YS5 Manage time in your business

Why this is important

You may well feel that there are just too many things to do and too little time to do them. It may be that you need to look at how you manage your own time and work out how to get things done more efficiently. This will help you to develop a method of reviewing your time management so that you can set new goals and recognise your achievements.

Who might do this

You might do this if you:

• find you do not have enough time to do all the things you need to do;
• find it difficult to make plans for your work and stick to them; and
• want a sense of achievement from what you do.

What it involves

Managing your time involves:

• looking at what you do and how you do it;
• working out how long different activities take;
• making plans for your day-to-day working;
• monitoring your time management; and
• trying to find better more efficient ways of working.

Other units that link closely with this

Links to other standards

If your business grows and develops a management team it may be appropriate to consider the following units from the Management and Leadership Standards.

1. Think about what you do on a typical work day.
2. Where appropriate, find out what any colleagues or staff do on typical days.
3. Decide which parts of your job you are good at and which you are not.
4. Decide if you generally do the work you plan to do.
5. Identify things that get in the way of achieving what you expected.
6. Identify things that make you feel good about your work.
7. Identify if the things you do are cost-effective.
8. Decide how you can use your strengths and weaknesses to your own advantage.
9. Identify how you could improve your effectiveness and efficiency.
10. Prioritise the improvements you have identified.
11. Decide if there are any things that you do that could be done by other people.
12. Plan how you will change the way that you carry out your work.
13. Monitor your work to check improvements in your effectiveness and efficiency.

Your performance

1. Why it is important to be effective and efficient.
2. How to find out exactly what you do. (For example use a work log or diary and keep a note of how you spend each hour.)
3. How to compare what you want to do with what you actually do. (For example use a work log to write down what you plan to do, then compare this with what you did, review your time a few days each month and note your goals and progress.)

Yourself

4. What gives you a sense of achievement. (For example meeting a deadline, finishing a piece of work, closing a sale, getting praise from a customer.)
5. Your personal strengths and weaknesses in managing time.
6. What gets in the way of your work. (For example interruptions, stress, worry and tiredness.)

Time management

7. How to plan work. (For example by setting short- and long-term targets, breaking down the targets into smaller activities, ordering the activities in terms of importance and urgency and estimating the time involved.)
8. How you can save time. (For example making efficient use of meetings and communications, minimising interruptions, delegating tasks to others.)
9. What information can be used for making decisions about managing time. (For example what you know and understand and what other people suggest.)
10. What things can be used to show improvements. (For example things that can be measured like time taken, things that are difficult to measure like customer satisfaction or better working relationships.)