12 Ways to Successful Time Management by Sajed Al-Abdali

12 Ways to Successful Time Management

Francis Lui

Table of Contents 1.

Use this Powerful Productivity Secret Taught to Charles Schwab

Apply Time Estimates to Your To-Do List to Maximize Your Productivity

Apply the 80/20 Rule to Get More Done by Doing Less

Avoid Multitasking to Use Your Time Efficiently

How to Make Decisions Quickly and Save a Lot of Time

How to Avoid Losing Your Time from Information Overload

Get More Done in Less Time by Typing Faster

Keep a Time Log to Discover How to Use Your Time More Efficiently

Increase Your Productivity By Limiting the Hours You Work

10. Stop Watching TV to Gain More Than 1,400 Hours This Year

11. Try Listening to Music While Working to Increase Your Productivity

12. Use a Larger Monitor to Boost Your Productivity

About the Author

1. Use this Powerful Productivity Secret Taught to Charles Schwab Charles Schwab, who was the president of Bethlehem Steel, hired Ivy Lee to increase his efficiency. When Ivy Lee taught the technique to Charles Schwab, Charles Schwab asked him how much it would cost him. Ivy Lee said he didn't have to pay anything for it now. But he told Charles Schwab to give it a try. Then Charles Schwab could send Ivy Lee a check for whatever he felt the idea was worth. A few months later, Charles Schwab sent Ivy Lee a check for $25,000 for the idea. It was during the time when people earned $2 a day. What was this technique that Ivy Lee taught to Charles Schwab? It was simply this: At the end of each day, write down the 6 most important things to be done the next day and number them in order of importance. Do the tasks from the most important to least important. After you've finished a task, cross it off the list. Any unfinished tasks are rolled over to the next day. It may sound too simple to be effective. But give it a try. This technique works well because it uses prioritization and the 80/20 rule. Since you can only pick 6 things to do and no more, it forces you to pick only the most important tasks and scrap the rest. It's like the 80/20 rule where you focus only on the minority of tasks that give you the most results. The other tasks are scrapped. (We'll talk more about the 80/20 rule later.) It also uses prioritization because you have to number your tasks in order of importance. The more important tasks are done first. If you want to supercharge the technique taught to Charles Schwab, apply the following technique that's used for to-do lists...

2. Apply Time Estimates to Your To-Do List to Maximize Your Productivity You may have heard of to-do lists before. A to-do list is simply listing down the things you have to do and then crossing them off when you finish each item. A nice benefit when using a to-do list is that it feels great crossing off each item when you finish them. To-do lists by themselves are effective. But here's a tip to use to-do lists even more effectively. Include time estimates for each item on your to-do list. Next to each item, write down how long you think it will take you to complete the task. You can write the number in minutes. So if you think it will take you 90 minutes, write “90” next to it. When you work on each task, try your best to finish the task within the estimated time. Doing this will increase your productivity, especially if your time estimates are reasonably tight. It increases © 2009 Francis Lui. All rights reserved.

your productivity because it uses Parkinson's Law. Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill time. So if you give yourself 30 minutes to complete a task, you'll take 30 minutes to complete it. If you give yourself 90 minutes, you'll take 90 minutes. Your brain will try to figure out a way to get the work done within the time limit. After you've completed each task, write down the actual amount of time it took you to complete it. Write it down next to the item on the to-do list. Doing this will help you to refine your time estimates and make them more accurate.

3. Apply the 80/20 Rule to Get More Done by Doing Less If you find yourself overloaded and can't find the time to get everything done, try using the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule can mean that 80% of the results come from 20% of the tasks you do. Or 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. Or 80% of the useful information in a book is in 20% of the material. Knowing that, figure out the 20% that gives you 80% of the results. And put more of your effort on the 20% that gives 80% of the results. Spend less effort on the other tasks that give you less results. By doing that, you'll get more results by doing less. And your productivity will increase a lot. As an example, let's say you have 10 books to read to do your research. When you go through each book, figure out which sections are the most useful. And ignore the rest of the sections. Then when you read those sections, only read the most useful paragraphs and ignore the other paragraphs. By reading this way, you'll filter out the fluff (which may be 80% of the book). And you'll only spend time reading the useful information, which might be around 20% of the book. You can take it even further. Out of the 10 books, pick just 2 or 3 of them that are the most important and useful to read. And then forget about the other books. You'll be finished your research must faster. You'll have the majority of the important information you need to know in a short amount of time.

