If time is money than it's easy to see why businesses in every industry is constantly looking for ways to save it, to use it wisely and to get more out of it. As one of the biggest costs to businesses, ineffective time management costs American businesses billions of dollars in lost man hours and low production. The average work person gets interrupted at work approximately once every 8 minutes or 50-60 times a day. At just 5 minutes each, these interruptions account for almost 4 hours of lost production each and every day. That's half a work day lost to interruptions that are almost always rated as having little value. As suppliers of time and attendance systems and time clocks, we often hear from business owners that are frustrated with the fleeting concept of time and how to effectively manage it. Going beyond just making sure that employees are on time and present, true time management means helping those employees work in a manner that is free of distractions. Implement the following strategies for more comprehensive and productive use of time. Check emails and voice-mails only during certain times of day. Plan for this time and stop continuously checking the messages that keep you from the task at hand. Schedule this time once first thing in the morning, once after lunch and once right before leaving for the day. Set deadlines for yourself. By setting a limit on how long a certain task will take will keep that task from running over other must-do assignments during the day. Tell yourself that you have 45 minutes to get that one chore done and you'll find just how easy it was to accomplish it.Close yourself off. If you're lucky enough to have an office door, shut it. If you're like the rest of us and inhabit a cubicle that is part of a large office, you'll need to get creative in finding ways to not be distracted by conversations, visitors and the excitement of donuts on Friday. Set yourself to "busy" on company chat, ignore everything but the most urgent messages and invest in some decent headphones to drown out office chatter.
