This article is not only as a summary of what we have discussed during ‘Productivity Week’ but there are additional pieces of advice for all freelancers and entrepreneur. Following all these points or at least most of them is guaranteed to increase your productivity, income and assist you in managing your time. The ultimate goal of effective time management is to spend time with our loved ones and following these points will definitely give you more time with them.
- Organise your files/papers into a filing cabinet
- Organise all files on your computer into relevant folders
- Have only one piece of paper on your desk
- Get a another monitor
- Get adequate sleep
- Plan everything
- Plan all meetings/events in a diary
- Have a notice board to remind you of the most important/pending issues
- Write a to-do list
- Assess every item on the to-do list and see if it helps you succeed
- Break down the steps in your to-do list
- Do the hardest tasks on your to-do list first
- Actually carry out the tasks on the to-do list swiftly and reward yourself
- Use Steven Covey’s four quadrant to-do list
- Get a PDA
- Do the important things and avoid (if possible) the non-important things
- Try to clump similar things together, e.g. call people in a “calling people hour”
- Kill procrastination as soon as it is born – it is the thief of time
- Identify why you are not motivated and fight that
- Don’t leave anything to the last minute, it will cost you time
- Make a fake deadline and stick to that
- Put papers in a paper-recycling bin, so you don’t throw anything important away and spend time making amends
- Always have a real phonebook
- Make full use of post-it-notes
- Back up all files on external hard-drive
- Get a notepad which you should carry with you at all times
- For three days monitor your time every three minutes
- When assessing your time, get rid of the things you waste most time on
- Ask yourself how you can do more in the day
- Plan to do tasks at their appropriate time (where you are most likely to enjoy them)
- Constantly ask yourself how you can be more efficient
- Write a list 100 things you want to do in life
- Look back every day at this ‘100 things’ list and ask yourself what you did today to achieve them
- 80:20 rule – concentrate on the 20% of your clients who provide 80% of your income
- Don’t get down at a bad judgement – it gives experience
- If you dream something, do it
- Delegate any task which you can to someone else
- Pay people to do things which would cost you time (e.g. gardening)
- Treat the person you delegated to with respect
- Don’t dump tasks on a person
- Do the hardest things yourself
- Let the person use their own imagination and initiative or else they will take too long trying to fit your criteria
- Give the person a specific date, time, penalty and reward for the task
- Write things down, even if it is in an email to the person you delegated to – saves future disputes which cost time
- Don’t sign up to newsletters which you will never read
- Don’t use/purchase any software which will never benefit you
- Don’t sign into any IM while working
- Leave no unread emails in your inbox
- Keep no emails in your inbox – file them
- Don’t delete any important emails
- At the beginning of a phone conversation stating the goals of the conversation
- Always have phone conversations whilst standing up– they will last less time
- Call people before lunch so that they want to get off the phone
- Have something you WANT to do after the conversation, so you push the conversation along
- Get a speaker phone
- Use hands free/Bluetooth so you can do more than be on the phone or call while walking
- Switch the speaker on when waiting in a phone call and do something productive while waiting
- Work in such a place where there will not be distractions
- Put a lock on your office door to prevent distractions
- Ensure there is no noise when you receive an email – a big distraction
- Switch your mobile off or put it on silent and away from yourself when working
- In one-to-one meetings explain to your client or whoever that you only have 5 minutes; this gives you an excuse to leave or extend as you please
- When someone is not leaving your office stand up and walk with them to the door
- If they still don’t leave, thank them for coming
- If they still don’t leave, shake their hand
- If they still don’t leave, tell them you have to go now and say goodbye
- Make the ‘visitor chair’ in your office uncomfortable to ensure meetings are shorter
- NEVER put your feet up in your office
- Don’t have an office chair in which you can lie down
- Don’t listen to music/radio while working
- Get a parent-type internet site blocker
- Smash your TV with a baseball bat, or just put it in the closet
- Avoid coffee – it will slow you down and you can’t make the best of your time
- Give up smoking/alcohol because these seriously cost time
- NEVER play an RPG
- Re-negotiate deadlines as opposed to rushing them
