Time Management: Can architects afford to be systematic?

One of the most important advice given by more experienced architects to students is to get organized and mange time properly. Architecture profession is a unique blend that requires both creativity and technicality. In a real time scenario architecture projects need to be time limited.

Being systematic in the office can provide many benefits to the architect both professionally and personally. In the professional sense of things, being organized or systematic means careful planning of the daily routine. As a professional, the architect will have to tend to numerous tasks on a daily basis, some may be routine tasks while others may come and go from time to time. Careful analysis of these task is the first step to getting organized.

Once the tasks are analyzed the architect can carefully plan on which activity/task to tend to and what is the right time to do so? Once a proper plan is laid out, during execution minor changes can be made to fine tune the plan. This is one of the methods practiced by many architects which have yielded good returns.

The importance of creative designs in architecture cannot be over emphasized and everybody knows that a time limit can be imposed on a creativity. This is a myth that is making most of the architecture firms to shy away from time management practices and systems within the office.

Many architects have a problem with work-life balance and most them blame work overload. This may be true but many seasoned architects have clearly stated that by being organized and systematic they have been able find balance time for work and life. So being systematic clearly has its advantages and it should be practiced not only by architects but all professionals

Read More: 6 Tips to Kill Creative Block and Get Some Awesome Work Done!

Plan to avoid multi-tasking

In this fast moving business environment, professionals are always expected to handle several tasks in a single day. Multi-tasking and handling multiple tasks are entirely different. If you ask any professional they will tell you that multi-tasking in a busy work environment can only lead to disaster. Seasoned professional are quite successful in such a scenario as they are able clearly plan the tasks and organize the same. Task planning is the key to handling multiple tasks in the office.

Here are a few tips that can help task planning in a multiple task environment

• Plan time-boxes- these are predetermined time period for which the daily activities such as checking mails, replying to emails, phone calls etc are to be done. If they are a part of your routine it is wise to set the time periods for the day.
• Managing interruptions is another key to successful task management. Interruptions and distractions can occur at any time and it can be a new email received or a phone call. All these can affect you flow of thought, hence take precautions to avoid such distractions, example would removing/disabling mail alerts during such periods.
• For urgent matters that can come up, make sure that multitasking is not done. Complete or pause the current task and then attend to the urgent task.

The most important thing to keep in mind is to never multi-task. Multi-tasking can only take up more time than to complete the tasks individually. Most often people do multi-tasking without realizing it and they need to stop as soon as they realize it.

Read More: Managing multiple tasks