We all know the old adage “time is money”, and this rings true in most professions, including recruitment. By establishing and maintaining effective time management techniques, you can maximize your productivity, and therefore output for the day, and maintain a sense of organization when it comes to your daily tasks. Here are some of our favorite strategies for successful time management.
Structure Your Meetings
Whether they’re calls with clients, or potential candidates, having a set structure to follow before getting on each call is key. Consider it your gameplan in how you want the call to play out. Spend some time noting down the key topics of the call, as well as key objectives to accomplish, then any talking points you want to review or specifically address. If possible, allocate an expected amount of time to each of the points as well so you’ll know if and where you’re getting off track from your plan. Where appropriate, encourage the person meeting you to plan out their side of the meeting as well, and prepare their talking points ahead of time to keep them on topic too.
Treasure Your To Do List
You may use a pen and paper, an app, or an online tool; but however you keep track of your to-dos, make sure it’s realistic, and that way you can stick to it. If you’re terrible with lists and keeping yourself on-task, or you find the same tasks consistently rolling over to the next day, try planning your time out for the whole week with tasks that you know need to get done like writing job descriptions or sending out follow up emails. If you space out the arduous tasks throughout the week, you’ll find they become less daunting.
Prioritize Your Day’s Tasks
Continuing from the last tip, don’t leave the difficult or stressful tasks for the end of the day, knock them out at the beginning. This follows Mark Twain’s “eat the frog” idea, in which he says if it’s your job to eat a live frog, do it first so that you know the worst part of the day is behind you. Treat your dreaded tasks like live frogs and get them behind you early in the day.
Follow a Morning Routine
Morning routines can do wonders for setting the tone for a productive day. The ironic part is that morning routines really start the night before: by ensuring that you get enough sleep. If you can check that part off, you’re already off on the right foot. Ideally, you want to be waking up early as well, so if you’ve stayed up late, this part will be more difficult. Waking up early allows you time to exercise, meditate, eat a nutritious breakfast, and/or enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee – whatever your body needs to feel in its prime so that you can achieve success throughout the day.
It doesn’t take much to improve your day’s productivity. Try just one of these methods for a week and see for yourself how much more you can get done in a day!