Save Time

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

In my Time Management seminars, which I have conducted for more than100,000 people from around the globe, I show people how to get more donein less time, with less stress; to help them have more time for thethings they want to do in their work and personal lives.If you can recapture a wasted hour here and there and redirect it to amore productive use, you can make great increases in your dailyproductivity and the quality of your life.Here are five of the many techniques I share in our Time Managementseminars, each one of which will help you to get at least one more hourout of your day for additional productive time.

1. Run an Interruptions Log The average person gets 50 interruptions aday. The average interruption takes five minutes. Some five hours eachday are spent dealing with interruptions. Many are crucial and importantand are what we are paid to do but many have little or no value. Run anInterruptions Log to identify and eliminate the wasteful interruptions.Just use a pad of paper and label it “Interruptions Log” Create sixcolumns: Date, Time, Who, What, Length, Rating. After each interruptionis dealt with, log in the date and time it occurred, who brought it toyou, a word or two about what it related to, the length of time it took,and finally the rating of its importance: A=crucial, B=important,C=little value, and D=no value. Run it for a week or more to get a goodmeasure of what is happening in your life. Then evaluate the results andtake action to eliminate some of the C and D interruptions that havelittle or no value.

2. Delegate It We all have 168 hours each week and when you subtract 56hours for sleep and another 10 hours for personal care, that doesn’tleave a whole lot of time to get done what needs to be done. Delegationpermits you to leverage your time through others and thereby increaseyour own results. The hardest part of delegation though, is simplyletting go. We take great pride in doing things ourselves. “If you wanta job done well, you better do it yourself”. Every night in DailyPlanning, look at all that you have to do and want to do the next dayand with each item ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time?” Ifit is, do it. If it isn’t, try to arrange a way to delegate it tosomeone else. There is a lot of difference between “I do it” and “Itgets done”.

3. Manage Meetings A meeting is when two or more people get together toexchange common information. What could be simpler? Yet, it can one ofthe biggest time wasters we must endure. Before a meeting ask, “Is itnecessary?” and “Am I necessary?” If the answers to either are “no”,consider not having the meeting or excusing yourself from attending.Then prepare a written agenda for the meeting with times assigned foreach item along with a starting time and ending time. Circulate thewritten agenda among those who will be attending. There is no sense inholding a meeting by ambush. Let people know in advance what is to bediscussed.

4. Handle Paper It’s easy to get buried today in the blizzard ofpaperwork around us. The average person receives around 150communications each day via email, telephone, hard mail, memos,circulars, faxes, etc. A lot of time is wasted going through the samepile of paper day after day and correcting mistakes when things slipthrough the cracks. Try to handle the paper once and be done with it. Ifit is something that can be done in a minute or two, do it and be done.If it is not the best use of your time, delegate it. If it is going totake some time to complete, schedule ahead in your day calendar on theday you think you might get to it and then put it away.

5. Run a Time Log If you want to manage it, you have to measure it. ATime Log is a simple yet powerful tool to create a photo album sort ofoverview of how your time is actually being spent during the day. Simplymake an ongoing record of your time as you spend it. Record theactivity, the time spent on it, and then the rating using A, B, C, and Das described in #1 above. Some examples of how your time might be spent:Made telephone calls, 35 minutes, A; Answered emails, 48 minutes, B;Attended staff meeting, 55 minutes, C. Run this for a few days to get agood picture of how your time is being spent. Then analyze theinformation. Add up all the A, B, C, and D time. Most discover a lot oftheir time is being spent on C and D items that have little or no value.Finally, take action steps to reduce the C and D items to give you moretime for the really important things in your life.