Many people are well organized and can manage their time efficiently, but there are still many others who definitely need to work on improving their time management. How exactly do we manage our time? We all have 24 hours in a day to work with, so why does it seem like some people are Time Management Guru's and others can barely get their teeth brushed? You are the only person who can decide how to spend your time.
Do not stay working all the time, even when you are pushing a deadline. It is always a good thing to take a small break. Do something that interests you-shut your eyes and listen to some music, or go play with the kids at home, or just look out of the window. You will certainly feel more energized to come back and work. However, don't keep sipping on those coffees and smoking cigarettes; that is only going to restrain your productivity if anything.
Share Your Goals - People work better when they know what it is they are working towards. So, talk to your staff. Let them know the company's goals and the direction that they are headed. You can enforce positive motivation better when you can share improving productivity with them the vision that you have. Also, don't forget to schedule regular meetings where staff can share their ideas as well as give feedback over existing rules, policies, and procedures. You will be surprised at how many good ideas there are which you have never thought of before!
Physically leave your office or workplace for lunch. If you are a full time mother, you should try to spend at least half and hour to an hour to yourself each day, even if it is only to do some household tasks without the constant interruption of your children. Working yourself into the ground, sometimes without much gratitude, can have quite serious health and psychological consequences. Stay away from client phone calls and office gossip as well so that you are more refreshed and focused when you return to work.
Productivity is as much about planning as anything else, so if you don't already do so, make sure you write up a To Do list at the start of the week and keep it close-by.
Communicate the benefits. You will only receive the rewards of improved productivity if those in a position to give these rewards know about it. You need to make it visible up and across the organisation. Case studies and newsletters are one way to do this.
Email is still very new for some of us, and we're still figuring out the rules as we go along. One suggestion that will help your organization is to create a list of email protocols. It can include areas like when not to send an email, how to address it, no use of capital letters since it comes across as shouting (don't assume anything when it comes to what people actually know about email protocol.
If your day frequently gets eaten up by phone calls to the office, may of them that aren't particularly important, then it may be time to introduce a method for dealing with live call handling. One option website may be to introduce an outsourced call centre that can provide a virtual office for your business.