1. TIME MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
The Manager’s Tool Kit
Managing time effectively will enable you to balance work and personal life. It will reduce stress and improve your health. Above all it will improve your career since you will spend more time satisfying your internal and external customers.
Time is a precious commodity (драгоценный товар) because it is nonrenewable (невосстанавливаемый) resource. If used poorly or inappropriately (неподходящий, несоответствующий), it cannot be recovered (Обретать снова, возвращать себе, получать обратно). Furthermore (К тому же, кроме того), time wastage (потери, утечка) causes unnecessary stress, can lead to missed deadlines, and can result in poor client service. Here are some practical ideas that will help you manage your time more effectively.
will enable you to balance work and personal life. It will reduce stress and improve your health. Above all it will improve your career since you will spend more time satisfying your internal and external customers.

2. “Time wastes our bodies and minds, our strength and energy, but we waste Time, therefore, we are quits”. Inscription on the Sun Watch, 1746.
Time Management is one of the most important issues in modern business, time is one of the major resources for success. Work pressure, continuous stress do not increase our productivity. How can we use our working time productively in order to do all things and keep our strength for tomorrow?
Time is a precious resource, both irreplaceable and irreversible. But how can we learn to save time and spend it wisely? “Effective Time Management” should help you make the most of every hour. In this guide, John Adair focuses on time available for daily use using a wide range of examples.

3. Just as well-run business follows a budget in spending money, an effective businessperson should also follow a schedule in spending time
Personal feeling of time, clear delegating of your duties, organization of your work space, efficient planning of the conferences and meetings, effective rehabilitation of your mental and physical strength after large workload and stress – these are the main tasks, which will be resolved if we study Time Management.
Time is a rare resource. We consider a lot of questions to be more important than studying of how we can save time and how we can spend time rationally.

4. “TIME IS LIFE. TO WASTE YOUR TIME IS TO WASTE YOUR LIFE, BUT TO MASTER YOUR TIME IS TO MASTER YOUR LIFE AND MAKE THE MOST OF IT”. Alan Lakein
Time Management is very important in all spheres of our life. It is especially important to use Time Management in our everyday activities. We always have the lack of time while our duties increase. We have to choose our goals wisely and have good Time Management skills, which would help us solve all of our tasks. Time Management is one of the elements of effective productivity.

5. DIAGNOSIS
Where are you currently spending more time than you would like/need to be effective in your job? You may be able to identify ways you can claim back some more time for yourself by reflecting on where you currently spend your time.
Meetings –Too many meetings, too many/the wrong participants, not well controlled – no agenda, not sticking to the agenda, not starting on time, no time allocation
Telephone calls – Calls taking too long (unstructured discussions, chatting too long), too many calls getting through
Not enough delegation – feel can do this job better, want to control everything, frightened about whether subordinates can do the job
Involved in too much – unclear what the priorities are, want to be involved in everything, unrealistic time pressures, can’t say no
Continually interrupted – door always open, lots of questions from subordinates

6. SYNOPSIS Time Management will help you:
 To develop the personal feeling of time.
To think about the future time, set goals and work out new proposals and plans.
To analyze how you spend time – where, how and why you spend time now.
To reduce the influence of time deficit.
To get rid of hurry.
To avoid excessive time spending.

7. SYNOPSIS To learn how to save your time through delegating
To redistribute your time for achieving the best results.
To study the techniques that would allow you to save your time during the meetings, reading, writing the documents, business trips, telephone calls etc.
To use more time for creative thinking. 
To make time your ally, not the enemy.

8. GETTING STARTED Visit your office over a weekend and clean house:
Throw away miscellaneous pieces of paper such as Post-it notes.
Record all your information in one system.
Improve your filing system.
Put things where you can gain access to information quickly and easily.

9. GETTING STARTED
Analyze how you spend your time. Use labels: A for time spent serving a customer (internal or external);
B for time spent on tasks helping someone who is helping a customer;
C for time spent on activities that do not benefit customers directly or indirectly (this includes fun office activities).
Record your time spent doing A,B, and C activities over a couple of typical days.
Categorize the time.

