10 Common Time Management Mistakes- AIESEC UBA

24/06/2013 | AIESEC UBA | EB Phoenix

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10 common time management mistakes Avoinding common pitfalls How well do you manage your time? If you're l ike many people, your a nswer may not be completely positive!

Perha ps you feel overloaded, a nd you often have to work late to hit your deadlines. Or ma ybe your days seem to go from one cri sis to a nother, and this is stressful a nd demoralizing.

10 time management mistakes 1. Failing to keep a to do list 2. Not setting personal goals

Many of us know that we could be managing our time more effectively ; but i t ca n be di fficult to i dentify the mistakes that we're making, a nd to know how we could i mprove.

3. Not prioritizing

When we do manage our ti me well, however, we're exceptionally productive a t work, a nd our stress levels drop. We ca n devote ti me to the i nteresting, high-reward projects that ca n make a real difference to a career. In short, we're happier!

5. Procastination

In thi s article, we're l ooking a t ten of the most common time management mistakes, a s well as i dentifying strategies and tips tha t you ca n use to overcome them. These ten mi stakes are:

Mistake #1. Failing to Keep a To-Do List Do you ever ha ve that nagging feeling that you've forgotten to do an i mportant piece of work? If s o, you probably don't use a To-Do List to keep on top of things. (Or, i f you do, you mi ght not be using i t effectively!)

The tri ck with using To-Do Lists effectively l ies in prioritizing the tasks on your list.

Ma ny people use an A - F coding sys tem (A for high priority i tems, F for very l ow pri ori ties). Alternatively, you ca n simplify this by using A through D, or by using numbers

4. Failing to manage distractions 6. Taking on too much 7. Thriving on “busy�

8. Multitasking 9. Not taking breaks 10. Ineffectively scheduling tasks

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If you ha ve large projects on your list, then, unless you're ca reful, the entries for these ca n be va gue a nd i neffective. For i nstance, you may have wri tten down "Start on budget proposal." But wha t does this entail?

The l ack of specifics here mi ght ca use you to procrastinate, or miss key s teps. So make sure that you brea k l arge ta sks or projects down i nto specific, actionable s teps - then you won't overlook s omething important.

Mistake #2. Not Setting Personal Goals Do you know where you'd l ike to be i n six months? What a bout this ti me next year, or even 10 yea rs from now? If not, i t's time to s et s ome personal goals!

Personal goal setting i s essential to ma naging your time well, because goals give you a destination a nd vision to work toward.

When you know where you want to go, you ca n ma nage your priorities, time, and res ources to get there. Goals also help you deci de what's worth s pending your ti me on, a nd what's just a distraction.

Priority Matrix The Priority Matrix has two dimensions.

The first one is importance (important and not important), and the second one is urgency (urgent and not urgent).

All our tasks are divided into four quadrants. We classify each task according to these quadrants, and then we deal with the tasks according to the quadrant they belong to.

C1 - Important and urgent: we should do them first.

C2- Important and not urgent: we take care of tasks in this quadrant after we deal with the tasks in Quadrant 1. We have to take them very seriously because, if we don’t, they will move to Quadrant 1.

C3- Not important and urgent: They are the time robbers. The way to reduce this problem is simply to protect your time.

For example, if someone insists on talking with you in person immediately, and it means you need to travel out of your office, find out why that meeting is so urgent. Maybe you can have a phone call instead, and maybe that person is going to be in your area next week.

C4- Not important and not urgent: The tasks here are serious time wasters.

When you identify a task in that quadrant, try to cancel it. If you can’t eliminate it completely, try to minimize the time you spend on that task or delegate it.

You ha ve to set SMART Goals:

Speci fic: s tate exactly what you want to a ccomplish . (who, what, where, why) Mea s urable: how will you demonstrate a nd evaluate the extent to whi ch the goal has been met? (how much, how many) Achi evable: s tretch a nd challenging goa ls within the ability to a chieve outcome. (Action oriented verb) Rel evant: how does the goal ti e into your key res ponsibilities? Al igned tp your goa l.

Ti me bound: ti me period of a chi evement is cl early stated.

Mistake #3. Not Prioritizing Your tea m member has just walked in wi th a cri sis that she needs you to deal with ri ght now, but you're in the middle of brainstorming i deas for a new s ummer peak project. You're sure that you've almost come up with a brilliant i dea, but now you risk l os ing the thread of your thinking because of this "emergency."

Sometimes, i t's hard to know how to prioritize, es pecially when you're facing a flood of s eemingly-urgent tasks. However, it's essential to l earn how to prioritize tasks effectively i f you want to manage your time better.

One tool that will help you prioritize effectively i s the Urgent/Important Matrix. Thi s hel ps you understand the difference between urgent a ctivities, a nd i mportant a cti vi ties. You'll also learn how to overcome the tendency to focus on the urgent.

The Action Priority Matrix i s a nother useful tool, which will help you determine i f a ta s k is high-yield and high-priority, or l ow-value, "fill i n" work. You'll manage your ti me much better during the day if you know the difference.

Mistake #4. Failing to Manage Distractions Do you know that some of us ca n l ose as much as two hours a day to distractions?

Thi nk how much you could get done if you had that time back!

