HAVE YOU EVER COME HOME FROM the office with the feeling that you didn’t accomplish any of the things you wanted to get done that day? We all have days like that, spent entirely in putting out brushfires. Sometimes it can’t be helped, but if it’s happening to you regularly, part of the problem may be your own lack of time-management.
SMALLER SEGMENTS
The following approach to time-management has worked wonders for a successful nonfiction author. Let’s hear it in his own words:
“When I first started writing seriously about ten years ago, I’d set a goal of writing a full chapter every week, yet the entire week would go by without my having written a single line. The reason was my perception of needing to block out many hours for a chapter. Nothing was happening. Then I decided to break my goal down into smaller segments. The goal became to write two pages each day. Occasionally, I’d miss a day; then I’d set a goal of four pages for the next day. If for some unforeseen reason I missed more than two days, I did not make the goal a cumulative one, or I’d be right back to the block I had with the entire chapter.
“As a result of setting more reasonable goals, I started getting material written, even though other demands on my time remained unchanged. The only change was my attitude toward, and approach to, the problem. Sometimes I would sit down to write my two pages and ended up writing much more, ten or fifteen. If I had established a goal for that day of fifteen pages, I would not have begun to write.”
The message is that you can overwhelm yourself into inaction by thinking that you need to be able to complete an entire project all at one time before you get started. Accept that you will likely need to break the project down into smaller segments that can be completed in smaller time periods.
THE LIST
You’ve probably heard of the late U.S. industrialist Henry Kaiser. Among his many achievements was establishing a company that built cargo vessels called Liberty ships during World War II. These ships were fully constructed in a matter of days—truly a spectacular accomplishment.
The first thing Kaiser did on entering the office in the morning was to sit at his desk with a legal-size pad on which he listed the items he wished to accomplish that day, with the items in priority order. During the day, the list remained on top of his desk. As a goal was accomplished, he drew a line through it. Goals that didn’t get accomplished that day would be put on the next day’s list. Kaiser always tried to work on his priority items first.
Try this simple approach to organizing your day and you will be pleasantly surprised at how much more you are able to accomplish. You’re forced to plan the day’s activities as you write down the day’s objectives. That’s probably the greatest value of the technique.
There are many tools we have today that were not available to Mr. Kaiser that make keeping your to-do list even easier. You may choose to keep your list on your phone, tablet, or computer and there are applications for this purpose. A web search for “goal management software” shows pages of results. Perhaps a simple document in your word processing application that you update regularly is sufficient. As computer screens keep getting larger and cheaper, you may choose to keep your list always posted in the corner of one of your screens.
Smartphones have lots of list-keeping capability and specific goal and task listing applications. A search for “goal list” in the Apple app store or on an Android smartphone yields dozens of apps.
You may prefer to use a simple small notepad you can keep in your pocket and always have with you. Use the tool that works best for you, but use one.
TIMING THE TASK
There is one modification you might make in your task list system that may make it even more useful. You know your own body better than anyone else. If you’re at the peak of your energy levels early in the day, you should do the tasks that require high energy the first thing each day. On the other hand, if you don’t hit your stride until later in the day, try to match the tasks to your different energy levels. It also helps to discipline yourself to do the things you don’t care for when you are at your higher energy times, but still focus on getting the high-priority items done first. The less-important ones can wait.
There is another factor to consider as you plan your day. Some tasks on your list require you to be more creative and others more logical or sequential in addressing the task. A creative task may be writing a project proposal or crafting a presentation. Preparing a production report or doing budget calculations are examples of logical or sequential tasks.
Dividing tasks in this way correlates to what are commonly referred to as right-brain and left-brain activities. Right-brain tasks are the creative ones and left-brain tasks are the logic-based ones. The side of your brain you’re using is not as important as remembering that there are different types of tasks. Another way to think of the process you use to address tasks is either circular, for the creative ones, or linear, for the logic-based ones.
Some people find they perform creative tasks better at certain times of the day, such as early in the morning or later in the evening. In turn, they may be more efficient performing logical tasks during certain periods of the day. Keep this in mind as you observe when you are most productive. Is there a task you have been trying to accomplish for a while that actually went quite well when you finally got to it? Make note of the time of day and whether it was a creative or logical task. Multiple observations of this type can give you insights that will help you be more productive.
Some people are more productive when they group creative tasks and logical tasks. The idea is that addressing different types of tasks requires a different thought process. You may benefit by trying to do creative tasks before lunch and logical tasks after lunch, or the other way around. I know of people who find it very difficult to return to creative tasks after they have taken up logical tasks so they try to schedule the creative tasks first.