10. GETTING STARTED
Analyze how much of your time was wasted and make note of the circumstance under which this occurred.
Develop a plan to reduce B activities.Write down the plan. Commit to the implementation.Consult the plan often.
Plan the occasional C activity. Having fun and doing the things you enjoy should be done to preserve your sanity! But do not get too caught up in those activities unless they interfere with A items.
Invest in a time management system – manual or computerized – to give you a structure to work with.
Key Moments:
-Don’t allow procrastination capture you. A procrastination is a main thief of the time. Remember Franklin’s words” “One today costs two tomorrow”.

11. DAILY
Start each day with a list of all activities you wish to accomplish.
Next, categorize and prioritize each activity as “1” or “2” activities. Activities classified as 1s are those that if not done will either adversely affect your reputation or negatively impact your customer service. Any others are 2s.
Prioritize Your time!The first step in effective time management is not to develop a schedule, but instead to develop a strategy. The time strategy should be based on a short list of time priorities.
You start by identifying the number one way you can most increase profits by use of your time; then the number two way; then the number three way; etc. This short list of time priorities forms the foundation for your time planning for the every week of the year.
These time priorities may be identical to key parts of your company strategy or they may be different. For example, if your company strategy is based upon excellent customer service, spending lots of your time in customer service may not be the best use of your time if you have a terrific customer-service manager.
Narrow Your Focus!
Focus is crucial for time management, and the fewer priorities you focus on at once, the more productive you will be.
After you have major time priorities for the year established, you should allocate them by week or by month. Like it or not, a lot of our time each week is going to be eaten up by nonstrategic items that we have no control over; hence it is important to limit the number of strategic time goals we have for each week. So even if you have ten strategic time goals for the year, you may want to focus on no more than one or two of them in any given week.
For example, in a particular week you may plan on working on your number one time objective, let’s say planning improvements for the company’s major product line, and a secondary goal, let’s say re-evaluating the dealer marketing program, but no time on other secondary time goals that you plan on tackling during other weeks.

12. DAILY
Plan to do all 1 activities first. However, avoid committing more than 70 percent of your day to 1 activities since unforeseen problems will invariably upset your plans and use up unavailable time.
Allocate 2 items to other dates in your calendar, not necessarily the next day.
Keep your daily checklist handy at all times. The list will have little value if you are constantly searching for it.
You always have to remember the principle: “Every hour, that you spend for the planning, will save three or four hours for fulfillment of the task’.

13. DAILY Keep your desk clean. Put things where you can find them.
Use your travel time effectively. Most planes and trains now have phones, and you can use your laptop computer with little interruption.
Your car can be turned into an education center where you listen to management audiocassettes. Challenge yourself to write down the highlights of cassette while you are enjoying your first morning coffee.

14. DAILY
Avoid meetings that are non-critical. If your sole purpose for going to a meeting is to get information, you can get it from the minutes.
Delegate your routine work to associates so that you can tackle planning, problems, and challenging tasks.
Do only one thing at a time, and complete it before taking on the next task.
The delegacy saves your time and gives the opportunity to develop employees. It doesn’t save organization time, because anybody has to spend time for doing this job. But it ensures the best results, and it allows to use all the resources, which you have in your organization.
The delegacy means the passing of the creative initiative and the authorship to your associations for fulfillment certain tasks. The employee has to have the skills for the fulfillment of the job, and to have readiness to do it. You have to check the fulfillment of the task, and to check the quality of the work. Now both – the boss and employee – share responsibility for the success of the common task.
If the task is new, you need to decide, which additional knowledge and skills are necessary for solution of this task. The development of your individual abilities as a tutor and consultant is the part of your responsibility as a leader. The delegacy is rewarded, when you see, that your associations develop as the professionals; it consolidates recognition, respect and confidence in your working team. The delegacy assumes the high level of executive discipline. The bad associates like when their bosses think instead them. They constantly ask to discuss with them solutions and questions, that can be decided by themselves. Don’t allow them to come to your office with the problems, if they haven’t the way out from those problems. A nine times from 10 you can tell: “Well, you can go and do it yourself”.At the end they will come with the solutions, and only one time they will come to you with a problem, that can be done only with your help.If you want to have enough time for decision of the strategical tasks, you have to become the Master of the delegacy art.

