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In today's global market, the challenge is always to stay competitive by creating a more efficient work environment. For more than a decade, technology has been touted as the obvious answer to help increase productivity. At the same time, I find it strange when I read that Americans are working longer hours and dealing with more work-related stress than ever before.
While the digital age has brought us some useful tools like email, high-speed internet, cell phones, and PDA's, they have not necessarily improved our productivity (I know some top sales professionals who rarely use a computer in their work). In fact, it has been found that as few as 10% of the new tech users are truly productive and move their company's agenda forward. The rest have created a lot of busy-work that makes them look very industrious. Non-urgent emails, phone calls, and time spent surfing the web for useless information account for much of the wasted time at work. Remember also that a flurry of activity does not necessarily mean productivity and it is often a way to avoid even thinking about doing what's most important.
Technology can be an effective tool in today's work environment, but it can also be a serious distraction for those who are not effective managers of time. Imitate the skills and characteristics of the 10% that are truly productive:
Prioritize - Separating the important from the not-so important tasks is essential. An effective priority management system is the ABC method. A's are the most important tasks and C's are the ones that should be delegated or put off until the A's and B's are done.
Focus - Focusing like a laser beam on each task until it is complete will not only help you get more done, but it will also motivate you with a sense of accomplishment to move down the list to the next priority.
Think Before You Act - Again, activity does not necessarily mean you're accomplishing anything. Often, one of the greatest means of productivity is to sit and think about a project before rushing into it.
Delegate! - Learning effective management means understanding that you cannot possibly do everything. Learn to delegate those non-essential tasks to others. If you run a small business and have no employees, ask family members to help out with the responsibilities. As a sales professional and career coach, I rely heavily on my wife, Rachel, who is able to do much of the administrative work and web development.
The term time management is really deceiving. Time, of course, cannot be managed, but our priorities within the time we have each day can be. For more information on effective priority management, I recommend First Things First by Stephen Covey and Rebecca R Merrill.