be specific with your task

Mistake # 2 Not Setting a Personal Goal – Do you know where you want be at the end of the day, week, month even year – Personal goal setting is essential to managing time because it gives you a vision! – If you know where you want to go, then you can prioritize and find resources to assist you – You can decide what to spend your time on and what is a distraction

Mistake # 3 Not Prioritizing – This is difficult especially when faced with many “urgent” tasks at once – Factors to consider: understand the difference between urgent and important, is the task high yield high priority or low yield “fill in work”

Mistake # 4 Failure To Manage Distractions – Do you know that some of us can lose up to 2 hours per day due to distractions….think of what we could accomplish if we had that time back! – Is it your phone? ? IM chat? Facebook? – If you are 100% engaged, you are more productive with the task at hand! – Tip: maybe you really only need to check twice per day…AM and PM?

Mistake # 5 Procrastination: putting off tasks that should be worked on now – This produces guilt that you haven’t started, then dreading the task, then everything catches up with you and you feel overwhelmed – Tip: Don’t feel that you have to complete the task…just get started or break up your task into smaller segments

Mistake # 6 Taking On Too Much – Do you have a hard time saying “no” – Then maybe you have too much on your plate – This can lead to poor performance, stress and low morale – Are you a micromanager who needs to be in control of everything – Taking on too much is poor use of your time – Tip: say yes to the person, no to the task

Mistake # 7 Thriving on Busy – Some people get a rush from being busy – Addiction to “busyness” rarely means your effective and can lead to stress – Tip: try to slow down, breathe, and manage your time

Mistake # 8 Multitasking – Do you know: it can take % longer to finish a list of tasks while multitasking rather than complete them in sequence…the result is all tasks are done poorly – Focus on one task at a time…you’ll have higher quality work!

Mistake # 9 Not Taking Breaks – It’s impossible to produce high quality work without taking a break and “recharging” – Breaks provide valuable down time which allow you to think creatively and work effectively – Tip: try to take a break every hour or two…a cup of coffee or 5 minutes “meditation” will certainly increase productivity

Mistake # 10 Ineffectively Scheduling Tasks – Are you a “lark” or an “owl”? – All of us have times of the day when we feel most productive and energetic – Make best use of your time by scheduling high value work during your peak time and low energy work during down time

Key Points One of the most effective ways to improve productivity is to recognize and rectify time management mistakes – When you overcome these mistakes, you will notice a huge difference in your productivity, you will be happier, and you will experience less stress!