15. DAILY
Get those you work with to respect your quiet time, time when you are planning the day’s activities (first hour) or cleaning your desk at the end of the day.
Avoid procrastination. Identify and deal with the source of your discomfort. The longer you procrastinate, the higher your stress level would be.
Do less pleasant but important items first. You will gain a sense of relief and achievement.
You have to do decision don’t procrastinate things for tomorrow, if you can do it today. We haven’t another time, except present time. Invincible duke Wellington explained all his victories by implementation one rule in his life: “Do the day work during the day-time”.
Be careful yourselves and don’t listen people, when you are advised procrastinate or linger with the fulfillment of the work.There is only one step to the way of the slow-moving person. Wise men sometimes put off acceptance some decisions or action:may be, they haven’t enough information or competence. But they don’t like tomorrow, because this is one of the tangled passages of the time.
“Tomorrow” is the main word for waiter time. You have to do away it from your life, if you want better to control your time. Begin with yourself. Begin to do something, that you set aside. This business may be small, or big: overdue apology; confrontation with your associate; meeting with your boss or unpleasant task, that you have to decide. And then the most difficult today’s work doesn't appear you so terrible.

16. TIME MANAGEMENT: AVOIDING TIME WASTERS
PROCRASTINATION IS THE THIEF OF TIME
No one is perfect. Everyone wastes some time. The three activities that waste the most time are long meetings, interruptions, and telephone calls. Here is how you can reduce each dramatically.
MEETINGS
Avoid setting or attending unnecessary meetings.
Prepare a detailed agenda.
Always get agreement the budget of time for the meeting, and try to adhere it, if it is possible.
Put into operation the habit to ask yourself questions about forthcoming meeting.
Here are seven key questions:
-What does happen if we won’t meet?
-Why do we meet?
-What is the result of this meeting?
-How long will continue this meeting?
-Who does attend this meeting?
-What is the best order for carrying out of the meetings?
-When does you need to hold a meeting? Is this time is right for you?
Until you will give satisfactory answers on these questions, don’t hold meeting. The meetings have to save your time. As a chairman or participant of a meeting you have to check the beginning and the completion of the meeting, and the effectiveness of this meeting.

17. MEETINGS
Get someone to monitor time and inform the participants if they are falling behind the schedule.
At the start of meeting obtain agreement on the objective(s) to keep a focus and avoid time-consuming discussions on unrelated topics.
Record ideas on a flipchart to reduce repetition.
People receive biggest part of the information through the eyes, not through the ears. The Chinese say: «The picture is worth a thousand words». Therefore, visual aids(Slides,diagrams, charts) can save your time if they are simple and easy to understand.

18. MEETINGS
Avoid dealing with items that are not on the agenda. If someone goes off on a tangent:
Politely ask what the matter has to do with the agreed-upon objective.
Ask if the item can be dealt with later or outside the meeting.
PREPARATION TO THE MEETING
-Goals determination
-Topic study
-Discussion Scheme
-Final preparation

19. MEETINGS Goals Determination
For example, to involve consultants of the company.
Improvement of the production process.
Topic study
Collection of the facts and information.
Determination of the main discussion subjects
Discussion of the different view points.

20. MEETINGS Discussion scheme Setting of the ultimate goal.
Consideration of the intermediate goals.
Discussion questions.
Planning of introductory speech before the beginning of discussion.
Making the meeting agenda.

21. MEETINGS Final preparation
Printing and distribution of the invitations.
Preparation of the conference hall.
Preparation of the handouts, slides, transparencies etc. These materials should be distributed before the meeting starts. Clear questions should be set at the beginning and at the end of agenda. This way the meeting will be started and finished on a high note. The most important issues should be discussed at the beginning when the minds of participants are not yet overload..

