With 2022 already in full swing, itβs the perfect time to start looking at how you are planning on managing your workload for the year. Time management is one of the most important skills to learn in business, particularly if you are a sales professional or sales manager. Just by putting some time management tactics to increase productivity into place, you can save yourself a lot of stress and ensure that every task you need to accomplish gets done on time.
Β Despite its value, time management is a skill that tends to get overlooked even as it becomes easier and easier to get distracted in the workplace and at home. Many people lose track of the task at hand as unexpected meetings pop up, they take on another staff memberβs workload or they get caught up in all the extra little things their boss has asked them to do.
Β Luckily, itβs never too late to re-focus and start incorporating some time management strategies into your work days. Start the new year off on the right foot with these 10 handy tactics to increase productivity both at work and in life.
How Can You Increase Productivity?
Analyse How You Spend Your Time
To pinpoint how you can effectively use time to your advantage, you need to start by analysing how you already spend it. An easy way to do this is to divide your time up into four categories β treasured, investment, mandatory and empty. The idea is to spend more time in the treasured and investment categories and less in the empty and mandatory ones.
- Β Start Tracking Your Time
You can improve your time management skills by tracking how you spend your time. This can help you to understand where most of your time is being spent so that you can make the necessary adjustments. Start an activity log and include both work and non-work hours. This exercise will also help you to divide your time into the four categories previously mentioned.
- Prioritise Your Tasks
One of the best ways to manage time is by completing the most important task you need to do first. This is the biggest task in your day and the one that will have the most impact on your success. Determine what that is and get it out of the way first before tackling smaller tasks, like emails and phone calls. Even if you fail to get around to the smaller tasks, your productivity will still have increased as you have accomplished the task with the most reward.
- Β Accomplish Less
It may sound counterintuitive but having a shorter to-do list can actually make you more productive than having a longer list. If your day is crammed with tasks, it can get overwhelming and increase your chances of not finishing any of them. Cut the list down to the most important tasks and plan time to work on each one.
- Learn to Say No
It may be a hard word to learn, especially if itβs to your boss or your work colleagues. But knowing when to turn down a request is essential if you want to stay focussed on the tasks you need to complete and not get side-tracked. You can also encourage others to not disturb you by using some visual signs. This can be a literal βDo Not Disturbβ sign on your wall. It can also mean closing your office door while you work or even wearing headphones to signal that you are busy and donβt want to be interrupted right now.
- Β Minimise Distractions
In todayβs world, distractions are everywhere! From chatting with your workmates to scrolling through social media, itβs never been easier to lose focus on what needs to be done. You can minimise distractions by temporarily disabling the alerts on your phone, computer, email and more until youβve finished the job.
- Take Regular Breaks
When youβre hard at work, itβs easy for your mind to tire and start to wander. You can easily refresh yourself by scheduling some short breaks throughout the day to give yourself time to refocus and re-energise. This is especially important if you spend a lot of time looking at computer screens.
- Β Create a To-Donβt List
Instead of writing down a list of everything you need to tick off, try writing a list of everything you donβt have to do that day. This tactic actually helps you to focus on what does need to be done by eliminating the tasks that can wait until another day.
- Use Time Management Apps
There are plenty of time management apps on the market today that can give you a little extra help in tracking your time. Not only will using one help you to see how you have spent your time, it can help you to utilise time more effectively to be more productive.Β
- Β Go Somewhere Else
If things really arenβt working for you and you canβt seem to finish any of your tasks, it could be time for a change of scenery. Shake up your routine by working in a different room or office, go outside, work from a cafΓ© or try teaming up with a productive co-worker in their work space.
Learn More Time Management Tactics with SWISH
Looking for more tactics to help you manage time more effectively? Our comprehensive SWISH Academy course is aimed at coaching individual sales professionals and corporate groups how to sell better using modern and ethical sales strategies that get results. Not only will you discover how to best manage your time for success, we give you access to our entire library with hundreds of hours of content, plus live weekly sessions and webinars with senior coaches and industry experts, scripts, templates, videos and much more to skyrocket your career in sales.
Β Thereβs never been a better time to master the skill of time management and set yourself up for an outstanding 2022! Join SWISH Academy and learn time management tactics to increase productivity and sales training techniques that can immediately be put into practice.
Take your sales efforts to the next level and read about our proven sales training, sales coaching, and sales courses.Β No matter if you are located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast or anywhere in the world, we are able to assist in providing the most innovative ethical sales training. Get started today with the SWISH Sales Academy – contact us on 07 5531 6485 or join our sales training Facebook group.
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