February is Time Management Month!
Do you find yourself juggling projects?
Has working remotely changed how you organise your time?
Do you often wonder where the day, week, or month has gone?
Do you rush from one task to the next without completing either?
Are you completely organised and in control?
Whatever your status, this is for you!
The success of your current and future projects depends solely on how effectively you or your employees manage their time. From collaborating with different teams to spending time on daily operational activities, tracking time helps you detect and weed out the inefficiencies in your processes.
In essence, effective time management ensures your workplace is more personalised, efficient, agile, and flexible. Does that sound like music to your ears?
What methods do you use? And how do you find they work for you?
I have discovered the ALPEN method. Although a healthy breakfast is a good start to the day, this is something different. It treats groups of tasks as a project as I tend to have many tasks to juggle – this helps me keep them in an order. I use it in connection with Trello for each of my projects.
The ALPEN method will help you plan your day. It makes it is easier for you to structure your day and keep track of time. The goal of the ALPEN method is to improve performance while significantly reducing stress levels.
ALPEN stands for:
A – Activities and tasks – Create a to-do list of all your tasks.
L – Length of time – Estimate how much time each task will take to complete.
P – Planning for contingencies – Add up some time as a buffer. Like 20% to solve any issues and 20% to take a break.
E – Establishing priorities – Set the priority of your tasks, e.g., if a task can be done on another day or if something is urgent.
N – Note-taking – Check back on tasks that you have already completed. Identify areas of improvement or what went wrong to improve it.
Goals and deadlines
If you set ambiguous and unrealistic goals without a set deadline, you’ll not only sabotage your chances of success but also become demotivated. Working within time limits and adding up a buffer will help keep you motivated to work on a task. You will be able to finish the high-priority ones first, and this way, your workload will be more structured and manageable.
Please share your time management tips.
Related post by the same author: Random Acts of Kindness week is from 13-19 February this year. Here is my blog from 2021
I love Cal Newport's Time Block Planner Method which advocates setting an anticipated time against tasks to ensure a better chance of succeeding working through any to-do list 😉 Check out his video here: https://www.timeblockplanner.com/
OOhhh thank you - I will take a look
I have written a little ebook on how I do my planning: Design your Perfect Week - just mail me for a copy: PerfectWeek@thinkinnewareas.com
Thank you Tina - email sent
Hope you got it !?
Yes, thank you so much.