How Time Efficient you are?
 

Hi,

There are numerous books about Personal Efficiency & Efficient Time Management, but in practice each of us has developed or uses very specific techniques/methods. We are all different.

Regardless the quantity of things you may have to do, there are always things which shall be done first, such as tasks with the highest priority. This may help in preventing/reducing procrastination.

How time efficient are you? Are you really satisfied about the efficiency of your time management techniques?

Greetings,

_-_
Poll added...

This poll will be skewed by time zone.

I live on the east coast where we drag ourselves in between 8 and 9. But whenever we have to call someone on the left coast, they're usually in the office well before 11, so they must generally get in earlier.

I haven't had a office to attend since I was 50, but my idea of time management was usually "last in, first out".

show up early, stay late.

I work from home also, I am the sole linux tech at cirrhus9.com so when I'm needed, I grab coffee and start looking for nails to hammer.

P.S. It's "4am" somewhere.

Too general - when I was coming into the office I would always be there 30min early......Now that I telecommute, I wake up 30min prior to needing to be at work, then log onto my computer....so...I dunno how best I would answer :D

btw, do you have time for sport?

In office I start at 9 am, if my train is not delayed.
When I work at home, depends. I can start at 5-6-7-8-9 am :)

is that 'code' for something besides athletic activities?

I guess that typing on the keyboard might involve some muscles... So might be some sport, no?

Wel, as a sport, the heart rate shall be above 100 pulse/min to be considered as a physical activity.

The poll seems too subjective. And depends so much on the kind of work we do, the place we work, the clients we handle and the office timings as prescribed by the employer. I live in India and we have flexible work timings and those depend on lot of factors. If we got a call with clients from west, those are usually late in the nights for us. That means we come late and stay back late. During certain calls with eastern clients, we got to be early in the office and then leave early. Depends so much on the situation. But I still will I am time efficient. I try to reach office right on time when I am needed and leave as soon as I am done with my work. Also, some of our colleagues work in shifts; so how would you rate them?

Sure does, it's called a Brain. ;)

So it is some sport ...





I believe that they lack of efficiency due to lack of priority in the tasks.

Look in attachment, you could order all your tasks into some categories, and start with the categories that have higher importance for you. And ... most important:
- Get a clock and a sort of log.

EDIT: And ... give your employees two monitors

Arrive at 8, get up before 5 am, commute starts at 6 or 7 depending on the office I'm going to, leave when the work is done, usually 5 pm, plus or minus 3 hours, with another 1-2 hour commute. It makes for an unpredictable schedule.

I use taskcoach for my timecard, and zim-wiki with the Journal plugin for my categorized work notes.

My inbox is empty 99% of the time because I use Thunderbird filters that organize my incoming email into work-related "folders".
Current stuff is on a "hotlist" category.
My filters mark stuff as "read" if it is not on my 'hotlist' and moves them to the appropriate "folder".

hotlist items show me a count of unread messages (unless I've read it/them)
All quite productive and logical.

My boss hired me for what I know.
He pays me for what I do.
He doesn't pay me to lollygag, be unproductive, or inefficient (I work from home, so unsupervised).
Some hours I work and don't clock them.
Sometimes I get paid for hours I did not work.
I could easily abuse this trust, but I don't.
I owe it to my boss and my profession (SysAdmin) to be as organized as I can be.

"Can do, will do" is quite often my first answer.

I learned a long time ago, most people are not organized and they are not inclined to be organized.
Some people prefer to be inefficient and I believe they believe it makes them appear "busy" when they are
just trying to get organized.
I still have google bookmarks from 10 years ago.

Show up early, stay late.
Work hard and BE organized.

If a 'system' or routine doesn't work,
try another and another and another until it does.

-> this is a beautiful truth. Most people are not well organized. Appearing "busy", giving importance to lower importance tasks/goals.

This is a prove of being organized. First knowing where are things...

-> This is however wrong, staying late&show up early will lead to seeing less your relatives and doing your personal activities. Doing sport is also very important and shall be planned in the daily routine. Being organized means to work the same number of hours but with a much less intensity.
But how?
- To have a notion of priorities, a plan and stick to it,...


For instance a desk-filer is a fantastic tool to order documents, bills,... (electronic or still paper). There are today softwares that automatize all the web stuffs (emails, filters, webwatchers,...)

Personally I use mostly plain text, plain csv, and plain text todo lists... with an adapted plain software solution. It works for years, it has no change in format, universal for the next 50 years, and allows to have data all the time with you. I use what I call ncloud (it is a sync over ssh). The planner is very important also, and it depends on taste.