You know the situation, you are working for yourself, but you don?t seem to be making much progress and never seem to have any time to yourself. Do you often say ?if only I had more time? .You are a victim of the Time Thieves?

Time Thieves - How many can you spot them?
* Making too many unscheduled phone calls.
* Receiving too many inappropriate phone calls
* Playing telephone tag.
* Your computer ? too much time spent on the internet or playing games.
* Sending or receiving too many emails.
* Too many coffee/cigarette breaks.
* Disorganized filing or worse ? no filing.
* Pending work not organized.
* Little planning of current work.
* No diary.
* Numerous Interruptions.

Time is a precious non-renewable asset and poor time management causes stress, inefficiency and lack of control. Take control and manage the time thieves.

When managing your time you must manage
* Your Work load
* Your Documentation
* Interruptions
* Your Working Day

Controlling your work load: List, Plan, and Prioritize.
This is the simple answer. Forget expensive time management systems. A system that suits you is simple and easy to understand if far more likely to be maintained.

* Know where you are going and how you are going to get there!!
* Know what you have to achieve and how to obtain this!!
* Know what the important tasks are.

Example: A4/Letter paper with 3x columns marked: Urgent, Important Normal. List things you have to do, cross off as you do them, add, as you get more. Make sure you complete each column within a certain time. Highlight the very urgent. Use it daily and review at least monthly.

Documentation - The 3 D?s
Do one of the following:
* Deal With. Handle paper once and then file.
* Delegate to the appropriate staff member.
* Ditch and throw it away.

Interruptions - Combat Them
Phone calls and unexpected callers the biggest time thieves there are, try and manage them, but not by compromising service.

Phone calls
* Make outward calls in groups if possible
* Give out ?best time to contact me? details
* Have all details to hand
* Don?t spend ages ?on hold?

Callers
* Make appointments where ever necessary
* Say ?I have just 5 minutes? and keep to it
* Encourage staff to collate requests/info
* Set aside regular times for staff
* Discourage time wasters

Emails
* Put in an efficient spam filter and virus program to remove as much junk and spam as possible.
* Discourage social or frivolous emails as well as too many ?to all? emails. These are time wasting as well as expensive on resources.
* Learn to file your emails so that you can find them again.
* Delete all unneeded emails

Your working day
By planning your time, you can review your time commitments and help yourself better plan in the future.

Diary management
* Keep diary - what, where, who, why
* Keep visible to all who need it
* Use alarm facilities if available
* Link with To-Do lists
* Build in some break times
* Build in admin times

Master these skills and you should suddenly find more time in your business and life to do the things that you want to.

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