Whether they come from emails, chats, colleagues in a cri sis, or phone calls, di s tractions prevent us from achieving flow, which is the satisfying and seemingly effortl ess work that we do when we're 100 percent engaged i n a task.

If you wa nt to gain control of your day a nd do your best work, i t's vi tal to know how to minimize distractions a nd manage interruptions effectively. For i nstance, turn off your cha t a nd FB when you need to focus, a nd let people know if they're distracting you too often. You should also l earn how to improve your concentration, even when you're fa ced with distractions.

Addi tionally, you need to know how managing email effectively s o that it doesn't ea t up your entire day. Set ti me to a nswer them.

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Mistake #5. Procrastination Procra s tination occurs when you put off ta sks that you s hould be focusing on right now. When you procrastinate, you feel guilty that you haven't s tarted; you come to drea d doing the task; a nd, eventually, everything catches up with you when you fail to compl ete the work on time.

Sta rt by ta ki ng our Procrastination Quiz to fi nd out if procrastination i s a problem i n your l i fe. If it is, then learn the s trategies you need to beat procrastination.

For i ns tance, one useful s trategy i s to tell yourself that you're only going to start on a project for ten minutes. Often, procrastinators feel that they have to complete a task from s ta rt to finish, a nd this high expectation makes them feel overwhelmed a nd a nxi ous. Instead, focus on devoting a s mall amount of ti me to s tarting. That's all!

You mi ght also find it helpful to use action Plans, backward plan. Thes e help you brea k large projects down i nto manageable steps, s o that it's easy to s ee everything tha t you need to get done, a nd s o that you can complete s mall chunks a t a ti me.

Doi ng this can stop you from feeling overwhelmed at the start of a new project.

Mistake #6. Taking on too Much Are you a person who has a hard ti me saying "no" to people? If so, you probably have far too many projects a nd commitments on your plate. This ca n l ead to poor performance, stress, and low mora l e.

Or, you mi ght be a micromanager: s omeone who insists on controlling or doing all of the work thems elves, because they ca n't trust a nyone else to do i t correctly. (This can be a problem for everyone - not just managers!)

Ei ther way, ta king on too much is a poor use of you r time, and it ca n get you a reputation for producing rushed, sloppy work.

To s top this, learn the s ubtle a rt of saying "yes" to the person, but "no" to the task. Thi s skill helps you a s sert yourself, while s till maintaining good feelings within the group. If the other person starts l eaning on you to say "yes" to their request, learn how to think on your feet, a nd s tay cool under pres sure.

Mistake #7. Thriving on "Busy" Some people get a rush from being busy. The narrowly-met deadlines, the endless emails, the piles of fi l es needing attention on the desk, the fra ntic race to the meeting... What a n adrenaline buzz!

The problem is that a n "addiction to busyness" ra rely means that you're effective, and it ca n l ead to s tress. Instead, try to s l ow down, and learn to manage your ti me better.

Mistake #8. Multitasking To get on top of her workload, your LCP regularly wri tes emails while she chats on the phone to her MCP. However, while your LCP thi nks that this is a good use of her ti me, the truth is that it ca n take 20-40 percent more ti me to fi nish a list of jobs when you multitask, compared with completing the s a me list of tasks in sequence. The result is also that she does both tasks poorly - her emails a re full of errors , a nd her MCP i s frustrated by her lack of concentration.

So, the best thing is to forget a bout multitasking, a nd, i nstead, focus on one task at a time. That wa y, you'l l produce higher quality work.

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Mistake #9. Not Taking Breaks It's nice to think that you ca n work for 8-10 hours straight, especially when you're worki ng to a deadline. But i t's i mpossible for anyone to focus and produce really highqua lity work without giving their brains some time to rest and recharge.

So, don't dismiss breaks a s "wasting time." They provide va luable down-time, which will [Inserte aquĂ­ su logotipo] ena ble you to think creatively a nd work effectively.

If i t's hard for you to s top working, then schedule breaks for yourself, or s et an a larm as a remi nder. Go for a quick walk, grab a cup of coffee, or just sit and meditate a t your desk.

Try to ta ke a five mi nute break every hour or two. And make sure that you give yourself a mple ti me for l unch - you won't produce top quality work i f you're hungry!

Mistake #10. Ineffectively Scheduling Tasks Are you a morning person? Or do you find your energy picking up once the sun begins to s et i n the evening? All of us have different rhythms, that is, different ti mes of day when we feel most productive a nd energetic.

Being productive Focus on the positive: concentrating on a positive outcome rather than avoiding a nega tive one l eads to greater pers istence, flexibility, creativity, moti va tion, a nd s atisfaction. In s hort, expecting success makes us more l ikely to s ucceed.

Exercise regularly: s et s pecific You ca n make best use of your time by s cheduling high-value work during your peak time, a nd l ow-energy work (like returning phone calls and checking email), during your "down" ti me. Read this a rticle, Is This a Morning Task? It wi ll teach you how to do this.

da ys a nd ti mes to do a t least three 30-mi nutes ca rdio sessions a nd two 30 mi nute strength training s essions. How much we move i nfluences our health, energy, focus, mood a nd productivity

Practice random acts of kindness: fi nd s mall ways to make people around you feel better.

Nothi ng is more i mportant for us tha n feeling va lued a nd a ppreciated by others .

AIESEC UBA EB Phoenix June 2013