Creative Time Management

Last week Geoff Moller, from NISER (National Institute for Socio-Economic and Environmental Research), spoke about creative time management and why having a plan or picture of how you want the day to run allows you to achieve more things with less stress and with a higher sense of achievement. Geoff continues this theme today and also covers the issue of good time management.

Alec Mackenzie in his early book ‘The Time Trap’ gave the following benefits of having a daily plan which are still very true today.

1. It greatly reduces the number of decisions on “what to do next”.
2. Minimises interruptions and improves the quality of work. Priorities and deadlines for time segments serve as reasons for not allowing interruptions for less important matters.
3. Increases the quantity of output – productivity and the likelihood of accomplishing your most important priorities. In one quiet hour you can accomplish what might otherwise take three hours.
4. Reduces the “business” syndrome. Goals are visible, so they are not forgotten.
5. Reduces the reactive syndrome. Instead of continually reacting to events and the demands of others, you will be driven by your own priorities.
6. Replaces the management by crises with a sense of control. As your priorities are achieved, crises diminish.

“Start the day with a daily plan, that’s a must” says Geoff.” The next important issue is clutter, or should I say lack of it. Study shows that organising your work space and removing clutter greatly assists getting more done during any one day. It allows better focus, and not being distracted by things within your view stops your focus being lost from the task at hand.

Where you can reserve your workspace for the actual task or tasks you’re currently on. Try and start and finish the day with a clear desk, when I researched the results of this level of effort and since I started this process having a clear desk at the end of the day has given me a daily sense of accomplishment which I like”

To clear work clutter, do the following:
Have a clean out and keep only the things relevant to your job at hand, if you have three staplers get rid of two, how many pens or pencils do you actually need, but if your employer allows keep your personal items such as family photos and the like, they give you a sense of purpose as to why you’re there.

Things to keep handy are correspondence, or pending, reading and current projects, file the rest away. You’ll be surprised how much more you’ll get done once any distracting items are gone.

“I’ll continue this next week with the story of the 4 Ds and how to prioritise for a stress free day so don’t forget to read next week’s column” ends Geoff.

If you would like to know more please contact Geoff Moller on 0411 351 110 or via email on geoff@niser.org.au.

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