Why Manage Your Time?
Why manage your time? I could tell you that you only have so much of it and it shouldn't be wasted, but I won't. There's a much more important reason: it will increase your productivity by making more time available to do more work. Increasing your productivity will lead to adding more value to your organization, and that will make you more successful.
How Do You Spend Your Time?
Most of us don't really know how we spend our time each day. We think we do, but we tend to forget, or don't realize in the first place, the time wasters in our workdays. Things like distractions, visitors, interruptions, lack of focus, and disorganization.
In order to identify these time wasters you must keep a work-diary of each task or activity you perform during you workdays for one week. Why a full week, five whole days you ask? Because it will take five days to see trends in your daily habits and activities. In order to manage your time, you must document your time wasters and that takes being diligent and honest in your entries. You should use a simple form with columns for time of day, activity description, and amount of time for the activity. See figure 1 Timesheet. Make entries as activities are completed instead of waiting until the end of the day. When you have completed your entries for the entire five days, categorize each activity by whether it added value to your job and your objectives, or wasted time. Add up the wasted time activities to see how much actual work time you lose each week. This will be an eye-opener and should motivate you to use the time management techniques listed in this article.
Planning: the To-Do List
Yep, you're going to have to plan your days and the best way to do that is with a To-Do list. Using some "best practice" techniques with your list will help you get the most out of it. You must first know what your goals and objectives are. What will add value to your organization in the near and long-term? Knowing your goals and objectives will help you prioritize your activities.
Begin by listing the tasks and activities for the next day on a sheet of paper. Next, assign a priority code to each one. You can use ABC codes as follows: Author Edwin Bliss, in his book Getting Things Done says A priorities are "important and urgent," B priorities are "important but not urgent," and C priorities are "urgent but not important." Susan Silver, in her book Organized To Be The Best suggests another way to describe A, B and C priorities is to substitute these three words: "must," "should" and "would." In other words, and A priority is something youmustdo, a B priority is something youshoulddo and a C priority is something youcoulddo. She also suggests working on mostly A priorities ("fighting fires") and making sure you work some Bs each day.
Working the List
Work the items by priority and begin with the first priority A item. Work your first item until it's finished. Then, and only then, should you go on to the next item, and so on. Working this way will keep you on focus to complete the most important activities first; keep you from "bouncing" from item to item, wasting time; and you'll gain satisfaction upon completion of each subsequent item.
Be flexible when working your list. There will be times when new and unplanned, extremely urgent, A priorities will pop up and need to be addressed. There will also be occasions when an item takes more time than expected to complete. Take these occurrences in stride by completing them as soon as possible and then get back to working your original list.
Planning for the Next Day
Review your list at the end of the day. Mark the completed items off the list (with great satisfaction). Carry over items not completed to your next day's list. Check your calendar and add items due tomorrow to your list, also add tasks assigned since yesterday and then prioritize this new list before leaving for the day. Planning at the end of the day will give you a sense of how productive your day has been and will allow you to begin the next day on task 1 immediately.
Signs of Overload And What to Do
From time to time we find ourselves with more work to do than there's time in the day. This can be addressed in the short run by working additional time to complete the tasks. However, if this condition persists it can lead to an overload condition where urgent, important A priority work does not get done. No organization can afford to be in this condition very long without getting in trouble with their customers and other stakeholders.
Warning signs of overload include: not getting all A priority items done each day, and in greater frequency; not getting to B and C priorities at all; and more items than usual carried over each day.
One solution to overload is to go to your supervisor and ask if you're using the correct priority assignments and, in light of the overload condition, do you need to reprioritize so that the most important A priorities get done each day. You'll usually get some good advice on which items are the "hottest" on your supervisors list. But more importantly, it'll be a red flag for your supervisor that a more significant solution is in order.
Handling Interruptions
Interruptions are a reality in the workplace and cannot completely be eliminated. So we must learn to minimize their effect on our productivity. Some common interruptions are: the telephone, email and snail mail, and walk-in visitors.
The telephone interruptions can be eliminated during intense work sessions by simply unplugging the phone line. However, that extreme solution is usually a bit overkill. If you take a call, your goal should be to communicate the information that is necessary in the most efficient amount of time and end the call. Easier said than done in most cases you say? Dr. Dru Scott has some excellent tips on ending telephone conversations in her book and tapes How To Put More Time In Your Life. Some excerpts from her work are:
In a business setting particularly, it is appropriate for either person to signal the close of the call when business is completed. Talking about the call in the past tense is an effective way to close the conversation gently.
- "That sounds like we've wrapped up most of the issues. Is there anything else we need to talk about before we close the call?"
- "I'm glad you called. It has been good checking over these items before the meeting."
- "I'm glad we've had this opportunity to bring each other up to date. It's been good talking with you."
Email and even snail mail can be a distraction to completion of a task. It's very tempting to stop what you're doing to check the email just into your inbox after the "ding" alerted you of new messages. Or when the office snail mail arrives in your in box you may be similarly tempted to start reading the mail or at least sorting through it. In any of these cases you'll be distracted from the focus needed to complete your task list. I suggest checking your mail, electronic or not, at the end of the day. To avoid the temptation of checking your snail mail, have it delivered to someone else to hold for you until the end of the day. To avoid the email arrival "ding", go to your email preferences and turn the alerting tone off.
Handle walk-in visitors by gently explaining that you're "going to miss the great conversation with him/her, but you're on a deadline to complete a lot of work by the end of the day and you're going to have to get back to it." Closing your office door (if you have one) may deter many visits in the first place. If that doesn't work you can always stand up to signal the end of the meeting or conversation. If that doesn't work, stand and walk toward the door to signal your desire to end the conversation.
Tools to Use
Tools to use include a calendar and task lists such as those available in personal productivity tools such as MS Outlook and others. Use the calendar to schedule time to work on your To-do list. Use the Task List function to create your To-do list and to set up reminders for tasks due in the future. If you work out of the office you can access these tools using a Personal Data Assistant or PDA such as a Blackberry, Treo or smart phone.
Conclusion
You don't have an infinite amount of time in your life, so why not use it wisely? Doing so will give you the great satisfaction of completing your work as planned, and it will help you to be a more productive, more organized person—allowing you to be more valuable to your organization and therefore on the road to success. Use the tips and techniques in this article and you'll be better prepared to manage the time in your workday.
