1. Only handle each piece of paper, email or report once. You have four options with each one:

• Ditch it: throw it in the number one file – junk
• Delegate it: ask someone else to handle it
• Do it: take action yourself
• The last D is deadly: delay – this makes you look unprofessional, you waste time explaining the delay and life will have moved on without your input or influence.

2. Do it right first time. One of the biggest waste of management time and effort is re-work. You waste time doing the work again, and you waste more time defending the original work and arguing over changes.

3. Avoid displacement activity. The internet, thinking about things, filling in expense forms, chatting to colleagues and getting a cup of coffee are all wonderful ways of avoiding work. Displacement activity normally occurs when you face a task that seems too large or too difficult: you have to cold call 50 clients, but you really do not want to. Deal with this through short interval scheduling: do not attempt to do the whole task at once. Break it down into bite-sized chunks and then promise yourself a small reward when you complete the small task. Perhaps set the goal of cold calling five clients, and then give yourself a deserved cup of coffee: if you are going to have displacement activity, make it work for you.

4. Avoid the time thieves. Queues, delays and public transport were not invented to frustrate you: they were invented to let you catch up with email, return phone calls and deal with the noise and grind of management.

5. Manage your diary. A diary packed with meetings is not necessarily a good diary. Are the meetings ones that get you closer to your goals, or are they responding to other people’s agendas and needs? Where possible, schedule meetings for your convenience, not the convenience of others. Minimise the down time and disruption caused to your schedule by working to other people’s timetables.

6. Manage expectations. If you have been asked to complete a task, be clear about when you can deliver it and what support you may need. Make sure you have properly understood the expectations and check in at key milestones to make sure you are on track: minimise the risk of re-work.