4. Avoid Multitasking to Use Your Time Efficiently You might do a lot of multitasking during your day. But multitasking can hurt your productivity. Whenever you switch to a new task and then switch back to the task you were working on, it takes time to figure out where you left off. In an article titled “The Grand Seduction of Multitasking” on abcnews.go.com, it says “Microsoft studied its own employees and found it takes workers interrupted by e-mail or instant messages around 15 minutes to get back into their work groove.” © 2009 Francis Lui. All rights reserved.

When you add up those minutes during the day, it results in a lot of time lost. Multitasking can also hurt the quality of your work. When you do multiple tasks at once, the quality of your work on each individual task is lower. For instance, trying to solve complicated math problems while watching TV is ineffective. It'll take you much longer to solve the problems because solving complex math problems needs your full attention. And the quality of your solutions may suffer. To avoid multitasking, make sure to do one thing at a time and stick to the task at hand. Turn off your cell phone. Avoid using an instant messenger while you work. And turn off your email alerts. This will keep you from switching back and forth from one thing to another. Also, make sure the task you're working on is the only thing you're doing. Don't watch TV at the same time, listen to the radio, surf the web, or talk on the phone while you're working on your task.

5. How to Make Decisions Quickly and Save a Lot of Time Making decisions quickly can be tough. For instance, when you see two alternatives that are appealing, it can be tough to choose only one of them. Or you may have a fear from making the wrong decision, so it takes you a long time to settle on a decision. An easy way to solve this problem is to put a time limit or deadline on your decisions. This can be used for the simplest of decisions, such as what to eat for dinner, to more complex decisions, such as what kind of business to start. By setting a time limit or deadline on your decisions, you avoid analysis paralysis. And you'll save a lot of time. Once you've made your decision, it's important to stick to it. Otherwise, you'll defeat the purpose of setting a time limit in the first place. How long of a time limit or deadline should you set? It depends on how much thinking or research you have to do to make a good decision. Set a time limit or deadline you think is reasonable. And then stick to it. If the decision you're making is what to eat for dinner, the time limit should be short. You might set a time limit of 60 seconds. But if the decision is more complicated, such as what house you should buy, set a deadline instead of a time limit. Specify which date you should have made a decision. Once the “decision day” comes, it's time to make your decision. Even if you feel like you need more time and have a feeling of uncertainty about your decision, make your decision anyway. Doing so will avoid analysis paralysis because the “perfect” decision will never come.

6. How to Avoid Losing Your Time from Information Overload Information overload can be costly in terms of time. When you're stuck in information overload, it keeps you from taking action. Months and even years pass by, but the lack of action causes a lack of results. And your time ends up being wasted. So it's important to avoid information overload. But how do you avoid information overload? The lure of reading another book or learning another tip can be tempting. To avoid information overload, you need to have a bias toward action. To do this, only read information when you need it. For instance, if you're at the stage where you're figuring out how to build a Web site, go out and find information on how to build a Web site. But at that stage, it's probably not a good idea to start looking for information on how to sell your business. You're still at the stage of building a Web site. So the information on how to sell your business isn't immediately applicable. By the time the information is useful, you would have forgotten it by then. And the time spent learning it would be wasted. So the key is to take action. When you reach a point where you need how-to information, go and find that information. Then once you've learned enough to apply it to your situation, stop learning and apply the information. Only look for new information when you reach a roadblock. That way, you'll keep taking action. You'll avoid information overload and analysis paralysis. And you'll get results faster.

