Assess Time Management Skills to Create Team Synergy

Have you ever wished your team could all be moving in the same direction?  Could a lack of focus and alignment be preventing your team from accomplishing your most important priorities?

One of the biggest challenges we face today is the fact that we are all moving at lightening speed.  Technology has made us instantly accessible anywhere we go, 24/7.  But the downside is that it is making everything urgent.  And when that happens, the truly important things can easily get lost.  When your team is clear about its priorities and direction, and everyone understands the impact of time management on team performance, your team productivity will significantly improve.

To help your team use its time most effectively, ask yourself how your team is doing in the following seven areas:

1. Goals
   Are the goals of our team clear?  Do we know what our key objectives are?
   
2. Priorities
   Do we know what our priorities are for the year, month, and week?  Do we create a plan to accomplish our most important tasks each week?  Do we structure our day to focus on those priorities?
   
3. Meetings
   Do we run our meetings well?  Do we have a clear agenda, start and end on time, clearly identify tasks and responsibilities, and follow-up on action items?
   
4. Interruptions
   Do we interrupt each other unnecessarily throughout the day?  Do we have a lot of unnecessary distractions?
   
5. Delegation
   Is delegation handled effectively, or do we just "dump" on each other?
   
6. Written Communications
   Do we handle email effectively, or do we send too much email when it's really not necessary?
   
7. ProcrastinationDo we meet our deadlines?  If not, how is this impacting other team members? 

Five Steps to Master Your Time

Let’s face it. Information is coming at us faster than ever before. We are constantly receiving a steady flow of emails, text messages, phone calls and voice mails. The downside of communication technology is that it is making everything URGENT. It takes real discipline to determine the difference between what is really important from what is just urgent. But it’s this difference that gives you the ability to be really productive, as opposed to just really busy.

The 5 key steps to gain control and mastery of your time include:

1. Identify what you want to change. You’ve got to be honest with yourself about what you are doing that’s keeping you from mastering your time. The more you recognize about what you are doing, when and why, the easier it will be to recognize what you need to do differently.
   
2. Determine the new habit you want to develop. One of the best ways to do this is to ask yourself “What’s the one thing that I’m not doing now or could do differently that would have the greatest impact on how I manage my time?” Once you’ve recognized what that is, develop a realistic action plan that includes specific steps to be taken.
   
3. Practice. Start with one action plan that is within your control, not overly difficult and you feel confident in your ability to accomplish. Then take the actions necessary on a consistent basis. Research shows it only takes 21 days to change a habit. Set yourself up to succeed.
   
4. Ask others to help you. Few of us make significant changes in our lives without the help and support of other people. Ask for assistance when you can and where possible, make yourself accountable to other people for following through on your action plans.
   
5. Reinforce, celebrate and start again. Once you’ve accomplished your first time management goal, feel good about it! Reward yourself or celebrate. Then pick a new goal and keep going. Time mastery is not a one-time event. It’s a continual process.

Once you’ve followed these steps, you’ll be well on your way to a greater sense of control, personal freedom and a lot let stress. You’ll feel as if you really can manage it all, and this greater sense of expansion will enable you to accomplish more in less time and with less stress in the process. All the best to you!

Focus on Your Most Important Activities for Better Time Management

It seems the world is moving faster and faster these days.  You constantly have information streaming to you from people in the office, meetings, email, voice messages, texts.  You're trying to keep on top of it all and it can sometimes feel practically impossible.

So what do you do?  Begin by determining what's really important to get done.  Separate what's important from what's just urgent.

Don't Get Caught in the "Urgency Trap"

The problem with all the technological resources we have for communication is that they are making everything seem urgent.  It can be very tempting to get caught up in it and spend most of your day responding to email instead of focusing on what's really important.

