Figure 11.1 Stephen Covey’s four activity boxes
11
MANAGING THE PROCESS
“Manage the process” was a line delivered to me by my then future, now former, boss. While a financial journalist, he invited me to give a speech on the competitive landscape of corporate banking at his bank’s annual offsite.
Motivated to deliver my first-ever speech involving my specialist knowledge to a group of actual practitioners I worked long and hard to get the presentation right and to deliver it perfectly. There was also the sniff of a job in the air.
On the day, I spent all morning in my hotel room practising in front of the mirror and then did everything I could to mentally prepare myself, including going for a swim just prior to the speech to help me appear relaxed and authoritative. Boy was I prepared, although not for the midday lockout from my room with my notes either inside or in the cleaner’s trash – all because I’d forgotten to request an extended check out.
In fact I’d ignored the warning from the organizers that this would happen – being too focused on the speech to take any notice of practical or pressing considerations.
“Manage the process, laddie,” my future boss said as I tripped in to the lecture hall late and flustered from my desperate and overly emotional exchanges with the cleaning supervisor. The notes had not been trashed, but had been “tidied,” so I was terrified throughout that I’d be flummoxed by each new slide, meaning my delivery was nervous and poor.
My great speech had been ruined, not least by my future boss’s patronizing comment. In fact I quietly resented it. As comments go it was hardly aimed at easing my nerves. Yet this didn’t stop me adopting the motto for my own team in future years. While its wisdom was obvious, it had that all-important edge of superiority about it that I enjoyed. It sounded like something a boss should say to a flustered subordinate – one over-burdened with the expectations of his or her superiors without any of their advantages (PAs, support systems, first-class tickets – years of experience).
But whatever its inadequacy as an encouragement to a team member, it’s a useful mantra for us when trying to organize our lives for achievement motivation. This is about getting the small stuff right. About organizing ourselves in such a way that allows time and space for the execution of our strategy and tactics. This is the bit where we overcome mental hurdles such as “I just haven’t the time” or “I’m too busy” or “I’m just too disorganized.”
So what’s meant by “managing the process?” To my future/former boss it meant no more than “work out what has to be done, when, and do it.” And there may be little need to add more to the definition, except to offer the view that time-and-task management is not a skill, or a talent, or even a craft. It is, indeed, a process. There is nothing innate about efficiency. Anyone can adopt efficient practices – we just have to set ourselves up to be efficient, follow that through, and then turn that process into a habit.
“Getting control of your time means facing up to the fact that you are usually the problem, not someone else,” says time-management guru Alec MacKenzie in The Time Trap (1972), the mother of all time-management books. “It means doing the hard work of changing well-established habits. It means holding your ground against the negative tugs of human nature.”
MacKenzie talks of human characteristics that contradict the laws of time management – such as ego, the desire to please, the fear of offending and the fear of new challenges – all of which are well known to those with a high fear of failure. We may think controlling our work environment is beyond us. Yet giving in to outside pressures is something that resides within us, says MacKenzie – using the example of answering the phone when we are busy and then blaming the caller for the interruption.
So how can we clear the clutter from our path towards progress? By first clearing the clutter from our thinking.
According to Stephen Covey (1989) every activity in our waking hours belongs in one of four boxes (or “quadrants”) in what he calls the “time management matrix.” This important-sounding concept simply suggests that all activities are either “urgent” or “not urgent” and – additionally – that all activities are either “important” or “not important.”
In my (slightly altered) version the boxes are labelled:
Covey contends that we spend most of our time on activities in one of the two “urgent” boxes – marked either “important” or “not important.” And while Box 1 may contain valuable work such as immediate but worthwhile tasks and goal-oriented projects with tight deadlines, we will always turn to Box 2 as soon as they are done – simply because tasks in Box 2 are also “urgent” and therefore shout louder.
Figure 11.1 Stephen Covey’s four activity boxes
Yet this is a disaster for our progress. Box 2, of urgent but unimportant tasks, is the box that knocks those with high fear of failure off course. Unable to prioritize, fearful of saying no, we try and balance Boxes 1 and 2 but have only the vaguest notion of what activities are important for goal achievement and what requires our focus simply to get someone off our back. And the two combined wipe out our potential for growth, which is nearly all stored in Box 3 – containing not urgent but nonetheless important tasks.
Box 2 deceives us into thinking we are making progress, but is in fact no more than the processing of interruptions such as emails, phone calls, meetings, enquiries from adjacent colleagues and other ultimately useless activities. Box 3, meanwhile, contains important future-oriented activities such as research, relationship-building, applications, skill-acquisition and planning.
Amazingly, Box 3 is the least loved of all the boxes, despite being the most important. Exhausted after a day working through Boxes 1 and 2, we flop into the escapist “not urgent, not important” activities of Box 4. This really is the time-wasters box – usually involving mind-numbing TV or internet surfing – although can include some pleasant activities that could potentially be recategorized as “important,” such as family time or exercise, once we are on top of time-and-task management.
