20+ Time Management Guide for Executives

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There is no doubt that when it comes to time, it’s a nonrenewable resource as it’s one of the most precious things in anyone’s life. 

However, when you are an executive, you are wearing different hats and you need to pay attention. This can be incredibly easy to lose focus, distract and end up wasting time. 

To make your time management effective, here are some of the pieces of advice that can help. 

What Time Management Is And Why It’s Important For High-Level Executives? 

Time is perhaps the most important when it comes to high-level excitement. 

Time management is a process where you plan and organize your projects and activities for yourself as well as your team. 

Executive adapt at this have their overview of work and personal life. With this, they have much more time in hand and do work smarter instead of harder. 

As Peter Drucker said, no one can rent, buy, hire or do anything to obtain more hours. 

But managing time can help in seeing the immediate benefits for the executives. 

When you are managing the time, prioritizing, and helping in improving the feeling of being overwhelmed. 

For executives, time management can help : 

  • Ensuring that they are not getting stuck into details.
  • Spend their time on much higher-level tasks and values.
  • Help in taking better control over time.
  • Once executives have a grip on time, they can see where they can go and what to avoid. 

What Are The Advice Useful For Improving Executive’s Time Management? 

The job of an executive is demanding and time taking, however, they require to manage it well as it might quickly turn extremely overwhelming. 

To improve the time management and how you can get more work done, it includes : 

time management advice for executive

Give A Extremely Short Deadline And Stick To It 

Sheryl Sandberg‘s key phrase says done is better than perfect. 

So if you are being perfectionist,  it is guaranteed that it will end up getting in the way.

Also, you are not turning out the stop work, but it will be the results you are going to turn out. 

So start with giving yourself a deadline, and make sure you are keeping it shorter for yourself. But also choose what you can feel comfortable with and get your work done. 

Once you have the deadline, stick to it.  This can help you in saving a lot of time and also manage you to give the result you want from yourself. 

Use The Calendar For Scheduling The Major Actions 

The point here is to not wait to have time when you complete the important tasks. 

If you have the free or empty space in the calendar,  it will end up filled with something or something. 

It’s similar to water, as those not so important activities expand and take up all the available space. 

So scheduling the major activities help you in setting the hours and free up your mind from the stress. 

Multitask Is Not Productive 

According to all the research that has been done,  the result is always the same. Doing multitasking is not productive as it is ineffective. 

Say No More Often 

According to Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, innovation happens by saying no to 1000 things. 

When you are an executive, you have to deal with dozens of phone calls, emails, and people approaching you for advice, conversation, and help. 

However don’t forget the right of saying no, even though you are on a higher level but you have all rights of simply declining people. 

It’s better to keep it polite and explain you are not free right now. 

Be Smart When You Are Using Emails 

The higher-level executives spend a lot of time reading emails and replaying which turns out to be one of their overwhelming and time-draining tasks. 

To take back control, it’s important to be organized. 

And for that start with creating the folders based on the project, priority, and flag that need your attention. 

The tactic is used by Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, for managing his emails. 

Also, there are different tools and techniques that help in email much more smarter and time-efficient. 

Follow The Two Minute Rule 

Since there are different ranges of tasks you have in hand to change, there might be some small tasks that hardly take two minutes. 

However, even if it takes a few minutes, it is still on your to-do list, taking up space and draining your energy. 

So the point is if the tasks are taking only two minutes, make sure you get it done first so you have important tasks in hand. 

Start With Creating Playbook 

Uber suggested the strategy that they use, it helps them in allowing time effective and easy roo out when they are in new cities where uber is going to be available. 

This is one reason Uber successfully scaled faster and effectively too. 

They create the playbook of whatever they need to do for having a successful launch in a new market. 

This is a time-effective strategy in that you can deal with time-consuming tasks daily, so you can delegate them without feeling any worry. 

Delegate Everything Outside Area Of Your Genius 

Focus on using your time and energy on profitable activities.  It’s important to delegate so you have time for what is actually important. 

Start With deleting what’s not the area of your genius, you don’t have to know everything, so let those who are experts. 

Make sure you are delegating it smartly. 

Keep Your Team High Performance And Empower 

There is no doubt that micromanaging is not pleasing, not for yourself but for the team as well. 

So when you are in the role of being executive, make sure you avoid this. 

To not raise such a situation, it’s best to hire people who are better, smarter, and faster as well as experienced than you. 

