Women In Touch

Professional and Executive Women have more demands on their time than ever and achieving career success while balancing after-hours commitments can seem like a Herculean task.  There are some easy strategies that many “superwomen” use to control their often hectic lives; this article will give you the top four secrets of successful time management for working women.  As you read them keep in mind that these ideas are not groundbreaking in and of themselves, but many successful professional and executive women implement them more consistently than others.

1) Define What You Want – In every situation you are involved in you should begin with the end in mind.  (Stephen Covey made this concept famous in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”)  You need to identify your deepest values and make a list of what success in each area looks like.  Without a vision of your desired outcome, you are likely to pass time rather than moving in a desired direction.  Think of a sailor leaving the harbor without a specific destination. She can still set sail, but will end up running out of resources at sea instead of moving toward a point of interest.  If your deepest values include spending time with your family, making meaningful connections with people, or bringing your product to launch at work, you need to define what success in each area looks like as specifically as possible.

2) Prioritize What You Want – Once you’ve identified what you want, now you need to prioritize what is most important to you.  Think about what each item on your list will give you in terms of return on your investment of time and prioritize each item based on the best return.  For example, spending time at your child’s baseball game may be more important to you than finishing a report for your boss by deadline; if you only have three hours after work you must decide what is most important to you. You may decide that other duties must still get done but you can perform the lower-return duties after your children are asleep or you can delegate them.  Keep in mind as you prioritize that your highest priorities should be things that move you in the direction of your deepest values.

3) Delegate What You Can – As we progress through life, demands on our time tend to accumulate.  We take on more responsibility at work, start families, work begins to bleed into home life as responsibilities mount, our children start joining activities after school that we want to attend and our homes still need to be cleaned, cars and clothes washed etc.  Many successful women have begun delegating some of these duties to cleaning and yard services in order to focus on higher-return activities in other areas of their lives. 

4) Develop Your Action Plan – Once you have defined what you want, prioritized those items based on return on your investment and delegated what you can, now it is time to develop your action plan.  The enemy of productivity is busy work.  Without an action plan focused on what you’re trying to achieve, you will end up wasting a lot of time with busy-work that doesn’t move you in the direction of your goals.  Create a routine, a Plan A, that allows time to focus on action steps that move you closer to your deepest values.  Make sure to allot time to each area of importance to you and consistently execute your action plan.  Of course there will be times when you must move to Plan B due to an unforeseen circumstance, but if the majority of your time is focused on your desired outcome, you’re much more likely to reach your destination.

Once you have implemented these time management success secrets, review your action plan at least once every six months and make adjustments. 

P.S. – You can’t be productive waiting to see where life takes you.  You must plan your route by focusing on your desired destination and reverse-engineering action steps to move you toward your goal.  Business Books are an extremely helpful resource for brushing up your skills.  If you don’t have time to read many, a service like skirtsuitsummaries.com will deliver summaries of the best business books to you.
 
©2009 Jennifer Lamb, skirtsuitsummaries.com – All Rights Reserved. Okay for reprint only with complete article and byline intact and unchanged.