Ever wonder why your manager seems to do so much without appearing to do a lot of work? It is not that they are not doing anything; it is more because they are doing things well. If you take the time to observe your manager, you will probably find that he or she does five things that you may not be doing. These five things are easy hacks for successful office time management.
- Manage what arrives in your inbox. You need to audit the kinds of things that arrive in your inbox, whether on paper or electronically. Information you don’t need to see may be copied to you, if so, ask to be removed from the distribution list. You may be seeing things that require action, but it is not in your realm of skill or responsibility, if so please pass the information on to the appropriate person and possibly suggest that they request that your name be replaced with theirs in future correspondence . That should leave what you need to know or what you need to act on. For the remaining items, act on them in some way so you don’t have to go back to them.
- Keep your desk clean. Clutter is distracting and makes it difficult to find what you need when you need it. Post photos and keepsakes on a shelf or bulletin board, not on your desk. Get in the habit of putting everything away before you go out for the day or go out for lunch, to return to a clean work area. Develop a filing system that works for the things you want to keep. Then immediately recycle or throw away the things you don’t need to keep.
- Go for lunch before or after noon. Most people go to lunch at noon, so there will always be time wasted queuing to get a table, waiting for the food order, waiting for the check and paying it, as well as the traffic to and from where you eat. It doesn’t matter if you go out or eat in the company cafeteria; Noon is always a crowded time. Instead, go at 11:00 a.m. M. Or at 1:00 p.m. M. For a faster and quieter lunch experience.
- Keep track of who interrupts and why. If you know who is always stopping by to ask questions or just talk, then you can work together to reduce unnecessary interruptions. This will work for both of you to better manage your time. Together they should set aside 10-15 minutes to meet once or twice a day instead of having multiple interruptions during the workday. Since you keep meetings short, you can stay on your feet during the meeting to make sure they don’t last longer.
- Prepare for meetings. Gather everything you need for the meeting in which you are participating or leading. Put the meeting on your calendar 5-10 minutes before and a few minutes after. In the minutes above, you have time to prepare and be on time. In the minutes afterward, you can move on to any action items you got from the meeting. Also, make sure the meeting has an agenda so everyone’s time is used efficiently when everyone is together. If they didn’t send you an agenda, ask for it before the meeting starts.
Now that you’ve reviewed the five time management tricks that most managers use successfully, will you consider using them, too? By applying these simple concepts to your office work, you should see that you can do more too.
