4 Time Management Tools To Maximise Your Productivity | OBG

Annette Gomez
24 hours a day.
7 days a week.
We all have it.  So why do some of us appear to be organised and on top of things when others are disorganised and feel like they’re drowning with a never-ending bucket of stuff to do!
Time management in both your business and life is essential for both your success and your sanity!
Organising your time at the start may take time, but it ends up saving time in the long run.
And It’s all in the tools! Here are some effective time management tools all business owners should use.
LISTS – Improve Business Time Management By Prioritizing Where You Spend Your Time 
There is a great book called Eat That Frog – written by Brian Tracy, it’s a simple read and well worth it.
The biggest gift this book gave me was the value of lists:
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with things to do – write a list.
Once you invent this “to do” list – you will see there will be tasks on there that you procrastinate about – the “yuck” stuff, or as Brian Tracy explains “The FROG.”  These are tasks that you either don’t like to do, may be challenging or will just take the time you don’t think you have! But they are important!!
The challenge is to do the “yuck” stuff first, to eat that “frog” first. Once this is done it frees up your mind and clears the way to quickly and easily get the rest of the list done.
Anything left over from the day before on the list is added to the next days list and stays there until it is completed. 
CALENDAR – The Best Thing You Can Do For Time Management In Your Business Is To Know Where Your Time Is Spent
Another great tool to organise your time is the use of a diary or calender but not just for your appointments. I personally like Google Calender. Create entries for everything you do from staff training to meetings, from exercise to eating lunch or walking the dog. Block out times and stick to them
Then really nut out where you are flittering time away.
Do you find yourself wasting hours, being distracted by people, emails, Facebook, Instagram etc?  Give yourself a 10 minute block in the morning and afternoon for those distracting tasks if they are not productive or making you money and stick to this until you get your time management under control.
Do you get 100’s of emails a day? I found I was spending a lot of time going through emails I had subscribed to over the years.  I spent a couple of hours unsubscribing to lists that I no longer had an interest in. This couple of hours cleaned up my mailbox and resulted in an inbox that was so much easier to handle.
SKILLS MATRIX – A Time Management Tool All Businesses Should Be Using
A Skills Matrix helps you decide which tasks to delegate.  Those tasks you are doing which you either: – Don’t like or Are easy for others to take over
Once you start delegating tasks it will free up your time,  time to focus on and be more productive in the areas which you not only enjoy but make you more money.
We have created a free tool you can use to do just this, the Productivity Matrix. The Productivity Matrix helps you to map the activities you do on a daily/weekly basis and allows you to identify where your time is best spent and what to delegate to a 3rd party. Download the Productivity Matrix here and start improving your time management today.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL – Save Time By Getting It Right The First Time!
And lastly, this is less of a tool and more of a tip…Focus on your attention to detail!  Get it right the first time and don’t waste time re-doing things over and over due to lack of attention to detail.
A great way to do this is by systemising. When completing a task, write a checklist of things that need to be done as you do them. Next time you’re faced with the same task you can just refer to the checklist so you don’t make any time-consuming mistakes. With a thorough checklist, you even have the flexibility to delegate the task and save even more of your time.
Want to start implementing strategies to save time? Book a chat with Business Coach Annette Gomez today