22. OFFICE INTERRUPTIONS
Stand when people come in to chat. This will prevent them from getting comfortable.
Ask them if it’s important.
Ask them if you can talk later in their office, a place where you can control the length of the conversation.
Walk out long enough to get them out of your office and then sneak back to continue your work.
Close your door.
Set Aside Uninterrupted Time
Every week you should make up a detailed time plan, which you modify each day as needed. Except in times of crisis, try to make sure day-to-day issues don’t push your strategic time priorities off your schedule.
Generally your major strategic time priorities will involve such activities as planning, thinking, and developing ideas. More so than day-to-day issues, such activities require big blocks of uninterrupted time.
Constant interruption kills any hope of effective time management. One way to avoid interruption is to make it clear that when your door is closed you are not to be disturbed. Another is to have regular meetings, such as every week, with the people that you interact with the most and insist on saving nonpressing issues for these meetings.
Avoid My Time Traps!
These are some “time traps”, all of which have plagued person, that you should guard against:
-Spending a disproportionately high amount of time in the offices where the most congenial people are, as opposed to where the most important issues are.
-Wasting too much time getting daily updates on routine activities as opposed to waiting for a more meaningful weekly summary.
-Jumping too eagerly into routine, more straightforward work and putting off the more complex and difficult work.
-Not starting the more important work first thing in the morning.
-Not bothering to make up a schedule for each day.
-Overscheduling – scheduling each day so tightly that it is impossible to stay on track and the schedule quickly becomes meaningless.

23. TELEPHONE
Leave complete messages for people who are not available so they won’t have to call back.
Install a voic system.
Return calls to people’s voice mail after business hours.
Train your associates to deal with routine issues on your behalf and to screen your calls when you are under pressure.

24. TELEPHONE
Avoid unnecessary chitchat by answering with your name followed by a question such as “How may I help you?”
Increase your chances of speaking to someone after you are told that the person is “away from the desk” or “in a meeting” by asking: “Could you find her for me?”
“Can he be interrupted?”
“I’m returning her call, which was important”.

25. PAPERWORK
Keep your desk clean. Put things where you can find them. Don’t put documents in temporary places.
Deal with each piece of paper once. File it, respond to it, or dump it.
Reduce time by responding to correspondence in writing on the letter. Fax it back, or photocopy it and send it back.
With the invention of the copy machines you entered to the war for survival and fight with the paper flow. You can be saved only with the politics of the spending minimum of time for every piece of paper; You can take them in your hand only one time; it prevent you from absolute ineffectiveness of your work.
Your secretary, if you have him, has to be enough competent for organization of the administrative side of the work in your office. He has to open mail and classify it according appointed priority system. He has to defend you from the incoming calls and visitors for saving your time.
The muddle adds the work and steal your time. Try to maintain the order in your office. Organize the system of work with predicted and main business. Then you see, you will have more time for work with unpredicted business – it can be problems, crisises or new opportunities for your business.

26. Key Moments
Do not allow procrastination capture you. A procrastination is a main thief of time. Remember Franklin’s words” “One today is worth two tomorrows”.
The delegating does not save the company time, but it saves your time. The purpose of the delegating is to give you the opportunity to solve main tasks.
Your office and desk have to be clean.
Determine the duration of every meeting at the beginning.
You have to know a purpose, an intention and the object of your work. Importance and urgency of the work can clarify the situation.

27. DELEGATING
As a leader, you will be judged as much by what happens when you are present as by what happens when you are absent.
Good managers never put off till tomorrow what they can delegate today. A major cause of stress and poor time management is an unwillingness, or inability, to delegate responsibility to people who work for us. Delegating responsibility to others allows you to concentrate on your duties as manager: planning, problem solving, and other proactive matters. Failure to delegate forces you to spend too much time on trivial issues and neglect critical opportunities. Here’s what you can do to correct the situation:

28. DELEGATING
GENERAL
Write down all your activities for one week. Categorize them as A and B activities. All or most of A activities can be delegated, including:
Routine work;
Data collection;
Attending meetings unrelated to adding value for internal or external clients.

