TIME EFFECTIVENESS

Time is a precious and scarce resource. Once it is spent it cannot be replaced. However, time is routinely squandered in the business world thanks to excessive emails, unnecessary meetings, and unjustified initiatives.

Because time is such a valuable commodity (and can be quantified monetarily), business professionals must learn to manage their time as carefully as they manage their money. The following eight practices can go a long way toward making the time a company and its employees spend worth the investment:

1. Make sure there is a clear and selective agenda for every activity.

2. Create a time budget that resets at zero.

3. Insist that every initiative have a compelling business case before approval and implementation.

4. Standardize and simplify processes and share management across all business units.

5. Identify the proper authority for approving time investments and treat those investments like financial investments.

6. Create standardized decision-making processes.

7. Improve the quality of meetings by requiring clear, objective-based agendas, advance preparation, an on-time start, and an early ending whenever possible.

8. Monitor and measure time spent across the organization to understand where time is wasted.