Are you working efficiently and effectively? Do you have many productive hours of work or are you constantly distracted? In this article we give you a number of time management tips to help you organize your office time more efficiently and get more out of your work day.
1. Get a Secretary or Answering Machine to Take Phone Messages
Instead of constantly being distracted by telephone calls get a secretary or answering machine to take messages for you, then set aside time each day to focus on returning calls. By separating work and phone calls you will be able to focus more clearly on each task and get more out of your time. Effective office time management means that you need to focus on the task at hand and so an important time management tip is to do whatever you can to minimize distractions, such as the phone and email.
2. Set aside a Time to Answer Emails
Emails are another thing which affects effective office time management and can constantly distract you from focusing on the task at hand. A time management tip to deal with this problem is therefore to set aside time each day to deal with your emails and then for the rest of the day turn off your email program, or at least turn off instant notifications of emails.
3. Create a To-Do List the Day Before
To-do lists are often listed as a time management tip. Effective office time management means that before you leave the office each day prepare a to-do list for the following day and prioritize it, that way as soon as you come into the office in the morning you know what you need to focus your attention on.
4. Complete the Major Tasks First
Start your day with one of the big, important tasks and then go onto smaller and less important tasks. By first focusing on the large tasks you will get them complete in a shorter space of time and then will be able to deal with smaller tasks, whereas if you start with the smaller tasks you will soon find them filling up your day and not having time left to do the larger tasks.
5. Do Tasks that Take Less Than 5 Minutes Immediately
Effective office time management means that if you have a task you need to do that is going to take a few minutes to complete then do it as soon as you receive it, this way you will get the small things out of the way and not need to think about them.
