This post is an interview with organising mentor and time management specialist Sue Glasser (PaperClip Professional Organisers), who shares her top time saving and efficiency tips for a more productive workplace.

 

What are the 3 main time traps you see people experiencing at work?

• Email overload
• Procrastination
• Lack of communication

Why do we get caught up with time wasting activities and how can we develop smarter work habits?

One of the main time wasters is due to (1) disorganisation. If things do not have homes, they are homeless and are much harder to find.
Whether it is a piece of paper or an email they all need to be kept where you can find them when you need them.

“Statistically, people spend up to 6 weeks of their year looking for stuff!”

Another big time waster is (2) procrastination. One of the main reasons for procrastination is because people do not know where to start.

Some solutions:

• Work in bite-sized pieces – a big job is only a lot of little jobs put together
• Set up simple effective systems (simplicity is key)

Time waster no 3 Mis-communication

• Better communication with the people around you will prevent wasted time
• Using a “common language” around email and processes.

A recent example of this: I ran some interactive seminars including workshops and breakaway practical sessions on the costs of disorganisation, email overload and time management for a leadership team.
After the sessions, the managers are all on the same page, using the same system around emails and calendars. The benefits of this is a cost saving to the company as well as allowing them to gain back a lot of time to focus on things they would rather be doing.

What are 3 pieces of advice you can give someone to free up more time at work?

1. What gets scheduled gets done – make sure that your to-do list or task list is allocated time in your diary/calendar.

2. Take back control of your inbox using a simple and effective system.

3. Focused attention to tasks – no multi-tasking.