How long is your ‘to-do’ list?

It’s a question many of us ask ourselves when we look at ways to create a better time management system.

“For most of us, our to-do list will never end,” says Murray Smith, Principal of The Achievement Centre. “For most of us there are more things we’d like to do in a day than we can do in a day and that’s why it becomes really important to establish what are the priorities.”

Managing your priorities will be a key focus at our March 25 YIP Growth Learning Series event: Time Management, which Murray will facilitate.

But he warns participants won’t be provided with the ultimate solution to managing their time.

“Some people will be looking for some ‘magic’ system,” he says. “There is no such thing as a perfect system.”

Instead, he says the many methods people may already be using to manage their work duties - from apps and computer calendars, to even notepads – are fine and there is no right or wrong when it comes to creating your own time management system. “You get a system that works, and chances are you’re going to use a combination of a few. What I will be encouraging people to do is create a system that works.”

Murray says managing priorities is important and looks for inspiration from author Stephen R. Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as a point of reference.

“He set up that urgency/ importance matrix and it makes a lot of sense,” he says. “It’s more about understanding what is urgent and what is important versus what’s perhaps urgent for other people but is not important to you.”

And with many people working from home due to the ongoing pandemic, Murray says most of us are dealing with more distractions.

“The notifications on our phone create an urgency. Unless your job is tied to responding to those notifications, you’ve got to control them,” he says. “The bottom line is priorities and eliminating those distractions.”

Murray says knowing what your priorities are and being able to communicate that to others, especially your employers, is vital.

“Time management is as much about communication with others who do have influence on your time and priorities as it about fulfilling the task list,” he says. “When you know what is most important, you have the power to communicate with others when the inevitable change to your pile of tasks occurs. Don’t complain, communicate.”

Our YIP learning session is sponsired by Deluxe and takes place Thursday, March 25 from 11 a.m. to noon. For more, visit https://bit.ly/2OfZVeM