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!

How Poor Time Management Impacts Your Self-Esteem

We all want to keep up.  With today's current unemployment rate, you especially want to hold onto your job.  However, when so many companies are downsizing, those employees who remain are left to pick up the slack of the ones that are gone.  This adds additional stress because the workload consistently gets heavier.  All of this can take a very real toll on your self-esteem.  You may not have recognized it.  You may not have spoken about it.  But it can be very real nonetheless.  See if you identify with any of the symptoms below:

1. Feeling overwhelmed.
   Your workload is getting heavier and heavier, but you feel real pressure not to complain.  You just grin and bear it and try to get it all done.  It's hard to stay on top of everything, but you think you should and then get frustrated when it's just too hard to keep up.
   
2. You really don't know how you will ever get it all done.
   You try as hard as you can.  You may create beautifully-planned to-do lists, only to find they just get longer each and every day.  By the end of each week, and especially by the end of the month, you may look at those lists in dismay and realize it really isn't humanly possible to get everything done.  But you keep trying anyway, feeling like you should be finished, and then feel really bad about yourself because you aren't done.
   
3. Frequent mistakes.
   It's common to make more mistakes when you are rushed and feeling overwhelmed.  Then you feel bad because you made those mistakes.  You ask yourself "How could I be so stupid?"  Every time it happens again you're afraid others will notice and it is a poor reflection of your ability to do your job.
   
4. Irritable.
   When you are already trying as hard as you can and even MORE gets dropped in your lap, you feel ready to bite someone's head off.  When people are late to meetings or wasting your time, you feel mounting pressure because you've got deadlines to meet.  You're exhausted and stressed out.  It's easy to be irritable with someone when you feel that way.  However, while it may have felt justified in the moment, you'll very likely beat yourself up afterwards because you snapped.
   
5. Harder to relax and get a good night's sleep.
   You're tired, your exhausted.  As you drag yourself in the door at the end of the day, you're just hoping you can get some sleep.  But the rising stress levels in your body make it harder to relax.  Instead of getting a good night's sleep, you end up tossing and turning and then feel even more tired the next day.
   
6. Not feeling in control.
   At the root of it all is the sense that you can't change anything.  You don't see alternatives or know how to make it better.  This feeling of lack of control fuels an even higher stress level.  You don't like this feeling.
   
7. Not happy or satisfied.The overall impact of these symptoms causes you to not feel happy at work.  You're not happy with how this is impacting your health.  You're not pleased with how it's impacting your relationships.  You're tired, burned out and exhausted.  You don't like how you're feeling about yourself.  This isn't how you want your life to be! 

These are just some of the ways poor time management causes us to not feel as good about ourselves and our lives as we want.  What do you think?  What other ways could poor time management impact you?  Please post your thoughts below.

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?

5 Symptoms of Poor Time Management at Work

In today's fast-paced world, time management has never been more challenging.  Technology, for all its glory, has made it easy to constantly stay connected.  The downside is that this same technology has made everything urgent in the form of phone calls, text messages and emails.  And because everything is urgent, it has pushed the really important things to the back burner.  We have more and more information constantly streaming to us.  What kind of impact do you think this is having on you and the people around you?  Below are several symptoms you may recognize:

1. Lack of focus
   When everything is an urgent fire to put out, it's very easy to lose sight of your really important priorities.  You may not have thought about your most important priorities for this month, this week and today.  When this occurs, you will focus on the urgent, not important, activities.  No time is spent planning how to prevent crises in the future.  As a result, the crises just continue and may get even bigger.
   
2. Missing deadlines
   It can be hard to keep up with important deadlines when you're constantly putting out fires.  But when you notice you're missing deadlines consistently, you may want to ask yourself if you planned well enough to accomplish this task by the deadline?  Are you procrastinating until the last minute?  Do you feel everything is equally important and so have not really prioritized the ability to get this done?
   
3. More disorganized
   When you don't feel in control of your time, your desk can pile up with paperwork.  Your to-do list expands.  It's harder to find things when you need them.  Not finding time to get organized is kind of like not finding time to fill the gas tank in your car.  If you just think you're too busy to do it, you will definitely pay the price.
   
4. Overlooking details
   When you're moving too fast, and feeling stressed to get it all done, it's easy to overlook the details that are important.  In some instances, this can lead to significant errors.  It's a bad reflection on your professional ability.  It's definitely not the impression you want to make with the co-workers who depend on you.
   
5. Strained relationships
   Other people can feel frustrated with you if you are missing deadlines, disorganized or overlooking important details.  But as your work load is piling up, you can also become more frustrated with them.  You may find yourself being more irritable than you normally would or more likely to express your frustration.  This can place a strain on relationships if it's not addressed.

These are just some of the symptoms of poor time management at work.  What other symptoms do you think could occur?  How is it impacting you or other people around you?

How to Run a Meeting

You've spent countless hours in meetings.  When they are run well you know you have accomplished something meaningful.  When they are not run well, they are a huge waste of time.  Below please find a few quick tips that can help you make your next meeting a better one.

• First, decide what you want the meeting to accomplish.  What is the outcome you hope to achieve by this meeting?  Then let that determine your focus, agenda and who should be invited.  Only include those participants who really need to be there.  Send the agenda to everyone before the meeting starts.
  
• Establish ground rules if necessary.  Sometimes you may encounter difficult participants who disrupt, try to take over or are disengaged during the meeting.  When you observe this becoming a consistent pattern, you may want to establish some ground rules to keep everyone on task and on board.
  
• Involve everyone.  Some personalities can tend to talk more than others.  However, they may not always be the ones with the best ideas.  Make sure you engage participation from everyone in your meeting.
  
• Review next action steps and clarify responsibilities.  At the end of the meeting, make sure to summarize the action steps discussed and clarify who is responsible for what and by when.  This can also help you better manage the time of your team so you can accomplish the team's key priorities together.

SummaryDon't let your meetings be a place where the Minutes are kept, but the Hours are lost..... Make yours count!