THE FLAMMABLE TASK LIST
Everyone reading this is probably thinking that task and goal lists are great, but my days are so crazy sometimes I cannot get to a single planned task regardless of what method I use to keep my list. True. Some days it just seems like your task list is flammable—as soon as the day starts it goes up in flames. This is reality, but it is not a valid reason to not subject yourself to the discipline of planning your day.
Part of the reason you have been selected to be a manager is that you have illustrated that you have judgment. One of the ways you will need to use your judgment is to know when to stick to your task list, when to set it aside, and when to revise it. You will likely have to revise it during the day—and often many times in the same day. Your ability to do this well significantly influences your level of success. Many accomplished senior executives seem to have an innate ability to reprioritize based on changes in circumstances. Observe the leaders in your organization who do this well and learn from them.
PRIORITIZING THE TASK
Some managers divide their task list into three categories: A, B, and C. The A items are the crucial ones that must get done first. If you have several A items, you need to prioritize the tasks within that category. The B items can wait until you have the time. The C items are not urgent. Then there are those managers who like to do their C items first because they get a sense of accomplishment. Do not fall into that trap. When you do this, you are not only accomplishing very little, you run a serious risk of leaving some critical items in your A category undone and creating significant problems.
Keep in mind that circumstances can change and result in an A-category task changing in priority to become a B-category task. A few minutes taken throughout the day to validate and refresh your task list will pay you back many times over in increased productivity.
If an A item is too big, complex, or overwhelming, break it down into a few parts, just as the author in the example did with his writing. Instead of being one task in your list, it will be a few. An example would be developing your operating budget for the coming year. This is a big task. If seeing, “Create budget for next year” on your task list seems so overwhelming that you are not getting started, you may want to break it down into a few smaller tasks such as:
• Create quarterly revenue projections for next year.
• Determine tentative staffing levels for next year.
• Get projected materials costs for next year from purchasing.
Many people get a psychological lift by drawing a line through the tasks that have been completed. If you are using a goal-tracking program or application, you may want to give yourself a sense of accomplishment by moving them onto a list of completed items instead of deleting them. Some people use a big marking pen to cross out completed items. It’s great to sit there at the end of the day’s activities and see those big marks across so many tasks.
If you handwrite your list, don’t throw the list away when you leave the office. The next morning, yesterday’s list will serve two purposes. It will remind you of all you accomplished the day before—there’s nothing wrong with that—and will inform you of what remains unaccomplished. These items then go on the new list. That’s especially important for long-range projects that might get accidentally dropped from the list. Too many creative ideas and projects get away from us because we didn’t write them down.
Have you ever gone to bed with an office problem on your mind, only to wake up in the middle of the night with a solution? Then you wake in the morning and it’s gone—you can’t retrieve the idea from your memory. A paper and pen on your nightstand for jotting such thoughts down during the night solves these retrieval problems.
THE TYRANNY OF THE IMMEDIATE
One of the biggest challenges to being efficient and productive is interruptions. Some interruptions are legitimate and need to be addressed right away. This requires the artful reprioritizing mentioned above.
Most interruptions do not need to be addressed immediately if at all. Technology has presented us with infinite opportunities for being interrupted. Emails, text messages, mobile phone calls, instant messages, tweets, and meeting requests are just some examples of interruptions facilitated by technology with which previous generations were not challenged.
What all of these have in common is the appearance, at least initially, that they are urgent. While some may indeed be urgent, it is very likely that most are not. When something appears to be urgent, it is tempting to give it priority. Suddenly, it will effectively rocket to the top of your task or goal list even though it may not really belong there. In a matter of moments, it has undermined all your careful planning and prioritizing. This is the tyranny of the immediate—the perceived immediate rules.
To be successful and stay on task, do not fall victim to the tyranny of the immediate. Be very discerning before you let a text message suddenly commandeer your afternoon. Before you let that happen, ask yourself. “Where does this issue belong on my task list—category A, B, C, or not at all?” It is tempting to respond like an ambulance driver to a new challenge. It can be exciting. But before you do, make sure it is what you really need to be doing. Don’t fall victim to the tyranny of the perceived immediate.
THE CLOSED PERIOD
Some organizations follow a closed-office procedure you may want to use in mapping out your own day to accomplish more. For example, an office will have a two-hour closed period, where it’s business as usual except that no one in the office goes to see anyone else. No one makes interoffice phone calls and no company meetings are ever scheduled during this closed period. Genuine emergencies are handled expeditiously; calls from clients, customers, or other outsiders are accepted.