Making your team empower and high performance will save a lot of time. 

Block By Day Or Chunks From Your Schedule 

Since you are an executive, you have more work than dealing with a team. And for that, you need to block out your schedule. You can choose either by chunks or by day. 

For example, schedule your Monday as admin and business building day. So you know what you need to focus on and what is important. 

Reschedule Time Sucking Things For Day’s End 

Different activities might be consuming your time,  it can be something personal such as email, social media where you spend a lot of time. 

However, when you are putting all of these at the end of the day, you are making sure your whole day stays undisturbed and productive. 

Get Help Or Move On When You Are Stuck 

One of the worst things you can do with your time is invested in something where you have no idea what to do.

There are some situations where you get stuck or don’t know what to do. In such cases, instead of banging your head against the wall, it’s better to ask for help. 

Or find a way to move on, give yourself some space and a new perspective. 

Hire A Mentor And Coach For Making You Accountable 

It’s difficult to stay accountable when you are in a higher position, so the best you can do is to find a good mentor or coach. 

They can keep you accountable, and also provide support when you want one. 

With this, they can be much helpful in finding what and when you are self-sabotaging. 

Establish The Regular Schedule Based On Natural Rhythms 

It’s important that you look after your body, emotions, and mental and spiritual health. 

When you are not being careful, you also affect efficiency and productivity. 

Request For Response Times In Emails 

When you are sending the email or receiving one, make sure you are asking for the response time and it should be at the end of every email. 

No matter how short or big the message is, it will help in prioritizing which task is important, also you have better control over how to make your task list effectively. 

Start Using The Smart Watch 

When you are an executive who wants to be on top no matter what it is, then it’s important you have access to all notifications and email accessible. 

Consider using the smartwatch even when you are away from the phone or computer, but you stay aware of the emails, incoming calls, and messages. 

You can also use it for sending reminders. 

Give The Time When You Are Thinking 

When you are thinking about something, it’s important to actually give it time. 

This is an important part of time management and it helps you in understanding better. 

Also, it’s related to how you are reacting, so avoid quick reactions. As it will give you a better way of making decisions. 

Create Your Time Budget 

According to Ex CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, he created the budget for managing his time. 

Well to start with this, have a spreadsheet that has the access where your time is assigned is in the budget, and to whom you want to meet and speak too. 

This helps you in managing the time and making sure that you are not spending too much on not-so-important things. 

Consider Using Eisenhower Matrix 

Well, the matrix is based on the Ex-US president and US Army General Dwight Eisenhower, as he was an expert when it comes to time management. 

It says that most urgent care things are not actually important, but those important things are not urgent. 

To complete, you find to allocate those tasks depending on their importance and urgency. 

Use them in prioritizing the tasks based on what characteristics they have. 

Divide Your Days Into Categories 

When you are categorizing the day, it can help you in staying focused on what tasks you have in hand and make sure time is spent on needed ones. 

According to the Co-founder and CEO of Twitter and Square, Jack Dorsey, give each day a theme. this can help in managing your business without overflowing different tasks into one each other

Another way that you can use for splitting days is to have the focus days and buffer days. 

So when you are on focus days, this means you are staying away from email and social media instead of focusing on tasks that are high-priority tasks. 

But on your buffer days, this can be a delicate time to open office hours or respond to tasks and emails which are low priority. 

When Its About Meeting, Be Strict 

Meetings are the part when it comes to the executive life, so make sure you are considering it when you are managing time. 

There are some meetings that might be sorted by sending just a message or email. 

In order to make your meetings meaningful, make sure everyone knows the ages and has a clear idea of what they are going to be going into. 

Send doc to the participant before you do the meeting, write down the topics that need to be discussed. 

Spend Less When It’s Reporting 

Writing the reports is one of the worst tasks for the role. 

Writing a report is not just time-consuming and mundane, also it can be repetitive and boring when you have to do it more often. 

Plan Your Day To Be Ready 

To make sure your attention is on point instead of getting sucked by other not-so-important things. 

So you need to be specific and understand what you are going to do. It’s better to do the planning and create a to-do list. 

It can help you in understanding what tasks you need to do, planning, and improving your day’s productivity overall. 

Prepare Your Day 

It’s important that you are ready for the day and improve the chances of maintaining and improving your role as an executive. 

Not just that, it can make you ready for a challenging and improving day. 

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