- In meetings always take minutes to save time in the next meeting
- All people in the meeting must have their mobiles off
- Never have a meeting for longer than an hour
- Only have a meeting if there is a purpose
- Always have an agenda to follow in meetings
- Learn to say no to people who will be wasting your time
- Be effective with your time i.e. don’t always try and fit everything in, be sensible
- Make the most of situations where you can’t do much else e.g. Reading reports while exercising
- Have a packed lunch if you work out of home so you don’t spend an entire lunch in a queue at McDonalds
- Sulking and moaning will take up too much time; just get on with what must be done
- As a freelancer don’t work more than 40 hours in the week unless it is sensible
- NEVER EVER negotiate the time you spend with your loved ones
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1. Organise your files/papers into a filing cabinet
2. Organise all files on your computer into relevant folders
3. Have only one piece of paper on your desk
4. Get a another monitor
5. Get adequate sleep
6. Plan everything
7. Plan all meetings/events in a diary
8. Have a notice board to remind you of the most important/pending issues
9. Write a to-do list
10. Assess every item on the to-do list and see if it helps you succeed
11. Break down the steps in your to-do list
12. Do the hardest tasks on your to-do list first
13. Actually carry out the tasks on the to-do list swiftly and reward yourself
14. Use Steven Covey’s four quadrant to-do list
15. Get a PDA
16. Do the important things and avoid (if possible) the non-important things
17. Try to clump similar things together, e.g. call people in a “calling people hour”
18. Kill procrastination as soon as it is born – it is the thief of time
19. Identify why you are not motivated and fight that
20. Don’t leave anything to the last minute, it will cost you time
21. Make a fake deadline and stick to that
22. Put papers in a paper-recycling bin, so you don’t throw anything important away and spend time making amends
23. Always have a real phonebook
24. Make full use of post-it-notes
25. Back up all files on external hard-drive
26. Get a notepad which you should carry with you at all times
27. For three days monitor your time every three minutes
28. When assessing your time, get rid of the things you waste most time on
29. Ask yourself how you can do more in the day
30. Plan to do tasks at their appropriate time (where you are most likely to enjoy them)
31. Constantly ask yourself how you can be more efficient
32. Write a list 100 things you want to do in life
33. Look back every day at this ‘100 things’ list and ask yourself what you did today to achieve them
34. 80:20 rule – concentrate on the 20% of your clients who provide 80% of your income
35. Don’t get down at a bad judgement – it gives experience
36. If you dream something, do it
37. Delegate any task which you can to someone else
38. Pay people to do things which would cost you time (e.g. gardening)
39. Treat the person you delegated to with respect
40. Don’t dump tasks on a person
41. Do the hardest things yourself
42. Let the person use their own imagination and initiative or else they will take too long trying to fit your criteria
43. Give the person a specific date, time, penalty and reward for the task
44. Write things down, even if it is in an email to the person you delegated to – saves future disputes which cost time
45. Don’t sign up to newsletters which you will never read
46. Don’t use/purchase any software which will never benefit you
47. Don’t sign into any IM while working
48. Leave no unread emails in your inbox
49. Keep no emails in your inbox – file them
50. Don’t delete any important emails
51. At the beginning of a phone conversation stating the goals of the conversation
52. Always have phone conversations whilst standing up– they will last less time
53. Call people before lunch so that they want to get off the phone
54. Have something you WANT to do after the conversation, so you push the conversation along
55. Get a speaker phone
56. Use hands free/Bluetooth so you can do more than be on the phone or call while walking
57. Switch the speaker on when waiting in a phone call and do something productive while waiting
58. Work in such a place where there will not be distractions
59. Put a lock on your door to prevent distractions
60. Ensure there is no noise when you receive an email – a big distraction
61. Switch your mobile off or put it on silent and away from yourself when working
62. In one-to-one meetings explain to your client or whoever that you only have 5 minutes; this gives you an excuse to leave or extend as you please
63. When someone is not leaving your office stand up and walk with them to the door
64. If they still don’t leave, thank them for coming
65. If they still don’t leave, shake their hand
