For a business executive, entry-level worker or one who is trying to chart a career path or a business start-up, time is as precious as your health, and how you manage both tells a great deal about how far you would go without frequent burnouts and relapses.
First, you should be fully aware of your short-term and long-term goals. Communicate these clearly to those whose cooperation you’d need. Reaffirm it regularly to yourself like it’s an imaginary placard.
Moving forward, according to a post by a CEO management expert, Damien Fuaghman on Forbes:
“Focus on activities with greater revenue margin and be sure they are something you alone can do”: The most popular hubris most career executives fall into is the delusion that they can do just about anything. While it could well be true that you have a reasonable and convincing amount of skills in handling several tasks, the capacity of actually getting around to doing them within a stipulated timeframe is limited by the simple fact that YOU’RE HUMAN and not a ubiquitous creature.
Your time will work best for you if you have a streamlined focus on tasks you have exclusive expertise on and can execute on time as opposed to things other members of your team could efficiently help out with. When you apply this, you’ll find that it is easier and enjoyable to do tasks with meaning and substantial usefulness to your overall goal because your energy level has been appropriately channelled.
Deciding on this should come before configuring your calendar and to-do list, which should be in the order of the Eisenhower matrix where you are required to categorise your tasks into four quadrants as detailed by RC Victorino on Slab Blog:
- Quadrant 1: Important and urgent. They require immediate attention and have a short deadline, hence you should DO them now.
- Quadrant 2: Important but not urgent; They do not have a close deadline but help to achieve the overall goal. Therefore, place these on SCHEDULE.
- Quadrant 3: Urgent but not important; those tasks that are within the purview of the job function of others, which you should DELEGATE. If you’re not in a position to delegate tasks, in this respect, ask questions and seek help from those with exclusive expertise. It’s healthy to admit you do not fully know something.
- Quadrant 4: Not important and not urgent; They are distractions and time-wasters that do not help the achievement of set goals. Delete them from your schedule.
Review your calendar and to-do list
Review this calendar and to-do list before work, to be clear on your job assignment for the day, and after work, to scrap out those that have been significantly achieved, and add new assignments for the subsequent workday. The weekend is often suggested as the best time for this.
Set study time
Another suggestion that is mostly overlooked which Damien Faughman on Forbes lays out is setting study times; this is necessary with the understanding that you should be in the know of trends and changes in your chosen industry or market to know when to re-strategize and develop suitable and workable action plans. This is best done when your assimilation level is high, usually in the mornings.
Avoid time leaks
Remember to Ignore meetings and emails and leisure calls that do not have any immediate value to your goal and say no when you must. These could be regrettable time leaks sometimes. Otherwise, have someone check these up on your behalf and bring to your notice those suited to your priority, that’s if you’re occupying a high-flying managerial position, anyway.
Don’t allow burnout to plague you
In any case, runway from burnout like a plague by exploring channels of exercise, pleasure and relaxation after completing a substantial amount of work—congratulate yourself on small wins in the company of friends or family without necessarily being too frivolous. This is as mentally rejuvenating to bounce back to work after as it is physically healthy as a lot of stress hormones are released during the process, and by extension, colleagues and partners don’t get the bitter sting of pent-up aggression and mental drain arising from a marathon work-life. In the end, your time isn’t just being judiciously managed, your work environment is a healthy one.
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