EP008 - 10 Top Time Management Tips with Ian Luckett

Oct 2, 2017

The reason that I have put the e-book (Master Your Time and Get More Done in 10 Easy Steps) together, was to help people understand about time management and how can they get more out of their day. My programs in general circle around looking at your “why”, looking at your purpose, looking at your values, understanding your mindset and understanding your internal and external influences.

This book focuses down on time management and getting more done in those same minutes everyone has every day. I have put together 10 easy steps, which I will be breaking down in this podcast. Each step comes with an action point, so I suggest you get a pen and a paper handy while listening!

So, here are the steps:

1. Planning 101

• If you want to become successful, if you want to improve your personal and business life, then you need to have your own personal business development plan. Planning allows you to get more things done, stay out of stress, being more productive, and enjoying what we do.
  • Action Point – Get an A4 sheet of paper and start planning your week ahead. Work out what commitments have you already got in your week ahead, what actions and tasks do you want to do. Then start taking a focused look at that plan every single night before the next day to make sure that you are fully prepared.

2. Social Media Meltdown

• Social media may hinder your productivity, thus you need to be very careful on how you use it. As they say, everything in moderation.
  • Action Point – Make yourself a commitment that you are not going to check your social media accounts until you have completed your important tasks.

3. Avoiding Interruptions

• The normal office setup these days is made up of multi-stakeholder teams and layouts, so it is easy to say that interruptions will come from anywhere. It is important to find out where you are most likely going to get interrupted from so that you can plan out how to manage these interruptions, which most of the time is solved by merely learning to say “NO”.
  • Action Point – at the start of the day, try to anticipate when and where you will be interrupted during your day, and try to keep yourself focused and avoid and manage the interruptions.

 

4. Get Fit for Business

• Take opportunities to keep yourself fit and keep your brain and body hydrated. Eat healthy, and exercise!
  • Action Point – Next week, make sure you do a little bit of exercise, make sure you’re thinking about getting that exercise, and make smarter food choices (ditch that chocolate!) .

5. Delegate and Use Your Network

• Understand where you are sitting in the organisation, as well as the capabilities, training, and needs of both you and your team. Delegating means empowering those in lower level, giving them room to grow.
  • Action Point – Take out your current to-do list (if you have one) and break down all the areas where you think you could delegate, and give it to someone else. Do this, and watch at the end of the week how productive you have become.

6. Categorise Your Tasks

• When you start categorising your tasks, and put them into specific categories (i.e. team work, project work, personal tasks), then you are going to get more things done because you will focus on particular tasks in one particular area at the same time.
  • Action Point – Take look at your current weekly to-do list, break it down, and group those items into categories, and then put them into a schedule (into the week). This will then help you focus.

7. Celebrate and Record Success

• This is about empowering your teams, giving them more work to do, and getting them to work productively.
  • Action Point – At the end of each day, record what went well, and what didn’t go so well. Summarise it, learn from it, and share it with your team. This is about effective feedback, making sure that we are recognising the people who are working for us.

8. Set Up Sunday

• By setting up yourself on a Sunday, it enables you to get ready for the week ahead.
  • Action Point – Find yourself a spot on Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, or Sunday evening and then get a piece of paper, start planning out the week, make sure to prepare for all the commitments that you got, and also add those tasks that are purposeful. This will give you good results.

9. Act Rather than Re-act

• This is about taking calculated control, taking a step back if you think that you got into a situation where you get into a flash point, take a deep breath and don’t react to it. Stay nice and calm.
  • Action Point – Be proactive. Try to think about the possible instances when you get into conflicts, and remind yourself to stay calm.

10. Book Yourself a Meeting

• Schedule a “YOU” time, this will help you focus on what you want to achieve. If you go into a quiet place where you can fully focus, you will get things done quicker. But you can only do this if you commit that specific time to be yours alone.
  • Action Point – Look at your week ahead and book your “YOU” time, do yourself an agenda, get yourself prepared, go off a quiet nice place, and just try out and see how you get on.

 

 

Contact Details

To contact me, you can visit my website at http://innovatetosuccess.com/

 

Quotes

To-do list is just a list of things that you want to do. -- Ian Luckett

When we get into situations at our work when it is very busy and stressful, people within your team will look at you for control, they will look at you to see if you are in control, and if they feel that you are in control then they will feel at ease. -- Ian Luckett