Guest Blog - I’m Really Sorry. I Didn’t Have Time!

It’s time for time management and according to this blog, perhaps a holiday too. Our blog this month offers one ‘time management’ tip and comes from business coach Mark Dyble of SME Business Solutions, who also the speaker and facilitator at Colony’s March 2017 event.

I’m Really Sorry. I Didn’t Have Time.

“I’m sorry I didn’t have time” is something we hear often – and probably something we say too!

To use it less often, here’s a simple, easy-to-use time-management tip.

Time Tip #1: Pretend you’re going on holiday every day.

You’ll know how super-efficient you are on your last day at work before going on holiday. You fly through the day making decisions, delegating work, actioning things that have been sitting around, writing reports without constant re-drafts, batching calls and getting straight to the point, finishing meetings early, not being distracted, not chit chatting around the coffee machine.

How come? Because that plane, train or automobile isn’t going to wait for you. You have to be there on time. There’s no staying late or taking work home or coming in early tomorrow to catch-up.

Not only are you more efficient, the quality of what you do is probably better and your effectiveness improves too.

Why? Because you have a deadline.

Try and replicate the effect by creating deadlines for yourself – ‘going on holiday every day’.

Use the timer on your phone to alarm after 90 minutes when you will stop working on that report. Order a taxi to pick you up at a certain time. Ask a colleague to substantially ‘charity fine’ you if you’re late for that meeting. Deliberately set an appointment at the end of the day that forces you to leave at a certain time. Brainstorm with colleagues imaginative ways to use this technique to help you all (we’re far more imaginative when we collaborate and far more likely to implement our ideas)

…and let’s be honest, “I’m sorry I didn’t have time” is just an excuse – and untrue! We always have time. What we really mean is that we choose to do something else – hopefully something more important!

Mark will be speaking at our 23 March 2017 ‘Time Management Essentials’ event to provide strategies, tips and tools to manage the overwhelm in business and in life. He’ll also facilitate a practical workshop session afterwards on time management (for further event info, click here).

Republished with permission from SME Business Solutions. To see more of their blogs, Click here