How to manage time efficiently and multi-task effectively?

10 tips for time management in a multitasking world
Posted to: Time management
December 10th, 2006

Del.icio.us Digg Reddit StumbleUpon Tweet This Facebook

Time management is one of those skills no one teaches you in school but you have to learn. It doesn't matter how smart you are if you can't organize information well enough to take it in. And it doesn't matter how skilled you are if procrastination keeps you from getting your work done.

Younger workers understand this, and time management is becoming a topic of hipsters. One of the most popular blogs in the world is Lifehacker, edited by productivity guru Gina Trapani, and her forthcoming book by the same name is a bestseller on Amazon based so far on pre-orders.

In today's workplace, you can differentiate yourself by your ability to handle information and manage your time. "Careers are made or broken by the soft skills that make you able to hand a very large workload," says Merlin Mann, editor of the productivity blog 43 Folders.

So here are 10 tips to make you better at managing your work:

1. Don't leave email sitting in your in box.
"The ability to quickly process and synthesize information and turn it into actions is one of the most emergent skills of the professional world today," says Mann. Organize email in file folders. If the message needs more thought, move it to your to-do list. If it's for reference, print it out. If it's a meeting, move it to your calendar.

"One thing young people are really good at is only touching things once. You don't see young people scrolling up and down their email pretending to work," says Mann. Take action on an email as soon as you read it.

2. Admit multitasking is bad.
For people who didn't grow up watching TV, typing out instant messages and doing homework all at the same time, multitasking is deadly. But it decreases everyone's productivity, no matter who they are. "A 20-year-old is less likely to feel overwhelmed by demands to multitask, but young people still have a loss of productivity from multitasking," says Trapani.

So try to limit it. Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users suggests practicing mindfulness as a way to break the multitasking habit.

3. Do the most important thing first.
Trapani calls this "running a morning dash". When she sits down to work in the morning, before she checks any email, she spends an hour on the most important thing on her to-do list. This is a great idea because even if you can't get the whole thing done in an hour, you'll be much more likely to go back to it once you've gotten it started. She points out that this dash works best if you organize the night before so when you sit down to work you already know what your most important task of the day is.

4. Check your email on a schedule.
"It's not effective to read and answer every email as it arrives. Just because someone can contact you immediately does not mean that you have to respond to them immediately," says Dan Markovitz, president of the productivity consulting firm TimeBack Management, "People want a predictable response, not an immediate response." So as long as people know how long to expect an answer to take, and they know how to reach you in an emergency, you can answer most types of email just a few times a day.

5. Keep web site addresses organized.
Use book marking services like del.icio.us to keep track of web sites. Instead of having random notes about places you want to check out, places you want to keep as a reference, etc., you can save them all in one place, and you can search and share your list easily.

6. Know when you work best.
Industrial designer Jeff Beene does consulting work, so he can do it any time of day. But, he says, "I try to schedule things so that I work in the morning, when I am the most productive." Each person has a best time. You can discover yours by monitoring your productivity over a period of time. Then you need to manage your schedule to keep your best time free for your most important work.

7. Think about keystrokes.
If you're on a computer all day, keystrokes matter because efficiency matters. "On any given day, an information worker will do a dozen Google searchers," says Trapani. "How many keystrokes does it take? Can you reduce it to three? You might save 10 seconds, but over time, that builds up."

8. Make it easy to get started.
We don't have problems finishing projects, we have problems starting them," says Mann. He recommends you "make a shallow on-ramp." Beene knows the key creating this on ramp: "I try to break own my projects into chunks, so I am not overwhelmed by them."

9. Organize your to-do list every day.
If you don't know what you should be doing, how can you manage your time to do it? Some people like writing this list out by hand because it shows commitment to each item if you are willing to rewrite it each day until it gets done. Other people like software that can slice and dice their to-do list into manageable, relevant chunks. For example, Beene uses tasktoy because when he goes to a client site tasktoy shows him only his to do items for that client, and not all his other projects. (Get tasktoy here.)

10. Dare to be slow.
Remember that a good time manager actually responds to some things more slowly than a bad time manager would. For example, someone who is doing the highest priority task is probably not answering incoming email while they're doing it. As Markovitz writes: "Obviously there are more important tasks than processing email. Intuitively, we all know this. What we need to do now is recognize that processing one's work (evaluating what's come in and how to handle it) and planning one's work are also mission-critical tasks."





To successfully manage your time you have to get organized both in your professional and personal life. Getting organized in an efficient way is a skill that not all people posses. To manage your life and work you first have to be able to manage your time. In our days people spend most of their time working. There are times that they feel that they will never manage to escape from the four walls of the office and are lost in the various projects and tasks they have to finish.

Their personal life has become an old memory, which has been «locked in the drawer». The solution to this vicious circle is one: get organized and start managing your time. This article outlines 14 ways that can help you manage your time successfully and efficiently.

1. Make a list of what should be done

Make a list of what to do and try to constantly renew the list and keep it up to date. Include in this list both urgent and non-urgent things so as never forget or ignore something again. Keep the list all the time with you in your briefcase or in your daily agenda.