Figure 11.2 What happens
So how can we create the space to focus on Box 3? This can be difficult, but by focusing on our 10-year horizon and our thought-through strategy we should have achieved the mental realignment required to begin with Box 3 activities – using it as our starting grid to drive our every action. Where we used to start with Box 1, and fit in Box 3 if released long enough from the “urgent” stranglehold, we now use Box 3 to determine what counts as Box 1 (valuable) and Box 2 (interruption) – giving us the judgement to prioritize. Sure, this may overload Box 2 (with all our old work now judged as no more than an interruption), but at least we have become aware of that fact.
A second requirement is to rethink our notion of time.
Figure 11.3 What should happen
“We may have leisure time, but no one has such a thing as free time,” says corporate consultant and academic B. Eugene Griessman in Time Tactics of Very Successful People (1994). “You may be lying by the pool or attending a play, but that’s not free time. All time has value.”
Griessman states that you should develop a full appreciation of the value of time, if necessary allocating a theoretical monetary cost for each hour depending on what you think an hour of your time is worth. That said, the aim is not to be “crudely materialistic.” It is to help you realize that – if you are in a meeting that’s dragging on, or you are talking too frequently to your colleague – you understand the true cost to you of that meeting or conversation (or even that wasteful out-of-hours activity).
If necessary, says Griessman, you should keep a log of your daily ration of 24 hours (perhaps in your diary) so that you can analyze over a period where you have allocated your time, and its cost. Quickly it should become apparent where the efficiencies are to be had – what activities are in the unimportant boxes and should, therefore, be squeezed or eliminated.
Yet Griessman’s recommendations can seem complicated. Covey’s simpler approach, meanwhile, takes us back to school – actually creating a school-style timetable with hourly slots from eight-til-eight and blocks for the evening. You should allocate each hour of the day for particular activities – importantly allowing you to schedule time for the vital Box 3 activities no matter what the pressures from Box 1 and 2.
The timetable uses all seven days and requires you to state your weekly and daily priorities and your weekly goals against your particular roles (e.g. father, husband, manager, future entrepreneur). And while you need to be realistic about time allocation for each task, you also need to be strict on yourself regarding the need to complete tasks within the allotted timeframe before moving on – not engaging in other activities until you have completed your tasks.
Yet even this can become unsustainable. Such an approach will work well for initially improving your time-management practices – as well as making you acutely aware of being bamboozled by Box 2 activities. But only the most swivel-eyed self-motivators will want to regiment their lives to the point where the kids are being dragged to badminton because that’s what it says on the timetable. It is also an easy timetable to write but one less easy to follow because your energy and motivation levels are not always consistent. Slotting in two hours last thing on Friday afternoon for “ideas and creativity” may be pushing your luck with respect to motivation, for instance, although it may be just the time to discuss ideas in the pub with the rest of the team.
In The Time Trap MacKenzie suggests we understand our personal energy cycle before setting up our “ideal day” with respect to timetabling. And, certainly, we need some flexibility within the system, although what I notice when strictly pursuing Covey’s timetable is that, if I follow it from Monday, such strong time-structuring means most of my Box 1 and 2 tasks are complete by Wednesday, allowing me to focus on Box 3 items for Thursday and Friday (and on reframed Box 4 activities at the weekend).
But what of those nasty Box 2 items, derailing our agendas? Of course, it’s impossible to kill all interruptions – at least without making ourselves unpopular. Yet it may help to allot particular times for dealing with them – perhaps from nine-til-10 am and/or from five-til-six pm. It just might be the case that you can also politely and over time train those around you to respect those hours for “urgent” but not important interruptions.
Well you can at least try, although it may be helped by proactivity on your part – Box 2 interruptions are usually from a handful of the same individuals, so a quick call at 9 am – asking if they have all they need for the day because “I need to knuckle down on a major project and will be keen to minimize interruptions” – may just work if delivered in a style aimed at making their work seem valued and necessary (rather than the eye-rolling job-creation you may inwardly believe it to be).
Yet what if you can’t even get this far – so cluttered is the path in front of you? This usually means there’s a roadblock preventing you getting started. A roadblock so large, what’s more, that you cannot see the road ahead because of it. In Getting Things Done (2001), executive coach David Allen accepts that your first job may be to create the sense of control and focus you need for the road ahead – perhaps clearing that major project or task by writing a list of everything you need to do to move that project forward.
This may be a struggle, although as long as you remain clear about the intention of making headway towards your goals, you should soon manage to navigate the obstacle. And even with the roadblock, Covey’s timetable may help breathe some oxygen into your schedule – perhaps allowing an hour a day on Box 3 activities – even while in the thick of battle to overcome your roadblock.
In The Power of an Hour (2006), “business acceleration” consultant Dave Lakhani discusses the “critical power hour” that allows you to address such major roadblocks by working out what you need to change, what is the structure of the change, what solutions are possible, what are the next steps, and how you will reward ourselves once done. As the name of his book suggests, Lakhani divides life’s tasks into hours that have a “fearsome focus” with a relaxing break at the end.
