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Now more than ever, the need to spend time wisely really matters. For that reason, it is important to use proven and practical strategies for managing time and making the most of every minute.

One easy method is to flex work hours so that you’re working more in your most productive time of day. If you’re lucky enough to have some flexibility, figure out when you’re naturally more high-energy and take advantage of more of that time.

The second strategy is spending more time on the things that really create success. You may be familiar with the Pareto Principle, which recognizes that (among other things) 20% of our work yields 80% of results. This means I’m focused on a relatively small set of actions that get me the outputs I really need.

Ready for the advanced course in ruthless time management? Explore the 80/20 power curve. David Finkel in Fast Company says “if 20% of your actions generate 80% of your results, then 20% of that 20% produces 80% of 80% of your results. Now, you could of course apply this logic ad infinitum, and slice your days and hours and minutes and seconds into supposedly ever-higher-value slivers–but that would be preposterous, so don’t. But what just this additional round of multiplication means is that 4% of your effort (the 20% of your 20%) generates 64% of your results. 

That’s right. If you can figure out the right 4% of strategic work to address, you’ll achieve 64% of the results you need.

Look over your calendar for the past couple of weeks. Figure out how much time you’ve spent addressing the real drivers of results. Maybe that’s time on sales relationships or making critical decisions your team needs to move forward or other strategic priorities. If you are not sure how you’ve used your time, create a system for monitoring it moving forward. And take a few minutes at the end of the week to figure out how your time paid off.

That way, you’ll know which investments of time really made a difference.

What are you doing to make the most of limited time? Comment below or message us.

 

Photo by Heather Zabriskie on Unsplash