Time is Money: How are You Managing Yours?

There are 168 hours in one week. What are you doing with your time? Are you focusing on things that will move you forward? Or are you just checking things off your to-do list?

Time management experts recommend making a list of duties, prioritizing them and completing the most important ones first. There are always multiple things to do, people to call, emails to return, meetings to attend, etc. However, even with my list making and organizational skills, there never seems to be enough time to do it all.  Sometimes at the end of a busy day, I realize that I didn’t make the progress I wanted.  Sound familiar?

Recently, the founders of Life is Good, a $100 million clothing company dumped their email accounts.  They no longer send, receive, or read emails.  Wow.  Think of all the time they have to do other things!  And that was entirely the point. They realized that responding to email wasn’t moving their business forward.  It took  time and energy best spent on the creative side of the business….the side that got them where they are today.  By simplifying their work lives, founder, John Jacobs, says they have more “mind space” to spend time on high-level questions and projects. I think they are living up to their motto: “life is good”. 

While eliminating email is not a reality for most of us, there is something we can do about time management. We can give ourselves permission to add “thinking” time to our schedule. 

Over the course of my working life, my responsibilities have included developing new business relationships and managing existing ones.  This required time spent out of the office meeting with clients and prospects.  It also required time to do research, review documents, analyze financial statements, determine the loan structure and write detailed memos.  Many of these duties required quiet and reflective time without interruption.

A constant flow of data and 24/7 access is a certainty in the digital age.  Many of us feel compelled to answer email, text messages, voice mail or social media multiple times per day. We have been conditioned to believe that if we don’t, we’ll miss out on an important event or opportunity. 

However, if we want to accomplish some important goals, including some quiet, thinking time on the list is a must.  So I plan to turn off the email and social media for a while each day and focus on doing the things I want to do....the things that matter and make a difference.

How are you managing your time? What techniques have you used to get the important things done?