10 Feb Top Tips for Time Management
“Eat the frog first”
I bet that’s not the first thing you think to yourself when you get into work?
Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it.
No matter what industry or job role, I think we are all guilty of finding those little distractions throughout the day to procrastinate from completing the more challenging jobs. Whether it be making a cup of tea or scrolling through social media, you can always find something to delay having to start on that dreaded report.
I thought I would share some handy tips from a time management course I recently went on.
Time Management Matrix
A handy tool you can use to prioritise your tasks for the day is the ‘time management matrix’. By working out which tasks are urgent/not urgent/important/not important, you can begin to manage your workload much more effectively.
In an ideal world you would be working in the ‘not urgent’ area, by planning ahead and preventing matters from becoming emergencies. But it is inevitable that crises pop up and everything else has to be dropped.
Resources, resources, resources
There are so many apps, plugins, podcasts, YouTube videos and guides out there to help you manage your day. In PR, you often have deadlines to meet and urgent tasks to complete. But if you can plan ahead (using the time management matrix) you can begin to minimise the number of urgent tasks you have to contend with. I use Trello to set deadlines, separate clients and visually prioritise my workload.
This all sounds great in theory but putting it into practice is another matter. Small steps and changes in habits will (hopefully) help you to become more productive in the long-term.
Now stop procrastinating by reading this and get back to work!!
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