29. DELEGATING
You will be left with more enriching tasks, the B activities that will use your conceptual and communication abilities, including:
Strategic planning;
Coaching;
Goal setting;
Updating your people;
Problem solving;
Liaising with customers;
Carrying messages between those above and below you.

30. Delegating is the great motivation; it enriches the work, increases the labor productivity and contributes to the increase of the team moral.
Accept that you cannot do everything, be everywhere, and make all decisions. Believe that your people are capable of doing more of your mundane work without much difficulty.
Identify people who could take some of the load off your shoulders. These people:
Have an interest in the job;
Have or will make the time to do jobs you delegate;
Have the skills to do the jobs;
If people have the time and inclination but not the skills, train them.

31. DELEGATION MEETING
Set up a meeting (formal or informal depending on the circumstances). At the meeting, address the following:
Explain the purpose.
Describe the task you want done.
Be specific about the goal.
Stress how important it is that the task is done in a timely and accurate manner.

32. DELEGATION MEETING Obtain agreement about the goal.
Agree on a date by which the task will be completed.
If the task is big, establish minigoals with corresponding time lines.
Discuss benefits that people might enjoy as a result of taking on the new job. These might include increased responsibility, learning opportunities, added exposure in the organization, or promotion opportunities.

33. DELEGATION MEETING
Make sure that the person accepts the task and its scope. A handshake is an acceptable way of acknowledging acceptance.
Assign responsibility and authority. Tell your associates how confident you are in their ability to do the job.
Ask if the associate foresees any problems in achieving the task. Help to resolve any problems.

34. LATER
Monitor people as needed to ensure directions are clearly understood.
Monitor performance closely at first and then less frequently. If associates are performing well, let them know. If not, give them appropriate feedback, focusing on the behavior, not the person.
Show confidence in people by giving them some freedom to do the task their way.
Ensure that people who work with you and your associate know that you have delegated the task and that you have given the associate the authority to do the job.
Delegating is the great driving motive; it enriches the work, increases the labor productivity and contributes to the increase of the moral in the team

35. A SOLID PERSONAL GOAL SETTING SYSTEM IS THE KEY TO EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT AND LIFE PLANNING
Many people eventually realize how important goal setting is for their personal and business success. Only very few have gone so far as to actually sit and put their goals in writing.
This is an unfortunate situation. It is well established that it is the process of writing your goals that actually puts your goals to work.

36. NICE AND EASY GOAL WRITING
It is in this goal writing process that your subconscious mind starts taking your goals seriously. Your mind gets all the necessary signals to start moving you forward. And those signals are better to be very clear and direct, no confusing or conflicting messages. They should include clear visual images of your written goals.
You almost certainly know from experience that there is a big barrier between reading books or listening to tapes and actually taking the hard and necessary action steps towards changing your habits.  

37. ABOUT YOUR HEALTH AND HOLIDAYS
Keep your energy and improve your health with the help of the right diet, good sleep and regular rest. Remember the gold rule about the moderation.
Learn to recognize the symptoms of the stress and to determine factors, which accompany it. Use the “7 steps Strategy” for struggle with the stress – act: express your feelings; determine priorities; take into consideration things, which you can’t change; better use your experience. Change the sign “-” on the sign “+”; check your skills of Time Management; count your joys, not the sadness.

38. ABOUT YOUR HEALTH AND HOLIDAYS
Gratitude is your best ally. Write right now on the paper five most important events of your life you are thankful to your destiny for.
Live today. You can not change yesterday, but you can improve tomorrow, if you have a good day today.
Working time of the person during all of his life consists of hours. Spend it wisely. Time Management principles and techniques are not that complicated. They do not require intense thinking or research to understand them. What is much more important is how much they become a part of you, how deeply they penetrate into your mind.

39. MAY ALREADY BE A WINNER! Each day is a new beginning…
Another chance to learn more about ourselves,
To care more about others,
To laugh more than we did,
To accomplish more than we thought we could,
To be more than we were before.
Wishing you a life of wonderful,
New beginnings, successful outcome of your initiatives…