How many of you wished there were 25hrs in a day? Don’t you wish you can knock out your entire to do list in one day and still have time for your social life? We need more time to work in order to make more money and more time to rest in order to become more successful at what we do. Well, sometimes those sayings are not all true. I’m sure you have read my previous blog posts or my quotes saying “work smarter rather than harder.” Just like many of you I also have too many things going on at the same time and yest sometimes I also wish there was more time in my day to tackle everything on my plate. From overseeing all of marketing at MarketAmerica,.com that includes over 30 brands, to managing my own brands such as Motives, Fixx, Loren Jewels, Myfashioncents.com, Lorensworld.com, charities, fashion shows, filming ect…. not to mention my personal life I guess you can say one might go a little crazy, right?
One of my mentors always told me tackle the most important and hardest thing first than the rest of your day will become a breeze. I have to say this is a piece of advice have followed religiously throughout my career. Don’t allow time to control you, instead use time wisely to control it. Here are some very successful tips that will allow you to work harder less than smarter and still have leisure to have a social life š
1. Prioritize Your Time! The first step in effective time management is not to develop a schedule, but instead to develop a time strategy. The time strategy should be based on a short list of time priorities. Identify the number of ways you can increase your time by prioritizing and organization. This short list of time priorities forms the foundation for your time planning for every week of the year.
2. Set aside uninterrupted time: Every week you should make up a detailed time plan, which you can modify each day as needed of course except when in times of crisis. Try to make sure day-to-day issues don’t push your strategic time priorities off your schedule. Use strategic time as a priority to involve activities such as planning, thinking and developing new ideas. More so than usual you will need to take some time brainstorm and create.
3. Organization is the key to success! A messy desk or work space will lead to a waste of your time looking for things, rearranging things and trying to make room for more. Get rid of clutter and put everything it’s place. I am an organizational freak, I always make sure my desk is clean at all times, I have a to do list, folders and make sure everyone around me is as organized as I am.
4. Build a routine. A routine means that you build consistency and will end up doing things automatically without having to think about it. Program your head to do those things on a daily basis. The first thing I do in the mornings are wash my face, check my e-mails, respond to urgent e-mails and meditate for 5 minutes. I’ve build this routine and no matter what day it is I always do the same thing. A great example I have with my employees is every Monday it’s brainstorm day, Tuesday we create, Wednesday is strategic planning and so on. This doesn’t mean you can’t be flexible when necessary, but an overall routine makes managing time wisely that much easier.
5. Create efficient systems: Work out an efficient system for each of your different tasks. Use checklist if that helps you, and automate whatever tasks you can. Having assembly line mentality when organizing your day can also save you a lot of time. Not just for creating new things but for everything. Always be proactive! Every since blackberries and social media was created I noticed more and more people use the phone less. Do you know how much time you will be saving if you simply pick up the phone and call the person.
Do you have other time management suggestions you will like to share with everyone else? Send me a tweet @lorenridinger or drop me a comment below
