Time Management

“Time management” is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your
time between specific activities. Good time management enables you to work smarter –
not harder – so that you get more done in less time, even when time is tight and
pressures are high. Failing to manage your time damages your effectiveness and
causes stress.

It seems that there is never enough time in the day. But, since we all get the same 24
hours, why is it that some people achieve so much more with their time than others?
The answer lies in good time management.

The highest achievers manage their time exceptionally well. By using the time-
management techniques in this section, you can improve your ability to function more
effectively – even when time is tight and pressures are high.

Good time management requires an important shift in focus from activities to

results: being busy isn’t the same as being effective. (Ironically, the opposite is often
closer to the truth.)
Spending your day in a frenzy of activity often achieves less, because you’re dividing
your attention between so many different tasks. Good time management lets you work
smarter – not harder – so you get more done in less time.

What Is Time Management?

“Time management” refers to the way that you organize and plan how long you spend
on specific activities.

It may seem counter-intuitive to dedicate precious time to learning about time

management, instead of using it to get on with your work, but the benefits are
enormous:

 Greater productivity and efficiency.

 A better professional reputation.

 Less stress.

 Increased opportunities for advancement.

 Greater opportunities to achieve important life and career goals.

Failing to manage your time effectively can have some very undesirable consequences:
 Missed deadlines.

 Inefficient work flow.

 Poor work quality.

 A poor professional reputation and a stalled career.

 Higher stress levels.

Spending a little time learning about time-management techniques will have huge
benefits now – and throughout your career.

Key Points
Time management is the process of organizing and planning how much time you spend
on specific activities. Invest some time in our comprehensive collection of time
management articles to learn about managing your own time more efficiently, and
save yourself time in the future.

What are the best tips for managing your time?

One of the biggest problems that most entrepreneurs have isn't just in how they can get
enough done in such a demanding market, but also how they maintain some semblance
of balance without feeling too overworked. This isn't just about achieving and going after
goals around the clock. This is also about quality of life.

Balance is key. If you lack balance in your life, you're going to feel stressed out. Even if
you're able to effectively juggle your responsibilities, without proper balance you're
going to eventually reach your breaking point. So, it's important to not only follow a
system that will help you get things done, but also one where you prioritize personal and
family time.

Don't forget to do things like take a walk in the park or just sit and listen to your favorite
music with headphones on, or paint a picture, go on a date night and so on. That's more
important than you can think. And when you do that, you achieve some semblance of
balance. Life is short. So don't ignore those things while you reach for your bigger goals.
With that said, here are 15 crucial time management tips for getting the proverbial job
done.

1. Set goals the right way.

There's a right and wrong way to set goals. If you don't set your goals the right way,
then you'll lack the proper targets, which will force you to fall off track. But when you set
them the right way, the sky is the limit. Use the SMART goal setting method to help you
see things through. And when you do set those goals, make sure you have powerful
deep down meanings for wanting to achieve them.
2. Find a good time management system.

One of the tips for managing your time is to find the right system to actually do it. The
quadrant time-management system is probably the most effective. It splits your activities
into four quadrants based on urgency and importance. Things are either urgent or
important, both, or neither. Neither (quadrant 4) are the activities that you want to stay
away from, but it's the not-urgent-but-important quadrant (2) that you want to focus on.

3. Audit your time for seven days straight.

Spend seven days straight assessing how you spend the time you do have right now.
What are you doing? Record it in a journal or on your phone. Split this up into blocks of
30 minutes or an hour. What did you get done? Was it time wasted? Was it well spent?
If you use the quadrant system, circle or log the quadrant that the activity was
associated with. At the end of the seven days, tally up all the numbers. Where did you
spend the most time? Which quadrants? The results might shock you.

4. Spend your mornings on MITs.

Mark Twain once said, "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the
morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first." His
point? Tackle your biggest tasks in the morning. These are your most important tasks
(MITs) of the day. Accomplishing those will give you the biggest momentum to help you
sail through the rest of the day.

5. Follow the 80-20 rule.

Another great time management tip is to use the 80-20 Rule, also known as the Pareto
Principle. This rule states that 80% of the efforts comes from 20 percent of the results.
In sales, it also means that 80 percent of the sales come from 20 percent of the
customers. The trick? Identify the 20 percent of the efforts that are producing 80
percent of the results and scale that out. You can do this with meticulous tracking and
analysis.

6. Instill keystone habits into your life.

Charles Duhig poignantly coined the keystone habit in his book entitled, The Power of
Habit. In architecture, the keystone is the stone that holds all other stones in place.
Similarly, keystone habits help to not only solicit other good habits, but also help to
eliminate bad habits as well. Focus on keystone habits and you'll get much better at
managing your overall time by making your habit development much easier.

7. Schedule email response times.

Turn off your email throughout the day. When your email is pouring in, it's easy to get
distracted. Schedule time to read and respond to emails. If there's something urgent,
someone will call or text you. But when you have your email open, those distractions
interrupt your thought flow and it's harder to get back on track.

8. Eliminate bad habits.

One of the biggest time-wasters we have are our bad habits. Whether it's Netflix binge-
watching, excessively surfing social media, playing games, going out frequently to drink
with friends, or so on, those bad habits take away the precious little time that we do
have. Use your time wisely by eliminating your bad habits if you're serious about
achieving big goals in life.

9. Take frequent breaks when working.

One study suggests that you should work for 52 minutes and break for 17. You might
not have the luxury to do that. But you should take frequent breaks. If you're an
entrepreneur working for yourself, this is crucial. It's easy to run on fumes and not even
know it. Keep your mental, emotional and physical states at peak levels by breaking
frequently.