7. Get More Done in Less Time by Typing Faster If you want to get more done in less time, it's important to learn how to type faster. If you're only typing 20 WPM (Words Per Minute), then you're not going to get as much done compared to someone who types 50 WPM in the same amount of time. If you can type 50 WPM, then you won't get as much done compared to if you can type 80 WPM. The most obvious example would be if you do writing. To write 500 words, which is about a page, it'll take you 10 minutes to type it at 50 WPM. But if you can type 80 WPM, you can finish it in 6.25 minutes. That gives you about 4 minutes of time savings. 4 minutes may not be much, but they accumulate. If you're writing 5 pages (about 2,500 words), then at 50 WPM, it'll take you 50 minutes to type it up. But at 80 WPM, it'll take you 31.25 minutes. That's about 19 minutes of time savings. Even if you don't do much writing, increasing your typing speed will still save you a lot of time. Think of all the emails you write. If you can type twice as fast, then you can spend half the time you're spending now on writing emails.

You also do typing when using search engines or typing a URL in your web browser. Typing faster might save you a few seconds there. That may not be much, but it adds up over time. You might be doing it hundreds or thousands of times. For instance, doing it 500 times with a 5-second time saving will save you about 42 minutes.

8. Keep a Time Log to Discover How to Use Your Time More Efficiently Keeping a time log can be beneficial. If you feel there aren't enough hours in the day or there isn't enough time to get your work done, try keeping a time log. You may be surprised to learn how you spend your time. You may discover that you surf the web or chat with co-workers longer than you thought. To keep a time log, whenever you start a new activity or task, write down the activity and the time you started doing it. You want to write every activity down. Write down when you go to the washroom, chat with a co-worker, surf the web, check your emails, or start a work-related task. By the end of the day, you'll have a list of activities with starting times. The length of time you spend on each activity can be calculated by taking the difference between the starting time of the activity and the starting time of the next activity. After you have the length of time calculated for each activity, create two totals: One for nonwork activities and one for work activities. Then calculate the percentage of the time you spent on work and non-work activities. To calculate the percentage of time spent on non-work activities, divide the non-work total by the total time you spent in the day (which can be found by adding the non-work total and the work total). Then calculate the percentage of time you spent on work activities by dividing the work total by the total time spent in the day. These two percentages will give you insight on how you spend your time during the day. It might be an eye opener. You may find that the percentage of time spent on non-work activities may be higher than you thought. Knowing these two percentages, you can figure out a way to use your time more efficiently and spend more time on work-related activities.

9. Increase Your Productivity By Limiting the Hours You Work Working long hours can be important to get more done. But when you do it long-term, it can decrease your productivity. And in the long-term, you end up doing less than if you stuck with shorter hours. For instance, in 1926, Henry Ford was the one who popularized the 40-hour workweek. His ÂŠ 2009 Francis Lui. All rights reserved.

experiments had shown that decreasing the workday from 10 hours to 8 hours and the workweek from 6 days to 5 days increased total worker output. You can do an experiment yourself to see if working long hours reduces your productivity. To do so, keep a time log to measure your productivity. With your time log, you can calculate the percentage of time you spend on non-work and work-related activities. Keep a time log every day for a week for different workweek lengths. For instance, you might do this for a 40-hour workweek, a 50-hour workweek, and a 60-hour workweek. For each workweek, you'll have 10 percentages (assuming you work Monday to Friday). 5 percentages are for non-work activities and 5 percentages are for work activities. For each set of 5 percentages, calculate the average percentage (by adding them and dividing the total by 5). With those averages, see if your productivity differs among the different workweeks. If you find that your productivity is lower when you work longer hours in the week (i.e. the percentage for non-work activities is high), try limiting your workweek hours. Since 40-hour workweeks is proven to be the “sweet spot” by Henry Ford, does that mean you should stick to 40-hour workweeks? Not at all. It's better to find the workweek length of hours that works best for you. Try to find the longest number of hours you can work in a week while still maintaining a high productivity percentage.

