Time Management strategy for managers

Your time is quite different to any other resource, as the terms can't be changed:  everyone is a year older than they were twelve months ago there are only 24 hours in a day, no matter how much you try to create more you can correct mistakes made with other resources, but a wasted hour is lost forever. One thing that the most impressive managers have in common is that they are well organised and manage their time well.

 Why improve your time management? Do you always meet deadlines?
Do you have enough time to do the things that are important?
Do you spend enough time with your family/friends?
Do you spend enough time relaxing, taking exercise, enjoying your hobbies?
Are you always content with the amount of time that you have available?
Do you spend enough time thinking about/planning the future of your business?
Do you spend enough time with the members of your team?
Do you spend enough time with your customers?
Do you spend enough time reading and keeping up to date?
If your answer to one or more of the above questions is no, then you could benefit from
improving your time management.
Managing your time is about being effective (doing the right things) as well as beingefficient (doing things right). To ensure that you are doing the right things, you need to have clear goals:

Identify your ‘key result areas’ ie the main aspects of your job where you should achieve measurable results… sales, levels,budget performance, productivity,market share etc.
 Identify specific objectives and targets for each key result area, for the forthcoming year/quarter/month e.g.
increase market share by 1% per quarter,grow sales by 10% by the year end.

Ensure that your goals and objectives reflect the needs of your customers. 
Decide how to track and measure your performance.

Set review dates, to check that your goals and objectives are being tracked.
For each objective, identify the activities or tasks to be done. It is important to prioritise these, so that the
most important and urgent tasks get done first. Determine the priority of an activity in terms of importance
(contribution to your overall success or achievement of an objective) and its urgency (how soon it needs to be done).
  Plan to do the tasks in the following order: 1. Plan to do tasks which are both important and urgent first.
2. Fit the urgent but not important tasks in quickly after.
3. Put time aside when you will do the important but not urgent things.
4. Identify time wasters and resolve to ignore them.
Decide how much time to spend on each activity, considering the time-benefit ratio. How much time is it worth, considering its value?Set time limits and deadlines for everything you do.

Consider who should complete the task. Is it the best use of your time, or should it be delegated to a member of your team? Your time management system will help you to determine what you should be doing now.

• Avoid distractions and try to manage time wasters.
• Identify the root causes of what wastes your time.
• Remove time wasters, if possible, or at least minimise their impact.
• Review whether or not you are delegating enough.
• Discourage others from keeping you informed of too much detail.
• Anticipate what information you need to share with your team and find a time- effective way of doing it eg a short meeting, an email.
• Only hold a meeting if it’s necessary and be disciplined in sticking to a timed agenda.
• Avoid interruptions by letting others know when you would prefer not to be interrupted.
• Learn how and when to say no, to avoid always being led by the priorities of others.
• Before making phone calls, make a list of points to cover.