This idea has a great deal of merit. It means you’ll have two hours each day when no one from within the company is going to call you on the phone or come into your office. It gives you an opportunity to control what you do during the specified period. If respected, it should also reduce the impact of technology-facilitated interruptions from internal sources that can lead to the tyranny of the immediate.
Perhaps some person got the idea while working in the office on a weekend and noticing how much more she accomplished than in the same period of time during the week. But the idea is feasible only if you don’t shut off your customers or clients during the closed period. It’s an idea an entire organization can use to advantage.
THE NEED FOR REFLECTING
Plan to have a quiet period each day. You may not get it every day, but it’s important that you set aside some time for daydreaming and reflection. It’s vital to the inner person. Also, problems that seem insurmountable often ease into proper perspective during these quiet times.
There is a level beyond setting aside some quiet time for reflection: a powerful concept called “idea liberation” from Business Lessons from the Edge: Learn How Extreme Athletes Use Intelligent Risk Taking to Succeed in Business, by McCormick and Karinch. Idea liberation is a creativity strategy used by many of the successful athletes and executives referenced in the book and involves two simple steps. The first is to make note of when ideas commonly come to mind for you. It is probably a time when you have fewer distractions and likely not when you are at work. Activities that often allow ideas to surface include walking, biking, hiking, exercising in nearly any way, showering, meditating, driving, sitting on a park bench, or looking out over a lake or the ocean. You get the idea. There are activities in your life during which new ideas are more likely to come to mind. Identify yours.
The second step of idea liberation is to consciously put yourself in these settings on a regular basis and be prepared to note the ideas that surface. This will likely require you to leave behind or turn off your phone and stop texting or checking emails.
The premise is that ideas are always bouncing around in your head. Much of creative thinking is about harvesting them. When we are constantly intensely engaged, we rarely notice them.
So the action step here is to observe when new ideas surface for you, then put yourself in that setting often while being aware of the ideas that come to mind. You will be pleased with the creative ideas that you harvest.
OTHER TIME-MANAGEMENT TIPS
Here are some tips recommended by managers from a variety of fields. You may find them helpful as well:
• Recognize that we all have the same amount of time—168 hours per week. No one has more time than you do. What you do with this time makes the difference.
• Set deadlines for your projects. This especially helps if you’re the procrastinator type. Avoid last-minute rush jobs. Some people say they work better under stress and tight deadlines. Perhaps they could work even better if they were not under stress. They need to give it a try.
• Remember the difference between something being urgent vs. being important. We all have urgent things to do, but always ask how important they are. Your ability to differentiate between urgent and important is critical to your success. It is best to focus on what is important. This tracks with the earlier discussion about the tyranny of the immediate.
• Try keeping a record for a week or two on how you spend your time. Keep a time log and write everything down. You may be very surprised to see where a lot of your time is going. If we do not analyze our use of time, we will not be able to manage it better. Or ask others for feedback on how you use your time. They can often see what you cannot.
• Plan your day. Doing this in the evening before is even better than doing it each morning. This way you already know what you are going to be focusing on at the beginning of the next day. If you wait until the morning to do this planning, you may get sidetracked. But whether it is the night before or in the morning, do it.
• Plan your week. Even if you work on weekends, it is well worth taking a few minutes sometime on Saturday or Sunday to plan your week. Having your plan for the week before you get to work Monday will serve you well and keep you on track when the nearly inevitable emergencies pop up, whether that happens Monday morning or later in the week.
• Follow the 70/30 rule: Schedule no more than 70 percent of your day. Leave the rest of your time for unplanned assignments, the urgencies of others, or emergencies. If you plan every minute of your day, you will be frustrated when you do not accomplish all of your plan.
• Schedule set times for sending and returning telephone calls, reading and sending emails, office hours, and so forth. This does two things for you. You save time by doing similar items together and others will eventually learn your schedule.
• Don’t wait for that perfect time for you to be in the right mood to work on a high-priority item. The time or mood may never come.
• Reward yourself when you get one of those A-priority items completed. Take yourself out to lunch, leave a little earlier that day, or call a friend with whom you have been meaning to reconnect.
• Develop the on-time habit. Show up on time, hand in things when they are due, and encourage your employees to do the same. Be the model for time mastery in your department.
• Consider working from home, in a remote office, in a seldom used conference room or a vacant office—somewhere people will not expect to find you when you have to work on a task that requires total focus and a minimum of interruptions. As an example, a task that may take you a few days at the office amid all your other responsibilities can often be completed in half a day working at home.