2. Allocate your time correctly

Include an estimated time frame for each action and the date by which each task must be completed. If the order that each task must be completed does not matter it may be possible to complete something during an unexpected free time. For example, you can look for information on the Internet while you wait in your office to start a meeting.


manage your time by glasbergen
3. Set your own deadlines and meet them

Be realistic about the deadlines you set and try to meet them. It is true that any work gets exactly the time allocated for it. Have you ever noticed how quickly you can finish something you have to write, give assignments and take decisions on the last day before your vacation? Although we tend to complete many things when we are under pressure, is less stressful and much more professional to establish and follow an action plan.

4. Use your time intelligently

Consider the case to check your e-mail only certain times of the day and let the answering machine respond to your calls so as not to interrupt your work for a couple of hours. If possible, avoid dealing with the same job or the same e-mail again. Never open e-mail address if you do not have time to read and edit, that is, to answer it, send, or delete it.

5. Organize your desktop

Organize your desktop; manage the copies of your files, your computer folders and e-mail folders so that you can easily find what you want. Minimize the time you spend when searching for information. Benjamin Franklin once said: «A place for everything, everything in place».

6. Insist in your targets

You should have an "in tray" in your office so that others can give you what they want to give you and not just leave it on your desk. Have you ever come back from a meeting and find additional records, letters and documents all over your office? Rather than follow your own program, you are "forced" to follow someone else’s priorities.

7. Do not distract your attention

If you have a door, you need to close it occasionally. If you have an open door policy that must always be open for your employees but you do not have time to really listen to their questions and concerns, then you will not manage to keep your promise. If a colleague comes to your office when you have a job and cannot discuss, seek to find another time to meet.

Subscribe to our RSS Feed or EMAIL to get new articles delivered to you

8. Co-operate with your colleagues

Colleagues will expect you to finish the job on time, so make sure to avoid any delay. You would expect the same from them. To avoid any delays, give more time to the project so as to be able to handle unexpected complications, misunderstandings or missed deadlines. If the date of presentation is the 25th of the month, be sure to plan to finish everything by 23.

9. Avoid unnecessary Supervisions

If you authorize someone else for a job or a contract, do not deal any more with this, unless you have a specific responsibility to monitor. Many people spend precious time to listen or read reports of other projects. If the investigation of your colleagues or their professional responsibilities does not affect your daily work, your performance at work or objectives of your career, you could simply express an interest just to encourage them.

10. Cancel routine meetings

Decide if the meeting is absolutely necessary. If, you have to attend, set an agenda and make sure that you follow it - start the meeting and finish it on time. If your presence is not necessary for the entire meeting then leave earlier.

11. Be constantly busy

Keep your skills in shape by having at least one project to be involved. Two or more (projects) would be even better because you are given the opportunity to «change speed» and to focus on something else for variety. To deal simultaneously with different project assures that you will always have something on which to work. Also, it keeps your mind alert and renews your prospects.

12. Choose carefully your projects

Make sure that your work has some value for the company and that it raises your skills better. There are many good reasons why you cannot accept to take part in a meeting and refuse to take an additional project. Successful entrepreneurs know how to say «no». Ask yourself, «this will promote my career?» and «Can I give the necessary time to this assignment?” You will win more respect by working with a colleague, whose expertise and skills complements your own, rather than getting an extra work on your own and overloading yourself.

13. Do not waste your time

It is an integral part of human nature to postpone unpleasant tasks. Plan some of the more pleasant tasks of the project to be made after any unpleasant tasks. If you do not like to work with numbers, plan to do the accounts in the morning when you are still fresh and there are not so many things to distract your attention.

14. Reward yourself

To manage your time efficiently does not have to do only with your job. You should also include in your schedule time where you stop everything, relax and recharge your batteries. Thing of a reward to give yourself when you finish your work. This may mean to make a break for coffee once finished reading a long report or to leave for vacation just after the promotion of the new product.

You must give greater attention to how you spend your time. Watch how successful businessmen allocate their time and emulate some of their time management practices.


How to Multi-task?

1 Establish your goals. The old saying, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there" is just as true even if you are following multiple tasks.


2 Schedule a time to give intense or complex tasks your full focus. Let it be known that you prefer to have time to yourself for an hour or two each day, and use that time for intense tasks that require your full concentration.

3 Work on one thing at a time, but alternate. A juggler may have many objects in the air, but she usually manipulates only one at a time.

4 Eliminate unnecessary tasks. If you're multitasking to be more efficient, don't spend time doing extra things. The exception is a background activity to help pass the time. For instance, if listening to the radio or a book on tape helps with the tedium of painting a wall, go for it.

5 Choose compatible tasks. For instance, you may find that reading and listening to speech both use the same type of focus. Instead, try pairing a physical task, such as ironing clothes, with a mental task, such as listening to the radio.

6 Choose interruptible tasks. Especially if the multitasking consists of dealing with frequent interruptions (such as a ringing telephone), choose tasks that can be easily paused to do concurrently.

7 Keep a selection of smaller projects or simpler tasks around to fill gaps in a larger project. That is, do the larger project as a priority, but do basic, filler tasks any time you find yourself waiting for information or inspiration on a larger project.

8 Use wait time efficiently. Have something with you to do, especially in places you anticipate waiting (the airport, post office, or dentist's office). Reading is an easy, portable task. Carrying note cards or a notebook to jot ideas is also a good idea.