{"id":1103,"date":"2021-07-21T11:53:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T10:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/?p=1103"},"modified":"2024-07-23T11:11:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T09:11:19","slug":"ten-tips-on-time-management-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/2021\/07\/21\/ten-tips-on-time-management-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten tips on time management"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

My Corporate Survival Hacks series draws on experiences of working in local, regional and global life-science communications to offer some little tips for enjoying a big business career. This first instalment tackles managing time.<\/strong><\/p>

A month into exiting my career of over two decades in global life-science multinationals, I\u2019m alive \u2013 still, but waiting for withdrawal symptoms to kick in. As one friend, and long-time senior corporate leader, warned: \u201cDon\u2019t underestimate the consequences of leaving \u2018big pharma\u2019 \u2026 there\u2019ll be euphoria first; but then you\u2019ll fall into a deep black hole.\u201d<\/p>

So far, I\u2019ve avoided that. As much as I relished the opportunities to advance meaningful science and connect industry innovation to external partners and stakeholders, I genuinely enjoy the control gained back over my life. Fingernails dirty from gardening, face tanned. \u201cDad, you haven\u2019t checked emails once this lunch!\u201d my daughter exclaimed last week. In fact, the first time in ages I\u2019m actually managing to have meals with my family again.<\/p>

Regaining control of time has been my most striking post-big pharma experience. I\u2019ve even started arriving early for appointments, which hasn\u2019t happened in years. In the corporate world I would constantly chase deadlines and, as meetings and calls ran over, I would rarely join the next one on time. Which created stress, unpreparedness, ill focus and the self-exploitation of no breaks, let alone any prep on the meeting\u2019s agenda. Do we really expect these to run efficiently and produce quality outcomes?<\/p>

The two vital aspects of corporate life<\/strong><\/p>

Large organisation reality shows that there\u2019s no way to get\u00a0everything<\/em>\u00a0done. If you don\u2019t wish to exhaust yourself, split with your partner and still miss the majority of business goals, you had better master two important requirements of corporate life: clear priority setting and disciplined time management.<\/p>

Good time management enables one to complete more in a shorter period of time, lowers stress and strengthens\u00a0career success<\/a>. It makes your day plannable and ensures results, typically leading to better self-esteem, work satisfaction, happiness and personal health.<\/p>

But, unless you\u2019re the boss, there\u2019ll be no shortage of deliverables, invitations and deadlines hammering you via email, text, Skype, instant messengers and so forth. If that sounds familiar, or you aspire to join the corporate world, here\u2019s what helped me develop a better grip on managing time, optimise meetings and make my days more productive and enjoyable.<\/p>

Start by planning your time<\/strong><\/p>

If you don\u2019t have a plan, you\u2019ll be driven by others\u2019 priorities. Stop other people dropping commitments straight into your calendar and filling up all your available space by limiting their access.<\/p>

Block out chunks of time to get your actual priorities done, decide on a daily calendar routine and mark those slots in your schedule. For instance, you might reserve an hour each morning to catch up with emails; 30 minutes to feed social channels; three hours for meetings and calls; two hours\u2019 quiet work time to advance critical projects \u2026 you get the idea. Make sure to leave some contingency for unforeseen priorities. If you have an assistant, make them part of the plot. Once your daily \u2018meeting\u2019 contingent is maxed out, additional requests need to shift to another date.<\/p>

You will also need to manage any lack of calendar discipline on the part of those senior to you. This can have a huge impact on what you get done, so engage your manager or business leader in a conversation on value creation. How can they enable you to help drive\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0priorities most effectively?<\/p>

Give yourself thinking time<\/strong><\/p>

Make time to reflect, create, wrap up key projects. Typically, these activities are the first to fall victim to a busy schedule, but then your results and quality-of-life suffer. I regularly block Friday afternoons to complete the week\u2019s most pressing priorities and to ensure proper \u2018think time\u2019. Bliss!<\/p>

Be present! Be \u2018at work\u2019 when you\u2019re at work and be \u2018home\u2019 when you\u2019re home.\u00a0If not truly present, you\u2019ll do a disservice to everyone in your life \u2013 plus your time management will suffer, since you\u2019ll have to invest more time later to catch up on what you miss.<\/p>

Consider \u2018meeting-free Fridays\u2019. Admittedly, calling off non-critical meetings and calls to make sure employees can focus on driving their priorities is easier if you\u2019re a department head or team manager, but taking this initiative \u2013 though it may take a bit of courage \u2013 is a great way to pull others along.<\/p>

Make sure to protect (at least some) weekend time to re-charge, physically and mentally. To manage expectations, one senior leader I worked with applied this tac: his out-of-office assistant explained he\u2019d respond to urgent matters up to a set hour on Saturday mornings, after which he headed for his weekly karate lesson and would not pick up emails or other work before Monday. Everyone knew and respected those clearly laid out personal boundaries.<\/p>

Tackling meeting and inbox overload<\/strong><\/p>

For meetings you invite, chair or attend, establish proper meeting etiquette that ensures a focused agenda and only runs meetings as long as needed with just those participants required to achieve an outcome.<\/p>

Schedule meetings to start five minutes past the hour and end them 15 minutes before the hour to allow everyone to have breaks to refresh, deal with urgent calls\/emails and prepare for their next commitment. Host small in-person meetings standing to keep participants focused \u2013 switching your office couch or coffee table for a high table without chairs can be a useful enabler for this.<\/p>

But, arguably, your mailbox may be the single biggest enemy of disciplined time management in a corporate setting. There are boatloads of tips on managing it, but what brought me the greatest relief was the introduction of a \u2018touch once\u2019 rule. I open each email\u00a0once<\/em>\u00a0only to immediately deal with it, whether that\u2019s acting upon it right away, filing it for later reference or deleting it.<\/p>

But never \u2013 never! \u2013 do I open, skim, to then close it again and deal with \u201cwhen I have more\u00a0time\u201d later, since that never happens. And even if it did, the habit of revisiting emails would still waste more time with a need to re-read the message and gather fresh thinking. Instead, my approach allows me to rapidly screen a staggering inbox, act on key memos while getting the rest out of the way so they don\u2019t obscure my view of what\u2019s critical.<\/p>

Respond to your needs<\/strong><\/p>

Whichever of these hacks you might pick, or match with existing strategies, keep your changes manageable find what works for you. Then, once you\u2019re comfortable with one improvement, try another. Effective time management makes the greatest difference if it fits your unique personality, preferences, situation, role and environment.<\/p>

Since you\u2019ve read all the way down, here\u2019s the \u2018bonus track\u2019: I recommend you revisit your purpose and personal goals often to avoid being dragged into others\u2019 agendas or just following their calendar. Should you not have well-articulated goals, watch this space as we\u2019ll deal with that in an upcoming column.<\/p>

Time management tips<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>
  • Have a plan<\/li>
  • Decide on a daily calendar routine<\/li>
  • Manage seniors\u2019 lack of calendar discipline<\/li>
  • Make time to reflect and wrap up<\/li>
  • Be present at work and at home<\/li>
  • Introduce \u2018meeting-free Fridays\u2019<\/li>
  • Protect, at least some, weekend time<\/li>
  • Establish proper meeting etiquette<\/li>
  • Apply the \u2018touch once\u2019 rule to your inbox<\/li>
  • Prioritise your own needs<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    My Corporate Survival Hacks series draws on experiences of working in local, regional and global life-science communications to offer some little tips for enjoying a big business career. This first instalment tackles managing time. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1103"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6249,"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions\/6249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stretch-coaching.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}