Get More Done With These Three Tips That Will Save You Time
By Andrew Patricio
January 18, 2017
Productivity
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Let’s face it; you don’t have enough time to get everything done. Who does? There’s always another follow up email to send, another blog to write, another proposal to prepare. They say time is the only thing they’re not making more of, but with a few time-saving tips, you can stretch what time you have to get more done.
Automate Communications
If you haven’t heard of and constantly use, If This Then That (IFTTT), then you’re not making the most of your time managing your network. While IFTTT is a great automation tool for a variety of tasks, you’ll be hard to find a better use for it than for networking. Set a “recipe” so that every time you add a new contact to your phone or contacts, you automatically send that person a LinkedIn request. Add new contacts to a Google spreadsheet for a sort of CRM. Automatically set a reminder to follow up with a new contact in three, six and nine months. All this can be set up once and then it’s automatically set with IFTTT.
Prioritize Tasks
The most important task is not always clear and doing small, easy tasks over which you have a lot of control is so much easier than tackling that big monster. Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week advises, “When in doubt, the most important to-do is typically the one that makes you the most uncomfortable.” He goes on to recommend starting this uncomfortable task first thing in the day, when your energy is up and ability to push through is at its highest. Remove distractions, shutting down your email if necessary, so you can focus until the task is complete. Remember to take breaks every 90 minutes or so in order to give your brain a chance to think.
Make Meetings Effective
While meetings can be useful, often they’re aren’t managed well. Now’s the time to change that. Host a standing meeting and notice how people make decisions faster. Set an agenda or goal for every meeting request and learn the art of saying “no” to those meetings that do not have a clear use or that can get done with a phone call. Finally, make meetings no more than 30 minutes. If you need prework done or discussions prior to the meeting, set those up ahead of time with clear expectations of all participants.
Time management is an art that requires practice, so what are you waiting for?
Automate Communications
If you haven’t heard of and constantly use, If This Then That (IFTTT), then you’re not making the most of your time managing your network. While IFTTT is a great automation tool for a variety of tasks, you’ll be hard to find a better use for it than for networking. Set a “recipe” so that every time you add a new contact to your phone or contacts, you automatically send that person a LinkedIn request. Add new contacts to a Google spreadsheet for a sort of CRM. Automatically set a reminder to follow up with a new contact in three, six and nine months. All this can be set up once and then it’s automatically set with IFTTT.
Prioritize Tasks
The most important task is not always clear and doing small, easy tasks over which you have a lot of control is so much easier than tackling that big monster. Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week advises, “When in doubt, the most important to-do is typically the one that makes you the most uncomfortable.” He goes on to recommend starting this uncomfortable task first thing in the day, when your energy is up and ability to push through is at its highest. Remove distractions, shutting down your email if necessary, so you can focus until the task is complete. Remember to take breaks every 90 minutes or so in order to give your brain a chance to think.
Make Meetings Effective
While meetings can be useful, often they’re aren’t managed well. Now’s the time to change that. Host a standing meeting and notice how people make decisions faster. Set an agenda or goal for every meeting request and learn the art of saying “no” to those meetings that do not have a clear use or that can get done with a phone call. Finally, make meetings no more than 30 minutes. If you need prework done or discussions prior to the meeting, set those up ahead of time with clear expectations of all participants.
Time management is an art that requires practice, so what are you waiting for?