Time Management Tips for Busy CEOs

Your New Year's resolutions are about staying in shape and meeting company goals, right? What about managing your time? Lisa Kanarek asked on Small Business CEO this week whether saving time is on your list. Don't discount the importance of budgeting your time efficiently. It can mean the difference between a bad and a good work day. She's broken them down to 10:

1. Make a list. Put every detailed thing on the list. Even the small things can be forgotten if you don't write them down.
2. Rank the list. Put down new things to do on your list and re-rank them as the day goes.
3. Be aware of time wasting. If you waste just an hour per day, Kanarek said, at the end of the year you just wasted 5 weeks of work.
4. Anything left over from the day before should be evaluated. Why didn't I do it and is it trivial enough to drop from the list altogether?
5. List personal tasks separately but on the same paper or doc.
6. List the major projects you need to do and transfer details on each project to a list on days you need to handle them.
7. Only check email at set times of day. Keep a log if you wish on how often you check email and how much time it takes.
8. Don't forget to delegate. Ask yourself if a task requires your expertise or is it something a direct report can handle?
9. Make an imaginary deadline in your head for when a task should be finished. It will motivate.
10. Become good at judging what tasks are urgent vs. important. Important is something that needs to be done eventually, while urgent is something that needs to be done right now.

Read the entire article at Small Business CEO.