17 Ways to Get More Stuff Done

Women in Banking & Finance were delighted to welcome Paul Bedford, business coach and owner of the Action Coach Business Coaching Company to RBS in Birmingham. He facilitated a wonderfully interactive session around time management. Time – it’s so precious, once it’s gone, you will never get it back so here are the 17 ways on how to make the most of it. Hopefully you can use some of these to improve your work-life balance:

1. Time Survey

In order to know how you can improve time management and productivity you need to know what you’re spending time on in the first place. Collate a spreadsheet broken down into half hour chunks of your day and write down everything you do for 14 days to spot your time snatchers!

2. Skills/Fun Leverage Chart

Plot the activities from your time survey onto a chart showing Skill Level vs Fun. Don’t be shocked as most will probably come out as low skill and low fun, the sad fact of reality eh… It doesn’t have to be like this, consider if they are worth doing at all, automating or delegating.

3. Plan your next day at the end of the current one

This allows you to wake up and execute a plan of action. It also helps you relax at the end of a busy day and allows your subconscious mind to figure out issues overnight while you sleep - you know what I mean here, when you’ve been racking your brain for a solution to an issue for hours and as soon as you jump in the shower you have an epiphany on how to fix that formula in excel – happens all the time.

4. Eat a frog for breakfast

Not literally, unless you want to. This means do the hardest task first in the day. The rest of your tasks will seem like a doddle after eating that frog and productivity will increase without a doubt. Pass the salt please.

5. Create a default diary

Create a plan for your week with time allocated to main activities. This way, if an ad-hoc emergency tasks pops in (like they ALWAYS do), deal with it and get back on track by referring back to your plan.

6. Create schedules of activities

Make a checklist of your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly tasks and review them at the end of each day, week, month or quarter to check that they have been done. Use a pen and paper if you want that satisfaction of crossing stuff off an actual list!

7. Introduce Personal Key Performance Indicators

Ok, you might think this is a bit ‘extra’ but is it? Write down some goals you want to achieve in your default diary, set a deadline and review them frequently. It keeps you focussed and helps you track productivity and timekeeping.

8. Systemise routine tasks

Might sound like a no brainer but analyse your repeatable tasks and see what electronic tools can help you speed up the process or automate them completely.

9. Learn to say NO (it’s ok!)

We all do it don’t we? We say yes because we don’t want to let people down but this is a one way ticket to overload. It’s ok to say no, there’s only so much you can do!

10. Document processes

Invest time in creating ‘how to’ guides for all the tasks you do. Why is this important? Not only do you share best practice but you also line up a suitable and capable delegate.

11. Turn your phone notifications off

Or just switch your phone off. There is no law that states your phone must be on 24/7. Be present in the here and now.

12. Limit Social Media Time

As fun as it is, do yourself a favour and limit it. Do you really need to see yet another selfie of Kanye smiling on the inside or Cardi B ‘living her best life’? No you don’t – it’s the biggest tax of human time!

13. Shut down your email

Ok – might not be possible to completely shut it down but get into the habit of scheduling time in to check emails instead of jumping in and out of your emails every ten mins.

14. Stop taking calls

This is a bit harder than scheduling emails but when you finish work, why not switch your phone off? There’s nothing worse than leaving your phone on and receiving that 1am ‘your mailbox is almost full’ email!

15. Avoid getting overwhelmed

Break up big tasks into bitesize ones and use the paper list method. It helps you get that sense of accomplishment when your list is all ticked off ….. (ooohhhh it’s the little things!)

16. Activity vs Productivity

Don’t be a busy fool. Use your time survey to really look at the activities you do and assess whether they are actually productive. What’s the value you are getting or could you do something a better way?

17. Don’t do anything!

Factor in time to do nothing and relax. Spend time with family and friends, go on a spa day, go for a long walk and look after yourself. It’s very important to relax and recharge.

Interested in attending a WIBF event? – there are loads of events coming up over the next few months, why not sign up and join in? (it’s only £55 for the year). It’s not just for women and it’s a great way to build your local network across industry! Have a look at some of the events coming up in Birmingham