Admin Professionals: Discover Hot Time Management Tips to Increase Productivity and Get More Done

The reality is: Increased workloads are here to stay. However, there’s powerful ways to manage your workload through calendar management and productivity tools so that administrative professionals and employees at all levels of an organization can take on new, expanded roles to achieve peak productivity.

It’s time to rethink the way you work. In recent years, businesses have been asking employees at all levels to take on new projects or roles, and basically do more work.

The reality is: Increased workloads are here to stay. If your job has turned into a “stretch job,” you may be wondering if there’s a better way to get more done in less time, relieve stress and avoid taking work home at night. And while you can’t create more hours in the day, you can learn how to use your time to the best advantage.

Here are few ways employees can work reasonable hours, prioritize tasks, track productivity, organize their calendars and use tech tools and software to manage projects efficiently.

–Manage projects, not time. Match the task with the person. Give snappy introductions. Cluster related projects. And make ‘just in time’ decisions.

–Managing interruptions. Don’t allow your open door policy to be abused. Let people know when you really can’t be interrupted. Discourage upward delegation. Encourage workers to make decisions for themselves. Put a curb on venting time. Arrange your office strategically. Stand up when an unannounced visitor enters. Learn to dismiss irrelevant interruptions. Use silence as a weapon.

–Master Delegation. Learn what to delegate versus give to yourself such as: Routine and repetitive jobs. Jobs requiring special expertise. Pet projects. Crises. Policy making. Personnel matters. Symbolic acts.

–Embrace technology. Simplify with apps: Getting the right apps can help you get lots of things done without ever needing to open the computer. Apps can make it much easier than navigating websites. Digital archiving: The Internet is great for keeping track of content and capturing ideas. Sites like Del.icio.us let you bookmark websites to come back to later. Having a digital archive can save you time when you need to go back and find something later.

How Top Performers Employ Their Time

Most people think the key to being productive is working flat-out 100% of the time. Not so. A recent study on highly productive people indicate a few techniques to help virtually anyone increase their productivity:

-Vary the pace. For unfamiliar new activities, they slow down and work methodically until they’ve learned what they need to know. Yet, in activities in which they’re already experts, they work quickly-sometimes, with blinding speed.

-Orient themselves toward garnering big returns, fast. When possible, their goal is to seek the biggest advantage in the least amount of time.

-Eschew monolithic project management. When handling complex projects, they multitask by letting different implementation teams handle different parts of the project.

-Take frequent breaks to rest and recharge. That might be why top execs haven’t abandoned lunches.

-Accelerate different parts of big projects, whenever possible. Example: If the research they conducted last year gives them a leg up on a big project currently on their plate, they plug it in.

Employees need to work smarter while embracing technology to speed tasks. The payoff is more efficiency, less stress, improved performance and career wisdom – which ultimately helps you, your boss, your staff, and your organization’s bottom line.