Make Time: 9 ways to become more productive
Time is a limited resource. How often do you hear people say that there’s not enough time in a day? How often do you say it yourself (go on – be honest!)? We hear it all the time and it’s why we established Hour Hands.
Whilst we love helping you out, we’re also keen to support people to create more time themselves. Of course, working efficiently means that you are more productive, but it can also boost your mood. Ticking those tasks off your to-do list gives you a real sense of achievement!
As we are on a mission to boost wellbeing, we’ve asked our super efficient team member, Heather, to share how she keeps on top of her busy task list for our wonderful clients. And here it is, beautifully packaged as our latest top tips blog. Thanks Heather!
The Hour Hands Top Tips for Efficient Time Management
- Separate your to-do list into sections rather than having one long list – it’s easier to manage that way.
- Prioritise tasks – coloured highlighting really helps you quickly spot important or time sensitive tasks.
- Add how long you think a task will take, especially for the bigger tasks (e.g. holiday research 2 hours, credit control 3-4 hours), this helps to plan your day and if you have a spare 30 minutes, you can choose to do a shorter task and enjoy a ‘quick win!’
- When you add a task to your list, summarise the actions needed in a single sentence, this saves you having to remember what to do or re-read multiple emails to find out!
- Make a diary entry for time sensitive tasks so you get calendar reminders
- Create recurring meetings for weekly tasks. Put these in the team calendar so people can see that you are unavailable
- Plan tasks for the next day at the end of each working day to save time the following morning. This also gives you a clear focus on your task list and prevents procrastination.
- ‘Strikethrough’ tasks as you do them, but keep them on the list so you can see what you have achieved at the end of the day and week!
- Don’t plan to complete too many larger tasks on one single day – you need to allow flexibility for ad hoc tasks that fall onto your desk at short notice
How you can benefit from the super efficient Hour Hands team!
With willing and able bookkeepers, personal assistants, and marketeers on hand, Hour Hands is always available to complete those tasks that you just don’t have the time or capacity to do yourselves – even after reading our top tips! From bookkeeping to social media, organising events and gifts, to managing your life admin, Hour Hands is here to help.
