We recently delivered a Time Management Skills Training session with ITESOFT, and in response one of the attendees, Rory Coleman-Smith, posted this takeaway on the company blog. We have re-posted it here with their permission, and we thank ITESOFT for their time on the course and wish them well in the future.
Managing a project can be a nightmare, but first taking a step back and looking at how you manage your own time can be a breakthrough.
This week ITESOFT sat down with Anthony Maddalena from PowerCall Global Training to discuss effective time management strategies.
I took a few key points away from the session, including acknowledging your “Time Robbers”, setting boundaries and learning to say no, and delegation skills.
Time Robbers
A Time Robber is a task which takes up valuable time which should be spent elsewhere.
Some of these are self-inflicted, others are from external factors.
Self-inflicted Time Robbers include checking emails, unnecessary meetings (called by you), procrastination, and over-committing.
External Time Robbers include poor communication, excessive workload, and unclear job definitions.
Time Robbers can be easily quenched by simply planning, saying no, and delegating.
Setting boundaries and learning to say no
Saying no can be the hardest part of our day.
We often feel guilty about saying no and subsequently put ourselves in a stressful situation.
One way to justify turning down a new task is to remember previous times you took on extra work, only for that work to become a burden.
You also need to remember that you are important.
Your time does matter.
The work you do is integral to your department, and to the wider business.
For you to be able to work as effectively as possible, you must learn to say no when asked to do something which will not benefit your core responsibilities.
The more you say no, and give a reasonable justification in saying so, your managers may look at alternative solutions, such as hiring more employees or purchasing an IT solution.
Delegation Skills
It can be hard to let go of a job you have been doing for a long time.
More often than not, if we let others take on some of our responsibilities we can free up our time for more important tasks which could lead us towards our career goals.
So, what stops us from delegating?
Delegating may feel like losing control of a task, in fact it is you realising that your time is better spent elsewhere.
It may feel as though a job is completed faster and more effectively by you, when a short investment of time spent showing someone else how to do it can save you much more time.
If you show them the right way and provide ample support, it will be done just as well as when you do it.
Effective time management through training in effective time management
Out of the 11 topics covered in the course by PowerCall Global Training, these three stuck out to me, along with some great tools to help manage time.
This short investment of a couple of hours on a Monday morning will undoubtedly prevent me, and my colleagues, from wasting time.
Post by Rory Coleman-Smith
Rory has been working with ITESOFT since early 2017. He has placed himself as a thought leader, educating finance departments on the latest advancements in technology in Financial Process Automation.
