by Rochelle Harwin

Speak to any business person, especially in bigger companies: our most valuable commodity is time. Often, a lack of time management results in conflicting demands that result in us losing touch with our dreams and aspirations, both on a business and personal level.

For my article this month I believe I was particularly time-efficient: I crowd-sourced from my friends and colleages and here is a collection of the suggestions I received.

Benefits include:

• increase your productivity on the job and in your personal life
• enhance the quality of your performance
• relieve stress

I recommend choosing just one of the tips below and trying it immediately – who can’t do with more time?

Useful time management tips:

1. Close your door and focus. (Lee-Ann Gould, HR Manager, CTP Printers)

2. Get help with some tasks from fellow employees. This also promotes working as a team. (Carel van der Colff, Owner, Dive Inn)

3. Focus on one task at a time. I used to be a lover of multi-tasking, but have realised that because I can, does not mean I should. Multitasking breaks my focus and causes a single task to take so much longer to complete. To focus my time, I switch off instant messaging tools such as Google Chat and Skype and focus on one task at a time. It helps that I have the bigger goals visible where I am continuously reminded of them, which helps ensure that I am completing tasks which contribute to the overall goal. (Shana Kay, Managing Director, InfoInteg)

4. Give yourself a deadline in the day with an amount of hours you are going to work and create a list of the most important things you need to get done, in order of priority, in that time. So as a freelancer, knowing that my wife will return home around 5pm, I know that I need to have completed my most important work tasks for the day around 4:30pm, so I can move into "family time". I normally work from 8am till 5pm, but really, after catching up on admin, emails and my daily inspiration (RSS feeds, NetVibes.com), I find that only 5 hours is really billable. This means I need to make sure that what I do in those 5 hours is quality and focussed. (Stew West, Freelancer, Side Switch Design)

5. My inbox is my "to do" list so I try not have anything in it, which stops me from procrastinating. I go through my emails first thing in the morning and make a list of priorities. I then switch off the internet ‘til lunch and then switch it back on to check any new emails and delete the ones I have completed; I do the same just before the end of the work day to try start afresh in the morning. (Nici Palmer, Owner, Carbon Calculated)

6.  Set an early meeting. Once I'm up I'm up so I try to arrange my first meeting as early as possible (we’re talking 6am bible studies and 7am coffee/discipleship meetings and so on) so that my day begins early (handling flexi time comes a lot harder especially not being heavily disciplined) and so I find that helps me. (Brett Fish Anderson, Pastor, Vineyard Church in Stellenbosch)

7. Strive for inbox zero. Respond to all emails quickly and efficiently and action as much as possible each day so that your emails are kept to a minimum. Big jobs and on-going projects are tracked in my diary on a weekly basis. (Evan Torrance, Marketing Manager, Cape Union Mart)

8. Make lists (especially MS Excel spreadsheets) and try to tackle just one piece of admin per day - sounds like a very little but it’s amazing how much I can achieve within 2 weeks. (Dr Claire Draper, Victoria Hospital)

9. A short pencil is better than a long memory. My work diary is filled with notes and to-do lists for the day.  In that way, I know exactly what needs to be done for the day and I can plan my “life” accordingly.  YES!  As a Paper Consultant, no two days are the same and my plans for that day may change, but I have a plan. (Natascha Forbay, Client Liaison, Antalis)

10. Make action lists to keep track of things – and tick them off regularly so that you continually feel like you are getting things done. (Evan Torrance, Marketing Manager, Cape Union Mart)

11. Post-its. My brain ticks by continuously and I think of numerous things simultaneously. I work best doing one project at a time so I always have a "post-it" open on my desktop which I write on when I am working on a different project. Then I review my post-it and prioritise my list for action when I have a break from the current project. (Nici Palmer, Small Business Owner, Carbon Calculated)

12. Start at the top of your list and do the tasks. Don’t waiver from the list. (Naomi van der Colff, Financial Manager, Flagship Private Asset Management)

13. Ignore all emotion. Sometimes you leave something because you don’t like doing it or it is difficult, but if you give yourself a little pep-talk: ‘you can do it / you’ve done it before’ it will help. (Naomi van der Colff, Financial Manager, Flagship Private Asset Management)

14.  Sort tasks by URGENT IMPORTANT, then URGENT, then IMPORTANT not urgent, NOT IMPORTANT NOT URGENT… Or that’s what I’d like to believe I do. Basically I’m a task-oriented person and not schedule driven, so I just make sure my most urgent and important tasks are on the top of the pile. (Danie Nel, Photographer)

15. Schedule work time and family time. Don’t let the two merge into one another. (Evan Torrance, Marketing Manager, Cape Union Mart)

16. Break big jobs down into smaller tasks so that you get momentum on them too. (Evan Torrance, Marketing Manager, Cape Union Mart)

17. Unplug your network point and switch off wi-fi. (@G_Masta via twitter (Giovanni Ghignone))

18. Don’t let stress immobilise you. It is good if it motivates you to start with your tasks and to do it fast. (Naomi van der Colff, Financial Manager, Flagship Private Asset Management)

19. Keep communication in one or two places only. Streamline everything to one email address or a mobile phone, rather than using three or four email addresses in different places, a mobile number (or two), Facebook, etc. (Evan Torrance, Marketing Manager, Cape Union Mart)

20. Catalog your time.  Make a log of what you do in the average day. Do this for about a week. (Bo Bennett, Years to Success Blog)

21. Learn to say "no".  Saying no in advance to extra work is much easier than having to apologise later for not being able to complete something on time.  Refuse excessive workloads. (Bo Bennett, Years to Success Blog)

I hope that everyone will find something of use in this article and if it works or really doesn’t work, let us know on the Promentor Facebook group where I’ll open up a discussion point.

Thanks so much to all who contributed to this article.

Need your online marketing strategy sorted? Ask ProMentor Associates at +27 (0)21 683 7575 or This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

Rochelle Harwin is a passionate and creative small business owner and has run The Design Works for 11 years. Rochelle is a ProMentor Associate, email her at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

You’re welcome to re-publish this article freely provided you publish the full article, unedited and include these last 3 paragraphs.

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