Promoters in the festival and nightlife industry are constantly handling a lot of tasks on a daily basis. Time management is an imperative skill they need to master in order to balance their professional and personal lives and ensure everything gets done. Being a promoter means being an entrepreneur and applying hands-on business skills to your job daily, oftentimes working around the clock dealing with tight deadlines and with multiple fires to extinguish to ensure everything at their event goes just right.
Below are some key time management tricks that will help you, as a promoter, get more done in less time:
It is really helpful to map out your day in advance. Have a calendar or to-do list handy, in paper or electronic form. You can also use your mobile or computer to set up alarms for each task. Set objectives and set a personal deadline, and make sure to follow the schedule you set. Eventbrite advises “Working within a certain timeframe forces your brain to work towards a deadline — and move on when time is up.”
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Block off your schedule in minutes instead of hours. This way you can practice discipline when you plan your day. If you allow 15 minutes for a coffee break, make sure you stick to it to avoid messing up the rest of your schedule. Setting up a schedule in minutes-timeframe is also better suited to people like event planners who have multiple meetings and phone calls to take in a day. This will leave some wiggle room and is easier to follow at the same time.
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Separate your schedule into long tasks and quick tasks. The quick tasks are those you can tackle when you have a free window of time, while the long tasks are those you should mark off a certain period of time to accomplish, like 1 to 2 hours. Both tasks must be scheduled down to the minute to avoid any overlaps and confusion. Make sure to finish the tasks in the window you set for them.
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You must always find some time for yourself. Plan to have 5-minute breaks between tasks in order to freshen your mind. Set time for interruptions, because event promoters will always run into unexpected requests or encounter unexpected changes in the event. We suggest leaving at least 20% of your time free to account for the unexpected.
RMagazine
A good advice from LinkedIn is if you touch it then take action on it. This means once you open a task you work on it immediately, don’t put it off for another time. A good follow up advice is to not open the e-mail or text or notification if you don’t want to work on it yet. This will fall under learning how to prioritize. Making a list can help you prioritize what is the most important and you finish that first.
Chrometa/2016
Azavista says modern technology has evolved to exploit our urgency addiction: e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and more will fight to distract you constantly. Check email at designated times only, for example at the start of the hour for 5 minutes. Check social media and other websites the same way as you check your emails. This will help you avoid being ruled by your gadgets.
Technicalnotes.org/2016
Time management is neither easy nor difficult. All you need is proper planning and discipline, something which event promoters must have a lot of experience with to succeed.
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