Fresno It’s About Time: A Guide to Managing Your Time Better

In cities big or small, time is always of the essence. Especially in populous cities like Fresno 5th largest city in California (Fresno), you simply cannot afford wasted time. Effective time management eliminates unproductive downtime and unnecessary overtime at work.

Effective time management is indeed the key to both personal and organizational success. While yes, it helps with overall productivity, did you know that properly distributing and using your time also has psychological impacts? People who have great time management skills experience reduced stress, and tend to be more resilient. In a group setting, it can also be a motivational factor for everyone in the team!

So why don’t we all? It’s high time (pun intended) to start managing it better, and here are a few ideas to help you be as efficient as possible – not just reduce time but actually make things more effective in the workplace.

Have a Great Start – Switch Up Your Routine

They say in order to create a big change, you have to start small. This also applies to the workplace – by starting small it means starting with yourself. It doesn’t have to be something major. In this way you can also start small. By making a few small but positive changes to your routine every now and then, you will greatly improve the time you have.

One good example is to start and end your work day routinely. You can end each work day with a plan for things you will need to finish the next day. List your top priorities for the next work day so you will have something to focus on. It keeps you proactive and productive.

Block and Utilize Your Time

In line with the previous point, you should also try and block your time so you can utilize it well. The way you schedule the things that you will do each morning will impact your daily productivity, whether you realize it or not. Here are a few tips:

• Attack the highest priority tasks first, especially if it’s your least favorite but is just as important. Experts have proven that setting aside time for tough yet high-priority things allows people to dive into a no-excuse environment, leading to better efficiency.
• Create appointments for yourself. Your email app’s calendar shouldn’t just contain meetings and calls – block time for yourself especially for any activity that requires your complete focus.
• Create time limits for routine tasks – tasks that are repetitive and predictable. There should be reasonable time limits which allow you to stay motivated, you minimize wasted time, and having an allotted time allows you to chase a self-imposed deadline even for little things like checking and responding to emails. As such, you’ll have less or minimized time wasted on thinking what to do next.

Focus, Focus, and More Focus

A lot of us have been raised on a notion that multitasking is the way to go. However, for most people it remains just hype – research has proven that for many it just doesn’t work. Instead of actually splitting your attention into multiple things at once, your brain works by focusing on things in sequence. So when you multitask, you’re actually just continually switching from one thing to another without even knowing it sometimes.

Give your mind a break by focusing instead. Give one task your undivided attention – this allows your brain to focus which simply can’t be achieved in multitasking. This also gives your time management a boost as well. You get organized and you accomplish more.

Rid Yourself of Distractions

One of the main roots of losing focus is, well, distraction. It’s near impossible to completely get rid of them, but there will be interruptions you can control. Here’s how:

• Plan for interruptions
• Control your environment
• Improve productivity in meetings
• Schedule distractions (or rewards, if you may) such as small talk, non-work internet surfing, etc.

Want and Need More Time?

Designate certain tasks! You don’t always have to do everything – sometimes it’s best to delegate certain people to do what they do best. One good idea is to get a staffing firm to help you find the best people for your team. A staffing firm like ours can do a lot of things so you can focus on keeping your team at its peak:

• Provide temporary support for low-priority or repetitive tasks.
• Recruit and find staff using a proactive approach.
• Do the other time-consuming things in the hiring process – we can manage agenda like update and post job ads, do the initial screening of resumes, and conducting initial interviews.

We can do all these and more, so you can return the spotlight to other things you and your team need to do. Your company will be more productive, and we’ll help you get even more amazing talent so your organization will continue to do what it does best. Contact us now to find out how we can help your business.