Sheldon Jensen of Flowers by Michelle in Las Vegas, Nevada (fourth from left), shares his time management ideas during a Next Gen LIVE! session. The session also focused on how to have productive meetings and find a work-life balance.
Time is one of our most valuable resources. Just ask Eileen Weber, AAF, vice president of Lake Forest Flowers in Lake Forest, Illinois, who in addition to helping run the shop is also a mother of two, a city alderman and a volunteer at her church and her children’s school.
“We’re all busy,” says Weber, who saw the importance of making time to step away from her business and family to attend the Society of American Florists’ Next Gen LIVE! event earlier this month. She and the nearly 160 other attendees shared their best advice to make the most of their time. Here’s a collection of their tips.
Best Time Management Practices
- Remember it is okay to say “no,” but do so in a way that doesn’t diminish the importance of the request. For example, you might say, “That’s something I would love to work on, but I don’t have the time in my schedule right now. Could we circle back to this next week?” Or, let them know what you can do. “I can help gather information for the presentation, but perhaps we could ask someone else to make it into a Power Point slide.”
- Delegate! Know the strengths of your team so you can identify who has the right skill set, knowledge or aptitude to take on new tasks. While training them, imagine you are creating a manual for someone to do the job, and understand that there is likely more than one way to get the job done.
- Identify what tasks take the most time, and evaluate whether there are better systems, processes or tools that can cut down on the time those tasks take to complete.
- Leverage technology and use project management software and shared calendars.
- Utilize the “do not disturb” function on phones and Microsoft Teams to set aside time for high priority projects.
- If the team is feeling overwhelmed, call a meeting to see how they can work together to support one another.
- Keep a running to-do list. Prioritize those items and set realistic deadlines.
Best Strategies For a Work-Life Balance
- Have a start/stop time to keep yourself from overworking.
- Set boundaries. When you are away from work don’t talk about work, check work email (in fact, it is helpful to turn off work email notifications) or plan your next workday. Communicate those boundaries with your team or boss so they know what to expect when you are away from work. For example, give them your “do not disturb” hours and define in which circumstances they can contact you during those hours because of an emergency.
- Ditch the phone, social media, television, and spend time with friends and family.
- Plan personal rewards such as massages.
- Know your limits and signs of burnout and know when to step away or ask for help.
- Have hobbies, and make time for them.
- Don’t cash in vacation days — take time off to recharge.
Best Strategies For Productive Team Meetings
- Ask for an agenda well in advance of the meeting to determine whether a meeting is necessary. If not, communicate via email or a project management platform such as Trello or Slack.
- Start the meeting five minutes early so the team’s chat time doesn’t cut into the meeting time.
- Have a hard stop. Use the agenda to stay on topic and manage time.
- Follow up the meeting with an email recapping the best or most important message that came out of the meeting
- Keep the meetings fun! If possible, consider bringing in food, having a competition or celebrating birthdays.
Amanda Jedlinsky is the managing editor of SAF NOW.
