By Tanya Hoover, Owner of Midwest Language Services, LLC and former elementary classroom teacher.
Time management is really about priority management. I will share two principles and practical tips and tricks to help you throughout your week. These can help you find more time to do the things that matter.
Establish What the Most Important Tasks Are
The first is the Pareto Principle (also known as the 80-20 rule): 80% percent of the outcomes come from 20% of the work. Knowing this can help you discern what activities you do every day and every week really contribute to your desired outcome. Being busy does not always mean being productive. Ask yourself, “Is the activity I’m doing right now helping me accomplish my goal?”
The second principle is Parkinson’s Law. According to Parkinson’s Law, a task will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. If you have an hour for lunch, it will take an hour. If you are a teacher and have to make copies, answer questions, and make phone calls, you will find a way to eat in fifteen minutes. (I don’t suggest this for lunch, but I do suggest that Parkinson’s Law be applied to how much time you give to other tasks that are not directly part of your responsibilities.
Categorize Your Tasks
Once you have established your most important activities, you can use the Eisenhower Matrix to help you sort your to do list into the following categories:
Important and Urgent - Do these first.
Important, but not Urgent - Schedule these.
Urgent, but not Important - Delegate these activities if possible. Enlist the help of friends, colleagues, family members, student teachers, or parent volunteers.
Neither Urgent nor Important - Avoid doing these unless you’re taking a break.
Schedule the Time to Do Your Tasks
By not doing this, your non-urgent tasks may become urgent. Also, scheduling your tasks helps ensure things will get done and not just be a part the next day’s to do list.
Instead of having a to-do list that never ends, schedule time for certain activities during specific days or times. For example, if you have to grade papers, do this at set day of times during the week. Schedule times during the day when you check email and respond to phone calls or need to make calls to parents.
Batch tasks together by type or by location to help prevent fatigue and wasted time that can occur from task switching or from spending too much time driving from place to place, wasting gas and time.
Use these tips to help streamline your day:
Send emails to your team using the 1-2-3 method. In the subject line of your email, type a 1 before you type the subject. This will let your internal team know that this is both an important and urgent email that should be opened and acted upon immediately. A 2 before the subject means that this is important, but should be opened after all of your 1s. The number 3 means that this is for your information. No action is necessary, but I want to keep you in the loop and / or share pertinent information to our organization. Important: Be sure to inform your colleagues that you will be using this method and what each number means.
Use a Pomodoro Timer to help reduce task switching. Work for an uninterrupted 25 minutes - Don’t answer the phone, check email, or do anything else but the task at hand. Once the 25 minutes are up, take a 5 minute break. Repeat this three times and then take a longer break - 15 minutes, for example. You can find Pomodoro Timers online or just use another timer you have readily available.
Start paying attention to when you feel most productive. Schedule time in your schedule to do your hardest tasks during that window of time. For most people, it is better to do the hardest tasks first thing in the morning as our willpower starts to wane and the end of the day, making its harder to do the more difficult things. This may mean going to bed earlier to wake up earlier.
Have an agenda for your meetings and a time limit for each line item. Send the agenda to the attendees at least 24 hours in advance, so that your team members have time to think about what is going to be discussed and can brainstorm ideas in advance or prepare whatever is necessary to bring to the meeting ahead of time.
Start meetings on time. Starting late teaches people they don’t need to show up on time. If you pay five employees the same hourly rate and you have twelve people on your team who show up five minutes late, you’ve just spent an hour’s pay for people to show up late. Also, it rewards the latecomers and penalizes people who do what they are supposed to do. Reinforce positive behavior by starting on time.