10. Meditate or exercise every morning.

You might not think that this will help to better manage your time, but meditating and
exercising every single morning gives you balance. Cut the toxins out of your life and
get serious by doing this and watch as your energy, stamina and mental focus takes a
drastic shift.

11. Make to-do lists in the evening for the next day.

Every single evening before bed, make a list for the next day. Look at your goals and
see what you can do to help move you closer. This doesn't happen overnight. It takes
time. But by making to-do lists, you're effectively setting goals for the day. Daily goals
are easier to achieve while helping to move us towards the longer and bigger goals. But
that happens by creating to-do lists.

12. Find inspiration when you're feeling lackluster.

Turn to YouTube, TED Talks and any other inspirational source you can turn to when
you're lacking inspiration. It's hard to stay on track with your time when you lose that
drive inside of you. Find ways you can turn the fire back on by focusing inspiring content
and seeking out others who've achieved big goals.
13. Get a mentor who can guide you.

Finding a mentor is crucial. It's easy to get distracted and dissuaded when you don't
have someone guiding you. But when you can personally rely on someone who's been
through the wringer and can help you achieve your goals, it's easier to stay on track with
your time. Find a good mentor that can help you along your path.

14. Turn off social media app alerts.

Incessant social media app alerts aren't helping you with your time. It's definitely hurting
you. Turn them off. You don't need alerts every moment or to know everything
happening with your friends. It's not important. What's most important is to have some
peace of mind and be better able to focus on the task at hand.

15. Declutter and organize.

Studies have determined that clutter in our environment helps us to lose focus. When
we lose focus, we lose time. If you want to avoid that, declutter and organize. Don't do it
all at once. Start small. One drawer today. A shelf tomorrow. Maybe a closet the next
day. Just one per day. You build momentum and eventually find yourself turning into an
organizing warrior.
INTERVIEW PROCESS
What Is the Interview Process?

The interview process is a multi-stage process for hiring new employees. The interview
process typically includes the following steps: writing a job description, posting a job,
scheduling interviews, conducting preliminary interviews, conducting in-person
interviews, following up with candidates and making a hire.

2. Interview Process Steps & How to Improve Them

There is much debate by industry professionals on the best ways to improve the
interview process. And by improve, we mean attract and make better hires. One theory
is that harder job interviews actually lead to better job matches — but is this true? It
turns out, yes. Candidates who go through a rigorous interview process often find that
the company places a high value on finding employees who are a good match for both
the position and the company culture.

Want to improve your company’s interview process? Here are some steps to consider
when structuring your interview process:

The Phone Screener

Phone interviews are an easy way to screen job seekers. In just a few quick questions,
phone screeners allow you to vet a candidate and make sure they are a strong match
skill-wise before you decide to invest further time in them. At this stage, you'll want to
focus on high-level questions to make sure they meet the requirements of the role. 

The Skill Test

Behavioral questions allow you to find the best fit for each role, and help you hire
employees who can drive innovation, productivity, customer satisfaction and profits.
Determine test objectives, e.g. personality, values, skills, etc. and decide how
candidates will be moved forward or eliminated based on the results.
The In-Person Interview

At this stage in the interview process, you already know that the candidate is generally
well-qualified for the role, so it's time to dig further into culture fit and work style. See if
you can identify what motivates a candidate, what drew them to your company and how
they work on a team, amongst other questions.

The Group Panel

By meeting with a variety of people, candidates get a comprehensive picture of the

culture and the job itself, and team members get a strong sense of the contribution the
job seeker will make as an employee. Make sure you prepare interviewers with the job
description and the candidate's resume. Also, don’t forget to identify a panel leader, and
assign roles to each interviewer based on job function and/or expertise.

The Candidate Presentation

Team members will get a sense of contribution, skills and personality during a job
seeker’s presentation. However, you will need to make sure to be specific about the
presentation topic to the candidate, and also determine objectives for evaluation of the
presenter with the team. And don’t forget to solicit feedback via a scorecard or a post-
panel debrief.

While adding extra hoops for candidates raises the perceived difficulty of job interviews,
it also slows down the hiring process — which can lead to costly hiring delays and
candidates lost to the competition. Before adding additional layers to interviews, it’s
important for employers to assure that each new screen actually helps identify great
candidates, and doesn’t just make interviews harder without any offsetting benefit.

3. Great Interview Questions to Ask Candidates

Struggling to come up with interview questions to ask your candidates? These

questions will help you find top talent fast:
  What attracts you most to this position and company?

 What was the best thing about your last job?

 Tell me about a time you had a difficult working relationship with a colleague.
What was the challenge, how did you address the situation and what did you
learn from the experience?

 What is a development area, a deficit, or a gap that you’ve had to overcome or

improve in your career? How was that identified, and what did you do to
improve?

 What are two of the most satisfying accomplishments in your career? Tell me
about each of them.

 Do you have any questions for me?

4. Conclusion

Finding candidates who have the right skills and who are also great culture fits with the
ability to weather adversity, manage stress, deal with ambiguity, work constructively as
part of a team and demonstrate resourcefulness will serve you well in both the short and
long term. Glassdoor's recruiting solution is a perfect tool to attract high-quality
candidates to make your interview process more productive. After you attract high-
quality candidates, it takes a little planning ahead — choosing which interview format
you’ll use, what questions to ask and who will ask them — but the payoff is high.