Tackling time management

Earlier this year, Verizon Connect set out to build a picture of how Ireland’s business owners and decision makers spend their working day. We issued a survey to over 250 participants to find out how they spend their time. 

The majority of respondents said they wish they had more time to dedicate to general administrative tasks, customer relations and cost cutting. Admin was a common theme, cited by the majority of decision makers as the most time-consuming task – and the one that keeps them from focusing on more business-critical activities.

If this sounds familiar and you’re struggling to find more time in your working day, try these simple time-management tips.

Tackle tougher tasks first

While it’s tempting to put off the tasks that we like the least, there’s a lot to be said for tackling them first. Most people tend to be fresher and more productive in the morning. This makes it the perfect time to tackle our more difficult chores. Tricky tasks are likely to take up less of your time if you’re feeling energised at 9am rather than feeling frazzled at 3pm. 

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Delegate

If you’ve got a daily to-do list that you’d struggle to complete in a week, the answer is simple: you need to delegate. Draw up a list of your everyday tasks and highlight any that must be carried out by you. Then start matching the rest of the jobs to other members of your team. If your team is at full capacity too, consider outsourcing menial but time-consuming tasks to freelancers.

If you can’t delegate, automate

Delegation isn’t an option that is open to all. However, automation is. Technology is readily available to businesses of all sizes that can help to streamline key process. Data collected by a fleet tracking solution on driver start and finish time, engine-on hours, and site arrival and departure can be used to automate time-consuming processes such as payroll, timesheets and tax filing.

Speed up your scheduling

The key to mastering time management is effectively scheduling and prioritising your work. That’s the work you do and the work you schedule for your teams. GPS tracking can help here too. A comprehensive fleet tracking solution takes into account factors such as location, job type, customer preference and driver availability and helps you to easily assign and prioritise jobs throughout the working day.

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