Improving productivity requires a combination of best practices.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “红 杉 汇” ( ID: Sequoiacap), author Joe Martin, compile 洪 杉 .
Time is the most powerless thing in the world, but the true meaning of time management is not to manage time, but to manage your own time utilization.
There are many ways you can improve your efficiency in using time to achieve more important work goals and even life goals. The 7 methods described in this article are not a single skill, but a self-management concept that you can integrate into your daily work and life. Set and decompose goals, rational distribution of affairs, adjustment and change of working environment, and even the use of modern productivity tools, etc., put these ideas into practice in your life and work, keep trying, and find the best combination You will find that in fact you can achieve more, more important and more valuable goals.
The key to time management is self-management
We all want to improve work efficiency and time management skills. Time management is simple in theory, but putting it into practice is not so easy and requires knowledge, effort and discipline. Here are seven key time management skills that can improve your productivity.
We cannot make you work harder or become more disciplined, but we can provide you with the knowledge you need to increase your productivity. In this article, you will learn seven key time management methods to improve your productivity today.
The truth of time management is that we have no control over time and can only do something with the time we have.
First, it’s important to realize that time can’t really be managed—at least in the traditional sense. We cannot slow down or speed it up, we can only control our working hours.
Effective time management is not the proper management of time, but the proper management of self. The way we spend time mostIt will ultimately determine our efficiency (or inefficiency).
But improving productivity is not achieved through a specific skill set, and success requires a combination of multiple best practices. The following small improvements in time management skills will also increase your productivity. We encourage you to learn these techniques and start applying them to your daily life.
Know your goal
Successful time management begins with goal setting. We can’t control the speed of time passing, but we can decide how to spend 24 hours a day. The most productive people are those who know how to count every second into a goal.
What do you want to achieve? A clear understanding of your goals will greatly increase your chances of achieving them. So don’t worry about this process. Think about what you want, when you need it, and how to implement it. Then set your goals according to the S.M.A.R.T. (S = Specific, M = Measurable, A = Attainable, R = Relevant, T = Time-bound) framework:
S.M.A.R.T.Core pillars of the time management framework
● Specific: The more specific your goals, the more likely you are to achieve them. For example, instead of saying “I want to take the company to the next level”, say “I want to be my company’s CMO within five years, with a corner office and managing a team of 10 people.”
● Measurable: Measurable goals allow you to assess progress and determine when to accomplish what you plan to do. You can measure your goals by setting milestones at various stages of the journey.
● Achievable: Your goals must be achievable. In other words, they must be what people can do, and important enough for you to motivate you to implement them. To get what you want, you may need to develop new skills or invest more time. Would you like to do this?
● Relevance: Each of your goals needs to be meaningful in the context of your life and career.
● Timing: Finally, your goal needs to be time limited. Do your best to set a realistic time frame for everything you want to accomplish. Do you want to manage a department in your company, or be employed by a global brand, or start a business? When? Time frames will help you get on track.
Know yourself
Knowing when you work most efficiently is one of the most valuable time management skills. As long as you can optimize your schedule to suit your natural inclination, there is nothing wrong with working in the morning or evening.
Your working environment should also be considered. Do you need a completely quiet and tidy desk to get into the best shape? Maybe a noisier environment (such as a coffee shop) is better for you.
Obviously, the work schedule and environment you can change is limited, and youYour boss may not support you working outside the office, and your family life may prevent you from working late at night. As long as you do your best to reconcile your personal tendencies with your work, your time management skills will continue to develop.
Prioritize to-dos
Many people have made the mistake of organizing their tasks just as needed. But an effective time manager first analyzes every job and excludes jobs that do not help him succeed. Don’t waste a second on worthless tasks.
For this reason, we recommend using the Eisenhower box, which divides each task into four categories:
Important and urgent
These tasks are critical to achieving your goals and require immediate attention. For example, replying to a customer service email will help your business grow, which makes the task important. If your customers don’t get a timely response, they may lose patience and hand their business over to your competitors.
Important but not urgent
These tasks will greatly help you achieve your goals, but do not require your immediate attention.
Urgent but not important
Tasks in this category are usually given priority. They must be completed now, so our natural tendency is to complete them first, regardless of their importance. For example, answering a call may be an urgent but trivial task.
It is neither urgent nor important
These activities are fine, but they should only be completed when everything else on the to-do list has been completed, including constantly checking emails, designing new support forms or setting up social media support.
Avoid multitasking
Multitasking actually reduces work efficiency, and the reason is related to the concentration ability of the human brain. Researchers say that once our brains are distracted, it takes an average of 23 minutes to refocus.
If you always switch back and forth between tasks, you will never give your brain enough time to focus on the project at hand. This can lead to poor job quality, reduced job satisfaction and even exhaustion.
