Today we often talk about how much everyone struggles with having enough time to do everything. Managers and leaders have changed the office environment to the home office, teams have started working with different schedules, and priorities have been switched, but everyone struggles with finding enough time. More than 13 000 articles from the last four years focus on saving the most precious resource we use –time. And while everyone must focus on saving time, people still cannot find the balance to invest time in the most practical and winning activities.
From an experienced professor at the University, I visited more than 20 years ago, I have learned six techniques to organize myself and find enough time for the essential things in my life and work. These techniques have helped me search for opportunities and get into activities, while investing wisely in the most crucial limited resources we manage to achieve results. The six practices you will find below are provoking questions everyone must ask himself is motivated to succeed.
Technique 1: What?
When we start doing something, we often react in two different ways – get to work when we are approached or ask many questions to define what we need to do. I have played both roles in my experience, but the exact path has always been asking myself WHAT. If you need to focus on this technique, you will have to focus on the next questions:
What needs to be done?
What results do I have to deliver?
What resources do I need to allocate?
Technique 2: When?
The next technique helps you understand the resources and the timeframe. It helps to build the timescale or the schedule for the tasks or projects assigned to you. The plans you make have deadlines and are depending on the expectations someone has toward you. This someone needs the work to be done in time because of something else happening simultaneously. To find out the timeframe, you may ask yourself:
When do I need the resources to finish the task or job?
When needs the job to be done?
When is the deadline that is comfortable for everyone?
Technique 3: Where?
There is always a place in time and continuum where you must reach. We all do what we do because we want to get somewhere. For some of us, this can be a place; for others, state of the spirit, etc. The WHERE technique represents the destination or the goal you must achieve. The location is findable by using next questions:
Typical questions good managers ask themselves here are:
Where must I go?
Where will the path I have in mind bring me?
Where must I start?
Where should I go first (the first milestone)?
Technique 4: How much till the end?
While trying to achieve results quickly and time-saving, you need to focus on two crucial elements – resources and efforts. These elements define the level of energy to be invested while chasing the final goal. If clear with them, everyone can manage time and save from it when heading to the destination. Typical questions here from the dictionary are:
What will I need to finish the task within the deadlines?
What will be the level of effort I will need to invest?
How long should I invest time and other resources till I finish the task?
Will this investment exhaust me?
How quickly can I become exhausted while trying to keep the tempo?
Technique 5:Renegotiate some of the conditions
Often we miss this part, even if we see that we won’t make it within the deadline set. If the effort is too high and time-consuming, but the result is not satisfying, you need to change some of the situation’s conditions. A technique that can help you here is to analyze the current situation, how it has changed, and to what the change has led. Your next task is to eliminate all the elements that make you invest more time. That is easily achievable when inviting the one assigned the task to you and explaining the changes, how they affect the performance and how the time frame has changed for you and the task completion. It is up to you to be proactive here and search for additional time or cutting some of the elements of the task assigned.
Technique 6: Re-delegate to the person asking
This technique is similar to the previous one but has some differences also. When we add more steps in one task, project, or activity, the time is not a variable we are preparing to fail. If negotiation is not an option, then you can turn it into re-delegation. The person assigned the task or the project for you is interested in finishing it on time. The current technique can help you achieve the final result by using the method of delegation. If there are too many actions that need attention and some of them are time-consuming for you, then propose to delegate back to the person assigned the task. This technique is not very popular because people are ego-driven beings and want to shine by doing it all. But using it effectively can save you up to 15% of the time you will need to invest.
IN CONCLUSION:
Time is a resource we need to keep an eye on. Having enough of it gives us the strength to make beautiful things. Missing part of it can cause us loss. If you want to benefit from this resource, you will need to focus on learning how to better manage and trade it with others.
The Human place 