Strong Female Leaders

By Nan Nan Liu-Maffetone | Strong Female Leaders | Reading Time: Five Minutes
Wouldn't it be nice if you can create more time at work? It feels difficult, but it can be done, if you are willing to put in the time to practice. Keep working at it. The benefits are rewarding.

Feeling swamped at work?

You will always feel like you have more work load than your capacity allows. So how can you accomplish so much work with so little time? Better time management helps. If you can "create" more time each day, you not only get more tasks done and get ahead in the project timeline, you also gain a sense of accomplishment and calm. In turn, your stress level will also calm down. Want to learn how? The following time saving tactics help.

1. Time block each day.

Time blocking boosts productivity by blocking off time slots so you can focus on one main activity. Doing so allows you to put all of your mental capacity on one thing, setting you up to succeed in that one thing. It also lets you avoid time hoggers such as meetings, phone calls, and emails. The most helpful time blocking method is the "engineer vs. manager:" where in the mornings, when you are the most productive, called "engineer" time, finish all the productivity-oriented tasks such as strategic planning, writing, or coding. In the afternoons, when you are less alert, finish all the managerial tasks such as responding to emails, holding meetings, and attending team events.

There’s nothing more frustrating than being interupted by phone calls and meetings, and not making enough progress. Time blocking each day protects your most valuable time first, so you are guaranteed to make progress.

2. Wait on it.

Immediately agreeing to every commitment and answering every request is your natural reaction. As a high-achieving professional, you want to feel valuable, help others, and do your best. However, you also risk being stretched too thin. To avoid this fast-track to burnout, when your attention is being requested, wait to respond if you can. For some requests, you can even wait a few days. Sure, priorities require immediate attention. Most likely, though, 80% of the requests that you receive are less urgent, vaguely stated, or even irrelevant to you.

If you need help determining the priority of each request, ask the following questions:

Will it contribute to advancing your career?

Will you gain a new skill from it?

Will doing it impede important work?

If you cannot justify why you should answer the request at all, just politely say no.

3. Reschedule if you can.

When priorities and deadlines compete, you can always re-prioritize and reschedule. Instead of forcing through mounts of tasks and meetings, lean out your day by re-scheduling less important tasks, meetings or projects out for several days.

Giving yourself room to breath helps you focus better on the matter at hand. When you have the capacity to dedicate more energy to the most important matter at the moment, you are less likely to make mistakes.

Parting Thoughts

Creating time is no small feat. And it certainly requires practice. It helps to perform a review at the end of each work day, and week, to find areas for improvement. How you structure your day impacts success and productivity. So make it a habit, and keep working on it. The benefits will be rewarding.