Are you controlling your time, or is it controlling you? For too many of us, time management has become wishful thinking. Our to-do wish lists contain old items, our email boxes are overstuffed, and we are continually checking and answering emails.

Overwhelming emails, fragmented and interrupted workdays, and lack of daily priority setting are bogging down workplace productivity. Emails, designed to improve productivity through more efficient communication, have become a double-edged sword. Reading, addressing and organizing email can take hours a day.

Further, email can actually hamper productivity by breaking work concentration in the middle of a project. Email notification pop-ups and dinging tell us we have...uh, wait a minute, I need to check this message...be right back...new mail.

Even if you have a system of sorts (e.g., a quick scan to determine what can wait until later), you still have to go back, re-read and take action or organize it. It can take 15 minutes to get back on task fully.

Add in other daily interruptions — phone calls, "quick" questions, etc. — and effective time management goes out the window.

Time management tools, including tips from Microsoft Outlook, can help you dig out of the time trench.

Chunk Your Time, Don't Chuck It

Chunking is the process of setting aside time blocks to address items (e.g., email, conversations) without interruption. Do:

1. Turn off all email alerts and schedule times you will address emails throughout the day;
2. Schedule times for calls or meetings, and collect notes in your tasks on what you will discuss, so you can address them all at once;
3. Let phone calls go to voice mail or turn off your cell phone during non-scheduled times.

Manage Your Inbox With "One-touch" Protocol

Going through emails more than once wastes time. Instead, touch an email once and immediately:

1. Send a quick reply;
2. Delegate it to someone else;
3. Schedule a time to work on it later — by creating a task;
4. File it;
5. Complete the requested action;
6. Delete it.

End each day with ZERO messages in your inbox. Create a rule to file RSS, association or other informational subscriptions into a sub-folder.

Brighter Outlook on Productivity

Other Outlook time management tools are:

• TaskPad — Using Week view in your Calendar, start each day by moving TaskPad tasks below the calendar onto the calendar to schedule time for them;
• When deferring an email to work on later, create a task by flagging it so that the email will automatically show up in your task list. Also, quickly see all flagged emails by opening the For Follow Up folder under Outlook Search folders — this allows you to go through and quickly address them.
• Use Outlook Notes to capture ideas and eliminate post-its on your desk. Outlook Notes can be quickly searched and organized.

Use simple Outlook tools and time management techniques to take control of your time — and successfully tackle that to-do list!

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, August 2nd, 2010 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Microsoft Outlook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.