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Written by: Lauren Adley
What is the most important resource every business needs to grow and prosper?
If your answers tend to navigate around relevant aspects such as financial investments, experienced staff, or excellent customer service, think again. Although these answers are true, there’s one crucial resource you’re missing, and it’s quite probably the one you never get enough of.
Time is a tricky aspect to keep an eye on. It can be easily spent, and it’s one of the rare resources we cannot create, acquire, or buy. Whether you already hold one of the leading positions in a company or you are an aspiring leader, time management is one of the vital skills you’ll need to become proficient in. Controlling your time effectively will help you get more done, leaving some space to dedicate yourself to the issues that require deeper concentration.
If you are looking to become the master of your time, here are a few useful tips to help you reach that goal.
1. A productive day begins early
Not everyone is an early bird, but working your way through the day mostly depends on how you start it. Getting up early enough gives you time to prepare for what lies ahead, so it’s very important never to disregard this tip.
Waking up a few hours before you’re due at the office will give you time to get ready, make your first cup of coffee, and create a priority list that clearly guides you through everything that needs to get done, from the most urgent tasks to the less urgent ones. By the time you physically get to work, you’ll already be one step ahead of the game.
2. Schedule short, back-to-back meetings
Conference encounters are a necessary part of a leader’s duties, but you must always be careful when meeting with your associates and clients. A meeting booked for more time than absolutely necessary will drag on, taking the precious time of your day without offering an appropriate counter value.
Many highly competent and successful leaders have already made this principle a part of their business life. Elon Musk, for example, tends to walk out of meetings he considers unproductive and time-consuming. If you cannot see yourself going to such lengths, the least you can do is make your meetings shorter and more productive .
3. Any place can be an office
The time spent outside an office can be lost, or it can be spent wisely - the choice is up to you. For every hour of your day, there’s something to do to make it more productive.
If you need to spend time waiting for your flight at an airport, go through your agenda once more, prepare for an important meeting, or take care of the tasks you can do online. If you’re driving across town, listen to useful business-oriented podcasts you can learn from while your hands are busy. Even the time spent on your lunch break can be productive . If you persist with this practice, soon enough there will be no time of day you cannot spend cleverly and constructively.
4. Don’t shy away from delegating
Even the most capable leaders sometimes make a mistake of relying merely on themselves. Remember that you are only human, and a 24-hour time frame cannot always be enough for everything that needs to be done. Delegating tasks to your subordinates and professional associates will free up time for you to tackle some more demanding challenges you need to take care of yourself.
If you wish to lower the workload on your subordinates, leaving them open for tasks from your part, consider hiring professional services to take some of the heat off your people. If your team is struggling to deal with the amount of written content required, consider qualified service providers from UK Best Essays or Best Dissertation . If your HR department needs a hand, ResumesPlanet experts can offer great value that your team, your company, and, ultimately, yourself, can notably benefit from.
5. Rest your body and your mind
Dedicated, hard work is very important, but recognizing the need to step back and rest is what will help you stay productive in the long run. Make sure not to overburden yourself, trying to accomplish more than you realistically can. The more pressure you put on yourself, the more you are hurting the delicate balance you need to accomplish in your personal and business life.
Knowing when and how to take a break can make a significant change in your productivity, as well as your overall health condition. Take care of yourself, and remember that nobody will benefit from your burnout. Reaching a productive harmony is not an easy task, but if you get a hold of it the right way, you’ll be able to do miracles with your newly-discovered capacities.
Becoming a dependable, capable, productive leader does not mean you have to become a workaholic, focused only on achieving more every waking minute. All it takes is some concentration, dedication, and playing your strengths the smart way, and you are sure to accomplish a lot more than ever before.
Minding the work-life balance is also an important part of the process. Stay realistic, and let others help you with everything you don’t have to do personally. Follow the suggested tips listed above, and you will soon become a reliable expert when it comes to working productivity , able to inspire everyone around you.
Lauren Adley is a writer and editor at Paper Writing Pro . She is dedicated to her family, work and friends. Also, she spent a lot of time working at Collegessaywriter.com and Essay Service . She is keen on reading, playing the guitar and traveling. She is interested in educational, marketing and blogging issues. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter and Google+ .