Every activity has some degree of both importance and urgency.  Generally items will fall into four categories:

1. Crisis:  Important and Urgent
2. Planning, Preparation and Prevention:  Important but Not Urgent
3. Trivial Work:  Urgent but Not Important
4. Time Wasters:  Not Urgent and Not Important

Plan to Prevent Crisis from Occurring

It's easy to believe everything is important.  But, in reality, some things just are more important than others.  If you tend to think everything is important, it will be very difficult to prioritize.  If you find yourself living in the Crisis category most of the time, your productivity will weaken and you will quite simply just burn out.  It's unsustainable. The only way out is to focus on what you can do to plan for, prepare and prevent the kinds of things that force you to operate in a crisis.  When the crisis does occur, you'll be equipped to handle it and move on much more easily.

The next time you find yourself working late to meet a deadline, responding to an angry customer or co-worker, or rushing to solve a problem, really push yourself to come up with answers to some of these questions:

• "What could be done to prevent this from happening in the future?"
• "What can I learn to make this easier next time?"
• "Whose support or assistance needs to be involved?"
• "What could occur in the future, and how can I anticipate it and plan to respond?"

When you answer those questions and take the necessary actions, you will be taking the actions that will help keep you out of the Crisis category for very long.

Focus on What's Important

It's important that you get in the habit of consistently identifying your most important activities and then implementing them as a priority.  Other examples of things that are important but not Urgent include:

• Preparing for a meeting
• Planning a presentation
• Coaching and mentoring your staff
• Anticipating customer needs or requests
• Brainstorming ways to streamline internal processes
• Identifying your most important activities to accomplish each year, month
• Create a plan to identify your most important activities each week
• Discussing your team's most important priorities to focus on
• Prioritizing your daily to do list to focus on what's most important
• Enhancing your own professional development

5 Tips That Make Time Management Training Really Work

If you want time management training that works for the long-run, there are five tips any effective training program should have:

1. Make sure it fits into your schedule.
   In our fast-paced world, taking a full day out of work for training can leave you with even MORE to do when you get back to your office.  However, there are live virtual training programs that can be condensed into shorter 60-90 minute segments.  These types of programs have to be really targeted to focus on the most important tips and techniques you need, yet you still interact with an instructor and other participants during the class.  You'll leave feeling you spent your time wisely and learned the most significant things you needed to know.
   
2. Make sure it's personalized to your unique needs.
   One size definitely does not fit all when it comes to time management.  Make sure any training program you engage in is targeted to YOUR needs.  One excellent way to do this is to use some kind of time management assessment instrument to identify your most important areas for improvement.  In any event, make sure any time management training you take recognizes that we're not all the same and we don't all have the same time management challenges.
   
3. Use it to focus on your key priorities.
   To significantly improve the use of your time, it's important to understand the 80/20 Rule.  This states that 80% of your results come from just 20% of the activities you do.  So know what your most important priorities are, and the actions you need to take to meet them.  A good way to do this is to ask yourself one key questions:  What is ONE thing you're not doing now or could do more of that would have the greatest impact on how you manage your time?  Then identify the actions you need to take, remove obstacles in your way, and put your focus there.  Even if you don't get everything done (and none of us ever really will), you'll know you got your most important things done.
   
4. Make yourself accountable to others.
   Time management training is really about habit and behavior change.  The most effective behavior change programs of any sort always include some element of accountability.  So create a plan that makes you accountable to other people and you'll be more successful.  You could ask your boss, your peers and even the instructor and other participants in your time management class to help you.  In order to do this effectively, check-in with other people about your progress on a frequent basis and you'll find you are enjoying the process and managing your time much more effective.
   
5. Reinforce consistently.
   Any type of training that achieves long-term impact should be a process, not a one-time event.  Most time management training programs don't offer any kind of reinforcement or follow-up.  This is something you really need when it comes to long-term behavior change.  So look for a program that includes a strong reinforcement element.  If you are asked to report your progress over time back to your class, that's even better.

When you choose a time management training program that has these five elements in it, you will find that it meets your specific needs and challenges.  You'll focus on your most important strategies for improvement, and consistently manage your time better.  The end result:  you'll have a great sense of control, a lot less stress and be significantly more productive.  Who doesn't need that these days?