To improve your time management skills, try to focus on one thing at a time.
Remove interference
Furthermore, when you need to spend a lot of brainpower, it is important to eliminate interference in the environment. Quit your email, turn off your phone, and close the office door—whatever you do to keep your brain out of focus.
Whether you realize it or not, constantly updated email or social media notifications will keep you from doing your best. Your brain is pulled in too many directions, so it’s impossible to get into the best shape.
An exception to this rule may be listening to music at work. Certain types of music, such as classical music, ambient music, orOther silent music can improve work efficiency. Experiment with different music styles and see if one of them can help you stay “focused” at work.
Use resources that you can control
Another way to improve your time management skills is to use all available technical software resources. Living in the 21st century means you have access to productivity tools that increase productivity. Here are some ways to try:
● Better track and analyze your time. Some applications make it very easy to keep track of the time you spend on certain tasks. You can then analyze the results and identify areas for improvement.
● Manage projects more effectively. Some applications display a to-do list in a very intuitive way. This approach makes task priorities clear at a glance.
● Communicate more effectively through high-definition video screen recording, personalized webcam video, annotated screenshots, GIF creation, and screen capture. The human brain can process visual information 60,000 times faster than ordinary text. Taking full advantage of this, you can save a lot of time every week!
Take a moment to see which software is best for your workflow.
Optimize time management
Finally, it is important to realize that optimizing your time management skills is not one-off. You need to constantly analyze yourself and find new ways to improve your productivity.
Maybe you need to reschedule your work to better suit your work habits. Maybe you should invest in a specific technology. Maybe you just need to sit down and decide what you really want to achieve.
Summary
Improve your time management skills by mastering these seven skills. To sum it up:
● Determine your goals first and understand your personal best practices. These are the key first steps to becoming a better time manager.
● Then use the Eisenhower box to properly prioritize items in the to-do list, focusing on only one of them at a time. The more interference you eliminate in your work environment, the better.
● Looking for technical tools to help you pursue higher productivity, there are many such applications on the market.
● Finally, optimize your daily habits and improve work efficiency. By analyzing yourself, you can improve your time management skills faster.
3 entrepreneurial mistakes that novice entrepreneurs should avoid
▨ Create something no one wants. An entrepreneur should discover problems from customers, not create problems with imagination.
▨ It’s too late. You must always contact your customers to get feedback and improve the product, so you must release the product as early as possible.
▨ Lack of a business model. The most important indicator of entrepreneurial success is your income or potential income.
#Facing difficulties will not stop # 8 steps to form a highly motivated team
▨ You need to hire an avid team. Fanatics will move on even in difficult times.
▨ Give the team an exciting job. You should give your team more power, more autonomy, and more decision-making ability.
▨ You need to be transparent with the team. Your frankness and honesty will build trust. Your team will be your partner to help solve the problems you face while setting up your company.
▨ You want to create a good working environment. Reject those who are not good and don’t destroy the team environment.
▨ Make your team accountable. Good employees want to take responsibility, set reasonable goals for them, and hold them accountable.
▨ Use Kaizen (small, continuous, incremental improvement) strategy and small incremental goal theory. Keep the team motivated to achieve long-term, ambitious goals.
▨ Set rewards for achieving goals. Make rewards more frequent, at least once a quarter. This keeps the whole team excited.
▨ Get rid of negative employees in a timely manner. Some employees are disruptive or perform poorly, which can cause teams to lose motivation.
▨ Create something no one wants. An entrepreneur should discover problems from customers, not create problems with imagination.
▨ It’s too late. You must always contact your customers to get feedback and improve the product, so you must release the product as early as possible.
▨ Lack of a business model. The most important indicator of entrepreneurial success is your income or potential income.
#Facing difficulties will not stop # 8 steps to form a highly motivated team
▨ You need to hire an avid team. Fanatics will move on even in difficult times.
▨ Give the team an exciting job. You should give your team more power, more autonomy, and more decision-making ability.
▨ You need to be transparent with the team. Your frankness and honesty will build trust. Your team will be your partner to help solve the problems you face while setting up your company.
▨ You want to create a good working environment. Reject those who are not good and don’t destroy the team environment.
▨ Make your team accountable. Good employees want to take responsibility, set reasonable goals for them, and hold them accountable.
▨ Use Kaizen (small, continuous, incremental improvement) strategy and small incremental goal theory. Keep the team motivated to achieve long-term, ambitious goals.
▨ Set rewards for achieving goals. Make rewards more frequent, at least once a quarter. This keeps the whole team excited.
▨ Get rid of negative employees in a timely manner. Some employees are disruptive or perform poorly, which can cause teams to lose motivation.