We understand the pains and pressures that come with being a marketer, but there is one major thing that can make your life an awful lot easier and this is (cue the drum roll)... ...TIME MANAGEMENT!

1. 11 ESSENTIAL TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR MARKETERS

2. ...TIME MANAGEMENT!
We understand the pains and pressures that come with being a marketer, but
there is one major thing that can make your life an awful lot easier and this is
(cue the drum roll)...
WITH SO MANY DIFFERENT DEADLINES AND DEPARTMENTS RELYING ON YOU,
WE KNOW THAT TIME MANAGEMENT IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE. HOWEVER,
WE’VE COMPILED ELEVEN ESSENTIAL TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS THAT WILL
HOPEFULLY MAKE YOUR MARKETING LIFE A LITTLE LESS STRESSFUL.
THE PAINS AND PRESSURES...

3. Remember Parkinson’s Law...
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
So make sure that you set yourself up for success by scheduling in a certain
amount of time for each given task.
THERE ARE SOME EXCELLENT TOOLS TO HELP TRACK AND ORGANISE YOUR
TIME, LIKE TOGGL. THIS APPLICATION HAS A START AND STOP TIMER TO TRACK
TASKS ON ANY DEVICE; WHICH IT RECORDS IN VISUAL REPORTS SO THAT YOU
CAN SEE HOW MUCH TIME YOU’RE SPENDING ON WORK AGAINST THE
REVENUE IT’S BRINGING IN.
1. SET TIME LIMITS

4. NOT ONLY IS THIS A GREAT WAY TO BUILD YOUR STRESS LEVELS, IT’S
ALSO A FANTASTIC WAY TO MAKE SURE YOU GO HOME FEELING
TENSE; ALL BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T JUST CHOOSE TO GET ONE JOB
DONE BEFORE STARTING ON THE NEXT ONE.
SO, BE DISCIPLINED AND PRIORITISE YOUR WORK - THEN EXECUTE!
Remember, multi-tasking doesn’t really exist, it’s just fast task
switching... don’t do it!
2. QUIT MULTITASKING

5. Distractions will always make us less productive.
Email, web surfing and phone notifications can all add up to sap our precious
time. The best plan is to deal with the issues before they are issues.
TURN OFF YOUR NOTIFICATIONS, SCHEDULE IN 2 OR 3 EMAILS CHECKS A
DAY AND EVEN USE ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ SIGNS ON YOUR OFFICE IF YOU
NEED TO FOCUS DEEPLY ON A SPECIFIC PROJECT. YOU’LL BE SURPRISED
AT HOW MUCH MORE YOU GET DONE - GIVE IT A TRY!
3. NO DISTRACTIONS

6. The key here is to teach and trust. If you like something to be done a certain way, take
the time to teach someone else exactly how it should be done and then trust them to
know what they’re doing.
The trust from you, coupled with the freedom to get things done properly, should
mean that those helping you will step up to take that task off your plate (and you can
always make tweaks afterwards!).
ON THE SAME NOTE, IF YOU’RE GREAT AT STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING
OR DESIGNING WEBSITES, BUT NOT SO GOOD AT SITTING DOWN AND COMING
UP WITH A SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN, DELEGATE THIS TO SOMEONE WHO IS.
LOOK AT THE TEAM MEMBERS THAT YOU HAVE, DETERMINE THEIR STRENGTHS
AND GIVE THEM THE CHANCE TO SHINE.
4. DELEGATE TO OTHER
MARKETING SPECIALISTS

7. Tony Schwartz, Founder of The Energy Project, says that to work our best as
humans, “we need to renew our energy at ninety minute intervals”. How long do
you go without a break? The chances are that you don’t mindfully take enough
(if any) breaks throughout the day.
WHILE IT CAN SEEM COUNTERINTUITIVE TO STOP WORKING, ESPECIALLY WHEN
YOU HAVE DEADLINES OR ARE UNDER PRESSURE, A SHORT BREAK WILL
WORK WONDERS.
IT CAN EVEN BE AS LITTLE AS 5 MINUTES - STRETCH YOUR LEGS, GET AWAY
FROM YOUR COMPUTER - EVEN DO A SHORT MEDITATION - IT’LL REPLENISH
YOU MEANING YOU HAVE MORE ENERGY TO PUT INTO YOUR WORK!
5. TAKE REGULAR BREAKS

8. IF IT’S SOMETHING OUT OF YOUR CONTROL, HOW CAN YOU MAKE IT WITHIN YOUR
CONTROL? IN THIS EXAMPLE, TARGETING YOUR POSTS VIA PAID SEARCH IS
PROBABLY THE ANSWER.
THE KEY HERE IS MEASUREMENT. ANY MARKETING THAT IS CARRIED OUT SHOULD BE
MEASURABLE IN SOME WAY OR ANOTHER. FIND A WAY TO MEASURE WHAT YOU’RE
DOING SO THAT WHEN YOU’RE ASKED IF IT WORKS, YOU CAN SAY WITH FULL
CONFIDENCE THAT IT DOES.
Possibly our favourite tip for marketing time management is just getting rid of things that
don’t work. If you’re spending half your day on organic social media posts that just aren’t
being seen, no matter how well you word them, or how many opportunities there are for
people to engage with them, stop. Ask yourself, “how could I make this better and what is
stopping it from working?”
6. DON’T SPEND TIME ON THINGS
THAT DON’T WORK

