Ashley Keleher

One question I’ve been asked a lot lately is “how do you manage your time so well?”.

Now, I’m not talking juggling your personal and work life – that’s a separate discussion completely, and I’m sure worth the conversation. But how do you manage your time in a work day. 

How many times do you find yourself in this new virtual world working a little longer to try and get things done? Do you find yourself working through lunch, and still can’t seem to find enough time to get everything you want completed in a day? Listen, I get it. It’s all too real today. Especially when work is in your home and especially if you work in an industry that’s thriving ! I don’t by any means think I’m an expert, but I have found that time management, if done well, can really make your day go a lot smoother. 

First off, I want to start by saying it’s okay if you don’t get everything done! I’m not saying it’s okay to miss deadlines and commitments because that’s just not good business practise. But I am saying that if you didn’t get an email response out (that doesn’t have urgency) or you didn’t update every opportunity in salesforce before you logged off for the day – it’s okay! Unless you’re saving lives for a career it’s likely not going to get you fired if you send the email in the morning. Actually, sometimes it’s better if you do. Hear me out, if you have worked a back to back zoom day, had 100+ emails in your inbox to work through and got some bad news from a client that wasn’t really what you were hoping for, holding off on that email could allow you time to disconnect, unwind and reset. What you may send at 5:30pm tonight might come off a lot calmer or friendlier in the morning. 

Let’s break it down here. Planning out your day and your week is super critical in good time management. Now I’m a planner- so this is a no brainer for me. I plan my workouts, my meals, and my events in advance. Rightly or wrongly it’s how I work. So when you are starting your workweek, whether you take time on Sunday night or Monday morning to set out a plan for the week – it’s got to be done. I like to take a look at what I have and this time allows me to ensure I am not only prepared for my meetings, but it also allows me to ensure I’m setting realistic expectations. There is nothing worse than not following through with a commitment. If you don’t know what you have going on though you won’t know what a realistic turnaround time is. Not to mention, planning out your week allows you to find gaps in your schedule that you can then work on new opportunities or tasks. 

Now, thinking of a work week; you have meetings, deliverables and tasks. I know there’s a lot more to it, but let’s try not to over think it here for a second. I try and break it down by looking at what meetings I have, what prep and takeaway will come with each meeting, and what deliverables I have outside of those. If I have something that I know needs time and has a deadline, I book the time. This way you are dedicating time to get the work done. In my opinion this is super important in ensuring you get what is needed done in a day. Some people find it manageable to just block windows for ‘heads-down’ time but I find it works better for me if I actually allocate the time to specific tasks. This doesn’t always work – because there are escalations and fires that can come up. But it helps you go into a week setting realistic expectations and feeling a little less overwhelmed. 

Finally, when planning my week and making sure I get my tasks at hand completed, I always allocate time on my Friday afternoon to clean my desk off. I’m a note taker and a BIG paper person okay. I just can’t change. There is something about writing things down that allows it to stick for me. If I put notes in OneNote I just can’t seem to get things done as well and I never seem to remember things. Everyone will have something that works well for them so I challenge you to find your best practise to keeping yourself organized in a day. Regardless, go through all your takeaways and action items and get them done before the weekend starts. If you don’t, not only will it follow you through the weekend but it will haunt you on Monday morning when you are trying to start a fresh week! 

Now comes the fun part. Ok so you’ve organized your week, setup all your meetings, scheduled time to ensure you are holding yourself accountable for what is required, and you find a couple 30 minute windows still? This is the sweet spot! This is your opportunity to do for you. Sometimes this means just getting outside, away from the screen and taking a mental break. Sometimes it’s an opportunity for you to catch up with co-workers (remember when you worked in an office full of people and could do this?). But sometimes, this is a really great opportunity to grow! The only way you are going to grow your career or hit the milestones you’ve set out to achieve is by putting in the work. I will use this to expand my knowledge and learn or review criteria of the next role I want, to identify what more I need to do to be considered. Whether you take a course to develop new skills, help your team if you want to get into leadership, shadow the role you are looking to get into. Whatever keeps your mind working and growing and helps you become the best you ! DO IT ! 

OK – so that was a lot. Let’s walk through all of that again to summarize. I think we can all agree a week can quickly get ahead of us before it even starts. So:

1. Looking ahead – take a look at your week and what you need to be accountable for. An example of this would be opening your calendar, checking every meeting you have for the week, define what is needed to prepare and what you need to be impactful.
2. Make sure you are keep yourself accountable. If you need to get certain things done, prioritize your time. If you have 8 working hours in a day and 8 hours of meetings, there is no way you will get everything done. You need to make sure that you are completing tasks that you committed to completing. I do this by blocking time in my calendar for each specific task. I also take time at the very start and very end of the week to clean up in case I have outstanding items. This really helps me get setup for the week and also wind down at the end of a week. If I don’t do this I can’t shut my brain off and disconnect on a weekend. You are the only person that will fully keep yourself organized and accountable. To me, there is nothing more satisfying than making a list of “to-do’s” and crossing things off the list. Find what works for you to keep your action items tracked. This will really help.
3. Personal Growth – don’t forget to take care of you! Whether its career growth, mental breaks, social engagements, whatever helps you keep motivated and be the best you possible! I have been trying to enroll in courses, because I want to continue to grow- but sometimes I just make a coffee and sit outside for a few minutes to decompress. 

I really hope that those reading this have found this in some way useful. A big challenge I continue to hear throughout the last year and a half is how hard it is to find enough time in a week ! Hopefully this helps you feel a little more in control of your work week!