The benefits of using your time more effectively

      E-mail. Voice mail. Meetings. Paperwork. Direct reports who continually ask for help or bring you their problems. How can you be an accessible, responsible manager—yet actually get work done and accomplish your highest-priority goals at the same time?

          You need to manage your time skillfully. Time management is the discipline of organizing, allocating, and controlling time you use for activities in such a way that you achieve your desired results. Time management forces you to be explicit about what you value and helps you assign your efforts accordingly.
Using your time more effectively generates important benefits for you and your organization. For example:

• You devote energy and attention to the activities that most support your company’s objectives.
• You eliminate distractions and remain focused on what’s most important to your department and organization.
• You avoid the stress and even burnout that can come from trying to juggle the many conflicting demands on your time.
• You model good time-management behaviors, so your employees and peers can learn from your example.
• You improve your on-the-job performance which adds more value to your organization, unit, and teams.

         Clearly, a company in which leaders use their time effectively can gain an edge over the competition. But managing your time is more challenging than it may seem on the surface.