9. This one may seem pretty obvious, but people will consistently leave tasks until
the last minute. If you’ve asked for a client to sign off a press release before
sending it out, leaving this until 5.30pm on a Friday could mean that it’s no
longer of relevance the following week. Similarly, you might not be available last
minute to do the sending.
THE POINT HERE IS WHETHER YOU’RE DELIVERING A SERVICE, OR PAYING
FOR ONE, DON’T HINDER YOUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS BY NOT
PRIORITISING WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO THAT DAY BY WHETHER OR NOT
YOU THINK IT’S IMPORTANT. LOOK AT DEADLINES AND PRIORITISE BY
THOSE TIMINGS AS WELL AS YOUR OWN, OTHERWISE YOU MIGHT MISS
OUT ON OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE WORK.
7. PRIORITISE TASKS

10. We’re pretty sure that every marketer can relate to just saying “yes, no problem” at
least once when they’ve been asked to do something they know that, deep down,
isn’t the best use of their time.
We do this to keep the peace or to show willing, but it really is so important to
instead say “no”.
OF COURSE THIS MUST BE DONE IN A DIPLOMATIC WAY. OR YOU CAN
INVESTIGATE WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE TO UNDERSTAND IF WHAT’S
BEEN ASKED OF YOU IS THE BEST WAY TO ACHIEVE IT.
SPENDING LOTS OF TIME ON THINGS THAT DON’T WORK WILL ULTIMATELY
REFLECT BADLY ON YOU. YOU’RE THE ONE WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR GETTING
RESULTS SO BY NOT SAYING NO TO THINGS THAT DON’T WORK YOU’RE NOT
LEAVING YOURSELF TIME TO FOCUS ON THE THINGS THAT DO.
8. SAY NO…

11. Some people are super productive in the mornings. If there is an important task that
you’re just not getting time to do set your alarm a little bit earlier and get up at 6.30am.
Chances are that you won’t even look at your emails. Distractions can at least wait
until 7.30/8.00am when people will be in the office.
We’re not saying you have to be an early bird, but instead you should leave yourself
logged out of emails whilst you’re getting something important done. If you have an
hour to write a blog then what harm will logging out of your emails for an hour do?
YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD OF SETTING SPECIFIC TIMES OF THE DAY TO LOOK AT YOUR
EMAILS, BUT IT SERIOUSLY WORKS. ONCE IN THE MORNING, ONCE AFTER LUNCH AND ONCE
AT THE END OF THE DAY SHOULD BE ENOUGH FOR MOST PEOPLE. IF THERE’S ANYTHING
URGENT THERE IS STILL SUCH A THING AS A TELEPHONE.
9. DON’T GET WRAPPED UP IN EMAILS

12. THIS NOT ONLY HELPS TO SHOW YOU HOW LONG THINGS TRULY TAKE TO
COMPLETE (GOING BACK TO TRACKING YOUR TIME FOR FUTURE PLANNING),
BUT IT SETS YOU A SCHEDULE TO STICK BY.
WITHOUT TIME BLOCKING IT’S FAR TOO EASY TO GET CAUGHT UP IN A TASK
THAT SHOULD HAVE TAKEN AN HOUR, BUT WHICH ENDED UP TAKING YOUR
FULL MORNING. TIME FLIES WHEN YOU’RE HAVING FUN!
We spoke about prioritisation earlier and one of our best tips to make sure that you
stick to priorities is by time blocking. If you have five things to get done on a set day,
block out times in your calendar or diary to say how long you have for each.
10. BLOCK OUT TIME
TO GET TASKS DONE

13. Meetings are not the enemy, but they can really suck the time out of your day. The best way
to ensure that you’re not spending ten times longer talking about doing things than it would
have taken to actually do them is to set an agenda for every meeting and stick to it.
For example, set yourself an hour for a meeting and allot fifteen minutes to the four things
that need to be discussed. If you’re approaching the end of that time, request that a decision
be made so that you can move on.
EVEN IF YOU’RE HALF THIS REGIMENTED MEETINGS WILL BE FAR MORE
PRODUCTIVE AND IT WILL PREVENT YOU FROM TAKING UP YOUR
VALUABLE TIME WITH PEOPLE WHO JUST WANT TO CHAT (PROBABLY
BECAUSE THEY’VE NOT HAD A TWENTY MINUTE BREAK YET!).
11. SET AGENDAS FOR MEETINGS

14. We don’t just hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this, we want you to take action!
Yes, we know that there’s a lot to take in with this blog, but choose just one thing
you can experiment with.
LET US KNOW WHICH ONE YOU’VE TRIED BY REACHING OUT TO US
ON TWITTER (@BIRCHPRINT).
THANKS FOR READING AND DON’T FORGET TO FORWARD THIS TO
YOUR FELLOW TIME-POOR MARKETING PROFESSIONALS!
MAKE THE CHANGE

15. TO READ OUR BLOG ON
THIS SUBJECT, VISIT:
www.birchprint.co.uk/blog/
Th k You!