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Our Head of Production Gavin Mallory shares Twelve Top Tips on managing your time better. If you want to work more efficiently; with less stress; or provide a better service, then take a look. Some of it you'll know, some of it you might not. I hope that everyone will benefit not just from reading the content, but from taking a moment to think about how you manage your time and see where you can tweak the way you work to give noticeable improvements. These slides are adapted from a session Gavin ran as part of our weekly Production Training sessions, which the whole of Cogapp is invited to.
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Top time management tips
Me People not at this sessionHello.12 top tips coming atcha.Not in any order. I'm not an expert - I went on a course about 5 years ago. Would love to hear your tips too
The 15 minute plan
Take 15 mins each morning to plan your day. - Look at the calendar- Book yourself prep-time / post-meeting time- Book yourself out as doing a task to stop last-minute meetings going in
Group tasks together
Obvious but it works.- It might be that you nominate a day to focus on one project- It might be that you do all the same type of task (e.g. do all your invoicing) at the same time- It might be that you book back to back meetings with the same person- It might be something else. Whatever works for you.
Do the hard stuff first
Lots of us have a to do list. Sometimes it is super long. That can be disheartening, and the temptation is to get rid of a few of the easy things before cracking on with the tough stuff.BUT, little things will keep coming in. Youʼll never get to the difficult stuff, and the more you put it off, the harder it becomes to do it. If you have ten frogs to eat, eat the biggest one first. If you have two big frogs, eat the ugliest one first.
Take a break
This can feel counter-intuitive, especially coming from someone who works through lunch most days.Having a break and clearing your mind makes your brain work better. Go outside and get some fresh air.Have a chat with someone in the kitchen.If itʼs raining and you hate people, then go on Facebook for a bit and donʼt think about work.
Urgent and important
This is a MEGA tip.Prioritising is something we all have to do, every day. How do you do it?One way is with a prioritisation matrix...
Prioritisation matrixUrgent
Important
Map your stuff onto the matrix by urgency and importance. Do the top right stuff first. Important = important to your organisation.
Prioritisation matrixUrgent
Important
Map your stuff onto the matrix by urgency and importance. Do the top right stuff first. Important = important to your organisation.
Prioritisation matrixUrgent
Important
Map your stuff onto the matrix by urgency and importance. Do the top right stuff first. Important = important to your organisation.
Financial report for
Alex
E-mail Dave
Prep for call later
today
Prioritisation matrixUrgent
Important
Map your stuff onto the matrix by urgency and importance. Do the top right stuff first. Important = important to your organisation.
Turn off your e-mail
According to research by Samsung, e-mail takes up 25% of the working day. Iʼll bet weʼre all higher than that. If you need to focus, turn your e-mail off. Set time aside to to check and respond to e-mails - you donʼt need to read them the second they come in. My favourite top tip is to set your preferences so the red dot doesnʼt show up in your Macmail - avoiding the itchy finger when new mail comes in.
Delete,Do,Defer,Delgate
When youʼre reading your e-mail, apply the 4 Dʼs.• Delete (I prefer ʻIgnoreʼ but that doesnʼt start with a D): many emails you get can probably be deleted immediately ignored.• Do: if the email is urgent or can be completed quickly.• Delegate: if the email can be better dealt with by someone else.• Defer: set aside time at a later date to spend on emails that require longer action.Not to be confused with the 5 Dʼs of Dodgeball (Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, Dodge)
What do I want?
Take 5 mins before everything to ask yourself what success looks like (i.e. what do I want to get out of this?). Start your meetings with “The aim of this meeting is...” - and then roll it out to everything you do e.g. “The aim of this report is to...”
Perfectionism isn’t perfect
Iʼm always banging on at tech colleagues - good enough is good enough. Itʼs totally true. If the work youʼre doing is Fit For Purpose, then itʼs good enough, so stop. If you have asked yourself ʻWhat do I want to get out of this?ʼ before you start the work, youʼll know when youʼre done.
Move seats or go home
We all get interrupted by colleagues all of the time (and we all interrupt colleagues all of the time too).It can be annoying if you are trying to work on something that needs focus. Give a signal to people that you are focused- It used to be headphones in, but that doesnʼt work anymore- I heard about a place where if you were wearing a hat it meant please donʼt interrupt- We used to have ʻthe quiet areaʼ which was quite successful. If you need to focus, move seats - go to the spare desks at the top or bottom of the office. Itʼs a visual clue that you are working on something important, plus putting some distance between you and your colleagues makes it just that little bit harder for the talk to you, meaning they will think twice. Alternatively, work at home. If you have the discipline to do it properly, working at home can be really productive. Or we could get the hats!
The end
Thanks all. Let’s talk.
