How does an event planner survive event season or busy times? They take simple time management steps to make event season a little easier and run a little smoother. Below are 6 effective time management tips to assist the busy event planner.
1. Work towards your goals
It’s important to define your goals well before any event, and keep them in mind throughout the planning process. Make sure you’re engaging in activities that support those event goals. Any task that does not directly align with your event goals could potentially waste valuable time.
2. Plan ahead & plan for the unknown
Minimise daily stresses by having a clear idea of what needs to be done on a day-to-day basis. Take a few moments at the end of the night, or first thing in the morning, to plan what tasks absolutely need to get done before the day is over. It’s also imperative to leave some time open for unforeseen circumstances. As an event planner, things will often come up that you didn’t plan for. Keeping this in mind will allow you to allot time towards any emergencies that present themselves.
3. Don’t be afraid to delegate
Event planning is a team sport, so it’s important to make use of every member of the team. Instead of taking on all the tasks, an event planner can benefit from learning their team’s skills and expertise and delegating as necessary. In addition to making better use of their time, event organisers can simultaneously develop leadership skills that are vital to professional development.
4. Minimise distractions
Whether it’s social media, bad reality TV, or Netflix, we all have our vices — mine is a combination of the three. But for an event planner with an upcoming event, distractions are absolutely detrimental to your time management success. Take note of things you’re doing that waste time and mentally track self-induced interruptions to try to maximise your time. Successful event planners are amazing multi-taskers, but they also know when they need to focus on one task with no distraction. My fur-baby, Sadie, is my biggest distraction when I work from home. As much as I love it when she drops a slobbery toy onto my lap to notify me it’s playtime, I know I have to hold off until I have completed my most important tasks… or at least I try.
5. Make time for yourself
Busy event planners tend to work from sunup to sundown. While that may seem like a good use of time, it can actually be damaging. A pro tip for good time management is to make sure to make some time for yourself, whether it be a coffee break, a quick afternoon walk or a break to hit the gym. Working non-stop can make you burn out much faster, and therefore cause you to actually lose time later down the road when you become completely gassed.
6. Don’t be afraid to say no
We’ve all bitten off more than we can chew and dealt with the imminent stress that follows. However, taking on too much (though sometimes unavoidable) can be detrimental to busy event planners. During event season, event planners need to be experts at prioritising. That means sometimes saying no when things come up that could take away from other important, must-do tasks. Good time management skills aren’t about saying yes to everything and killing yourself trying to accomplish it all in a day, it’s about knowing what you have the capacity to do and when to say no. No matter what, event planners will always be busy. It’s just part of the job. Being an event planner was ranked as one of the highest stress jobs, after all. But being extremely busy doesn’t necessarily have to cause you extra stress if you follow these time management tips.
