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I am learning Inbound Marketing techniques and trying to apply it within my company. No doubt, I have become a big fan of it.

How it relates to time management? Time management is always easy to read but extremely hard to do. I am trying to be really good at time management, and so many of you may be.

I was just wondering this morning, about Dharmesh, for example, being such a busy person, doing so many things (ranging from managing people, innovating, writing blogs etc.), how someone like him manages his time?

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I do some very simple things that may or may not work for you or anyone else, but what the heck, here they are:

  • My to do list is divided into: Hot (Urgent, most important, get them done!), ASAP (basically #2 priority items), This Week (time requirements mean they must be done during the week), Next Week (same thing re: time requirements), and Out (things I'd love to do when I have time). Only 3 items each in the Hot and ASAP buckets. So I try and spend my time on the most important needs.

  • I write down each task during the day in a little journal. E.G. phone call with whomever, meeting with partner, completed launch plan, reviewed metrics, and so on. At the end of each week I look at my journal and spend a few minutes exploring how good or not I was with my time management and prioritization.

  • If there are tasks that I may be dragging my foot on or are really late, I'll make an appointment in my calendar to work on that specific item and get it done.

  • I try to focus on one thing at a time. Tell myself, I'm going to write up feedback and get to my SEM guy today, as an example. And for however long it takes, that's all I do.

  • Push away everything else. Only check email at set times during the day (I'm horrible at keeping to this). Don't waste time on things that don't help you accomplish your tasks. E.G. I won't talk to someone trying to sell me something out of courtesy if I really don't think it's viable for me. I'm not big into small talk around the office. I want to accomplish things.

  • Make sure to pace yourself and carve out time for yourself though. I go on runs fairly regularly which keeps me fit, feeling good, but also helps me think through tough challenges or brainstorming or other. So it turns out to be a real good use of time. But lunches and just when you're feeling a little like you're drudging through things, take a break. More hours doesn't necessarily mean more productive and better time management.

Might be too much information on my part but it's a topic I really enjoy. Hope to see answers from others too. Hope that helps!

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A few quick notes:

  1. I don't actually spend a lot of time managing (and I'm not good at it).

  2. I say NO to most things (see http://mustsayno.com)

  3. I give myself a lot of breathing room (I don't pack my days). This gives me the time to invest in things that are important and that I enjoy.

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I think giving a room for self is the BEST option but that will come when one can start delegating responsibilities to someone else and is very difficult in a start-up scenario. – Ameya Phadke Sep 23 '12 at 4:26

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