66. If they still don’t leave, tell them you have to go now and say goodbye
67. Make the ‘visitor chair’ in your office uncomfortable to ensure meetings are shorter
68. NEVER put your feet up in your office
69. Don’t have an office chair in which you can lie down
70. Don’t listen to music/radio while working
71. Get a parent-type internet site blocker
72. Smash your TV with a baseball bat, or just put it in the closet
73. Avoid coffee – it will slow you down and you can’t make the best of your time
74. Give up smoking/alcohol because these seriously cost time
75. NEVER play an RPG
76. Re-negotiate deadlines as opposed to rushing them
77. In meetings always take minutes to save time in the next meeting
78. All people in the meeting must have their mobiles off
79. Never have a meeting for longer than an hour
80. Only have a meeting if there is a purpose
81. Always have an agenda to follow in meetings
82. Learn to say no to people who will be wasting your time
83. Be effective with your time i.e. don’t always try and fit everything in, be sensible
84. Make the most of situations where you can’t do much else e.g. Reading reports while exercising
85. Have a packed lunch if you work out of home so you don’t spend an entire lunch in a queue at McDonalds
86. Sulking and moaning will take up too much time; just get on with what must be done
87. As a freelancer don’t work more than 40 hours in the week unless it is sensible
88. NEVER EVER negotiate the time you spend with your loved ones
March 13th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Although most of these things on this are good there are just some that are just plain stupid. Coffee, internet blocker, no music? Come on. And seriously, who files all of their emails? No one. If you’re running a successful business, you don’t have time to do half of the things on that list… unless you don’t want to make money of course. Make to-do lists all you want. Without drive, dedication and focus, your to do lists is nothing more than toilet paper. I’m pissed that I wasted time reading that list over. Oh I have to go now… my gardener is knocking at the door. Come on, get real. If you want a list, I’ll make you a REAL LIFE list.
March 13th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Joe, thanks for your comment. IMO it depends what type of person you are. There are people who can’t control themselves from going onto youtube etc and they ought to get an internet blocker, personally I could never work if music or the radio were on and I find coffee slows many people down. So it depends, of course if you don’t fit into these categories that’s fine. lol, a very comical comment generally and you have a very outspoken opinion, i like that. Maybe you could write a list and we could learn from it? Wanna guest post?
March 13th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Fantastic post, thanks a lot!
March 14th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
I agree with most of them. But not all.
I organize all email in folders by clients and projects, something I learned years ago. Makes searching for something much easier. I really need music to do most of the work, but it can also be a distraction if you really need to concentrate. The one I Dont agree is the about coffee. I dont drink much, but my day wont start without it. Thanks for the tips.
March 15th, 2010 at 12:28 am
@Pedro, nicely put. Different people have different needs and styles, if yours works, cool!
There are some people who prefer a scattered desk – an organised mess where everything is a stretch away, if it works, two thumbs up!
March 16th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Some of these were pretty smart and funny, like using discomfort to usher things along. My main problem is space management. For some reason, no matter HOW much space I have, I just have this feeling that it’s never enough, and it always stresses me out.
Although there are some things in the list I don’t feel will be helpful to apply, MOST of these ideas are great. Thank you for the article.
March 16th, 2010 at 10:09 am
lol, yeah, I can see that some people disagree with some of them.
With regard to feeling like you have more space try painting your office a light colour, even white or cream. Apply mirrors in your office and use laminate flooring or a light coloured carpet. Try to rearrange furniture in such a way that there are big spaces where you can see the carpet. These things ought to make your room feel a little bigger. I’m no expert, but I have renovated many houses so ;)
March 19th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
This is definitely a long list but something very useful, specially for a full-time freelancers such as myself who tend to forget some things on your list, every now and then. Thanks!
November 17th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
we have different office chairs in the office and i love to use those office chairs with clothe cover ;*-