10. Stop Watching TV to Gain More Than 1,400 Hours This Year TV can be a big time waster. If you currently watch TV, you may be losing a lot of time. On average, Americans watch 4 hours of TV a day. That's equivalent to 1,460 hours a year, 36.5 workweeks, about 9 work months. That means every year, the average American loses 9 work months from watching TV. If you stopped watching TV today, you can get a lot more done. Imagine having an extra 9 work months. You could use your TV time to learn a new language. Or learn a new skill. If you want to master a martial art, 9 extra work months could increase your progress by a lot. If you feel you don't have enough time in your day to get everything done, try stop watching TV. At first, it might sound unrealistic to stop watching TV. I used to watch TV every night myself. The idea of not watching TV anymore was unimaginable. I thought it was impossible to survive without TV. But when I finally did it, it turned out to be really easy. In fact, my mother was a TV addict, watching 3 or 4 hours of TV a night. Then she finally took the leap and got rid of cable TV. She got rid of it 8 months ago, and she's certainly surviving well without TV. (The only thing she watches now is the stock channel.) She's retired too, but she can still find things to fill her time without the TV.

Interestingly, she made the transition quite easily. I didn't notice any “withdrawal symptoms.” When you stop watching TV, you'll not only save time, but you'll save money too. You no longer have to pay for cable TV (or satellite TV). To stop watching TV, you need to discipline yourself and set a new habit of not watching TV. For the next 21 days, force yourself to not watch any TV. If you end up watching TV on one day, you'll have to start the 21 days again from scratch. The 21-day period might be tough on some days, but you'll have to stick through it. By the end of the 21 days, you'll find it easier to continue not watching TV. It takes about 3 weeks to form a new habit. So by then, you'll have a new habit of not watching TV. And you'll enjoy all the extra time you'll have.

11. Try Listening to Music While Working to Increase Your Productivity A simple way to increase your productivity is to listen to music while working. It may sound counterintuitive, especially if you were taught that listening to music while working is bad. But studies have shown an increase in productivity when employees were given stereo headsets. In an article titled “Can personal stereos improve your productivity?” in HR Magazine, it says that “Productivity increased dramatically for employees using stereos at work – about a 10.2 percent jump compared with rates before stereos were used.” It also didn't matter whether the jobs were high-skilled or low-skilled. In either case, there was an increase in productivity. “The productivity of individuals using headsets and working on simple jobs increased 14 percent...” For workers with complex jobs, their productivity increased by “6.3 percent compared with pre-stereo levels.” So if you don't listen to music while you work, give it a try. When I first learned this idea, I never listened to music while working. I believed that it wasn't good to listen to music when working. But I gave the idea a try. When I tried it out, I found that it made working more enjoyable and relaxing. You could also try experimenting with different types of music. Music with lyrics might be distracting. So you could try music without lyrics. If you're doing routine work, fast music such as techno may speed up your pace. Calm, piano music might be good if you're doing creative work. If you're doing highly intensive work that requires a lot of thought, such as programming or solving complex math problems, perhaps having music off works better for you. Experiment and find what works for you. Try different types of music for different situations. It's possible that the idea won't work and you find that you're better off without music. But you won't know unless you try.

12. Use a Larger Monitor to Boost Your Productivity If you're using a small monitor, such as 15 or 18 inches, you may want to consider upgrading to a larger monitor. Research has shown that using a larger monitor boosts your productivity. According to the Wall Street Journal, “People using the 24-inch screen completed the tasks 52% faster than people who used the 18-inch monitor; people who used the two 20-inch monitors were 44% faster than those with the 18-inch ones.” So if you want to boost your productivity, invest in a larger monitor. Doing so will enable you to get more done in less time. A larger monitor costs more, but the extra gains in productivity will pay back for it over time. You don't need to limit yourself to one monitor though. You can also use two monitors. Doing so will give you twice as much screen space for you to work with. Some corporations give their employees two monitors to work with to increase their productivity. So if it works for them, it should work for you too. You can also try using three monitors at once. Having three monitors to work with may increase your productivity. There is some information on the Internet that can be searched for on how to set up three monitors. What if your workplace still uses smaller monitors? You could bring your own monitor to your workplace and use it instead. If you want to use two monitors, you could bring two of your own monitors to your workplace to use.

About the Author Francis Lui has been learning and applying time management techniques for at least 8 years. He still applies time management techniques to this day in his work and everyday life. Although he has been learning and applying time management for at least 8 years, he is still always on the lookout for better time management techniques. To receive free time management tips, sign up for his mailing list at http://www.supertimetips.com/.