10 Simple Ways to Save Time by Janet Schiesl, CPO

You can’t really manage your time, but there are many ways to maximize your time.

1. Set goals. This way you will know what you are striving for. Plan how you will achieve those goals.

2. Plan your day. Having a reasonable plan for you day will help you focus on each task as it comes up.

3. Schedule your tasks. If it’s not on your calendar, then it’s just on a wish list.

4. Delegate. If someone else can perform a task as well or better than you, then let them do it.

5. Organize your work area. Being able to find what you need, when you need it will save you so much time.

6. Don’t rush. Mistakes occur when a job is done in a hurry. Take the time to do it right in the first place. People who don’t have the time to do something right always seem to have the time to do it over again.

7. Ask questions. Inadequate communication wastes time. Asking a clarifying question is faster than trying to piece together fractured communications.

8. Write it down. We all need reminders to prevent tasks from slipping through the cracks.

9. Recognize you can’t do everything or be all things to all people. This only creates stress. It’s not the stressful environment, but your reaction to it, that does the damage.

10. Respect the time of others. No unnecessary interruptions, telephone calls, electronic messages and correspondence. Accumulate your questions, concerns and assignments and interrupt others less frequently.

Janet Schiesl, CPO© is the owner of Basic Organization, a professional organizing firm in the Washington DC area. The Basic Team provides services to busy families, business owners, downsizing seniors and the chronically disorganized. We can teach you the skills to get organized and live a more simplified life, by providing you with ideas, information, structure and solutions to help you regain control of your space.

Janet is a co-author of the book Get Organized Today. A collaboration of professionals, that provides inspiration for getting organized. The book offers practical ideas that you can use immediately to live a better, more effective life. Find us and more information at www.BasicOrganization.com.

And for strategies to help put pockets of time into your writing, check out Putting Pockets in Your Professional Life: 52 Tips to Implement Immediately. This booklet is for professionals who are frequently rushing from meeting to meeting, promising and then not delivering, or wondering if they will ever “catch up.” In this booklet, readers will find tools to support them in our often-crazy world so that they can live their professional lives more peacefully and productively.