One of the biggest problems the working world faces today is a lack of time. It feels nearly impossible to get everything done in a 24 hour day. This leads to late nights and exhausted employees. In this week’s series of TED Talks, four speakers address the issue of time management and how to make the most of the time you have during the day, so that your nights are spent at home and not slaving away at the office.
The Art of Stress-Free Productivity: David Allen
In this TED Talk, productivity coach David Allen talks about ‘Stress Free Productivity’. David argues that the way to spend your time truly productively is by appropriately engaging with the task at hand while being able to disengage with other tasks demanding your attention. By mapping out your action points on a list, you will know how to address each project in due time and can get the chaos of your brain onto paper, freeing up your mind to concentrate on the task in front of you. ‘Stop blaming stress on lack of time’, says David. Time is not the issue, but rather our psychological bandwidth that we need to free up.
Designing Time: Meaning, not Management: Lisa Solomon
Lisa Solomon, founder of the Innovation Studio, addresses the issue of time management by looking at the purpose we give to our conversations. We all waste time in meetings, says Lisa, whether we’re trying to cram as much into them as possible, or whether they become a free-for-all. This leads to us never getting to the innovation and creative collaboration that we seek. According to Lisa, the trick is to have a definite purpose for each meeting and know what you want to get out of it. Watch the TED Talk below to find out Lisa’s three main purposes for meetings and how to ensure these remain the focus.
The Art of Doing Twice as Much in Half the Time: Jeff Sutherland
Co-writer of the ‘Agile Manifesto’, Jeff Sutherland is one of the world’s leading experts in organisational management. In this TED Talk he explains how to be agile by empowering your staff. “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything”, he quotes at the beginning of his lecture. As a manager, creating stringent plans can sometimes be counterproductive to getting projects completed. Rather than focusing on a timeline, Jeff explains that you need to look at every aspect of a project and adjust accordingly. Allowing your team the tools, and space, to figure out how to solve problems themselves gives you more time to focus on the project as a whole and actually get things done.
How to Multiply Your Time: Rory Vaden
In this challenging and counter-intuitive video, Self-Discipline Strategist and New York Times bestselling author, Rory Vaden shows you why you can’t solve today’s time-management challenges with yesterday’s time-management strategies. More importantly, he explains why procrastinating on purpose is the key to being able to multiply your time. We are always playing catch up, says Rory. But by thinking ahead to the future and asking the question ‘what task can I do today that will make tomorrow easier?’ we are able to prioritise our tasks in a way that leaves us with more time.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s post on time management. For more business tips, be sure to visit the rest of Instant Offices’ blog, or follow us on Twitter.