“While time may seem like the thing you need the most of,” he says, “it turns out that isn’t true. What you need is focus – a very specific kind of focus.”
This complements Covey’s timetable. And Lakhani’s recommendations also chime with David Allen’s advice that, when facing that initial roadblock, you first create a physical place that captures everything you need to get done – now, later or some time – into a logical and organized system, such as a ring-binder. Just maybe your roadblock is not as large as it seems, once you have properly assessed its proportions and how it might be navigated.
One of my favourite tricks for unblocking “big-taskitis” is to buy some stationery. These are the tools of the organized person and, just as a mountaineer will spend hours looking at equipment for an expedition – seeing it as a thrilling precursor to the adventure ahead – so you should fall in love with the stationery store. Files, folders, wallets, organizers, in-trays, memo-pads: this is the equipment you need to climb your mountain and you should indulge yourself with new and shiny objects and arrange them lovingly around your desk.
You should also spend time arranging your desk. David Allen states that you should schedule a block of time dedicated to preparing your workstation – sourcing the necessary furniture, cabinets, intrays and electronic equipment, making sure it is arranged as you want it, is configured and primed to your needs, and is both efficient and pleasing to look at. Once done, you should admire it. It will be your cockpit for the journey ahead.
This is what Stephen Covey calls “sharpening the saw” – his seventh habit in fact. In Seven Habits … he offers a parable in which a man, struggling to fell a tree, is advised to sharpen the old rusty saw he is using.
“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw, I’m too busy sawing,” says the man, and struggles on inefficiently.
Just about every “success” writer agrees with this, even Abraham Lincoln.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe,” is one of his attributed quotes.
Certainly, preparation is a key part of our drive for time-and-task efficiency, as are the right tools.
“Make your workplace work for you,” says Griessman (1994), adding that you should spend money on the files and equipment you need to work efficiently and effectively.
And if memo-pads and files sound a bit “last century,” perhaps they should. Sure Covey’s timetable can be electronic, as can project documents. However, Allen’s idea of a “collection bucket” for anything unfinished, so it can be “released from your mind” but still apparent as a “to do,” needs to be physical in my view. My PC’s hard-drive is full of electronic folders that have been created and then forgotten, yet every physical file that has ever been on my desk has been dealt with, no matter how far down the pile it sank or even if it was eventually consciously thrown away. The key thing is that it wasn’t lost and forgotten.
Such physicality is also required of your diary in my view – not least because it needs to be locatable for 10 years, which few electronic formats are (due to changing technologies) – and it is even true of reminders or “to do” lists. These can even be in your diary, although I’d rather not have my diary so visible – preferring instead those 6x4 inch lined cards where I list my tasks for the next few days, crossing them off when complete. The size of the card is important as I can only fit 12-or-so tasks on the list before having to start a new card. Sure, some tasks get backed up, and some cards need to have undone tasks transferred between them. Yet the simple process of transferring a task from one card to another reminds me of the task and helps me reassess it. The cards are then propped behind my keyboard and stare at me all day. Box 2 interruptions are simply given a line on the card and dealt with between five and six pm.
Importantly, Box 3 needs are given equal billing to Box 1. And any “manage the process” elements, such as a need to renew my passport, collect my suit from the dry cleaners or buy my wife’s birthday present(s) also get a line, as well as a line through them once done.
“Learn to rely on checklists,” recommends Griessman (1994), although he also states that these are not to be confused with “to do” lists (as described above). Checklists note the steps we must take to complete a task efficiently. For instance everything we need for a trip abroad is a checklist, everything I needed to do to allow me to focus on nothing but my speech – including quick calls to reception to request a late checkout – is a checklist.
Checklists are about efficiency, so order is also important. In Getting Things Done, David Allen states that there are five stages when dealing with workflow:
Griessman would perhaps add “get it done now” to Allen’s list. He states that it is damaging to start a project, put it away, and then start again – spending time wondering “where was I?” Some projects cannot be finished in one go but many can and should. Also, you should stop midway only after giving yourself clear written instructions about what comes next once you restart.
Griessman also suggests that you “ask yourself, ‘is there an easier way to do this?’ ”
“Looking for the easy way out can be the smartest thing you can do,” he says. “Don’t confuse ‘busyness’ with efficiency.”
A final Griessman tip worth adopting is to deal with unpleasant situations first. Immediately tackling the tasks that give us least comfort can make them more bearable. Indeed, these tasks are often the very roadblocks that are obscuring the way ahead.
Brian Tracy (of Goals! fame) writes something similar in Eat That Frog (2004), although uses more descriptive language – suggesting that if you “eat a live frog each morning” you will have already experienced the worst thing that will happen to you that day. He says you should find the live frogs that are hidden on your to-do list or checklists and tackle them first – learning to “snack on those difficult problems.”
Of course by frogs Tracy means the largest and/or most important and/or most difficult task facing you on your path towards progress.
“The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success,” says Tracy – suggesting that the frogs are a “high-protein diet” that will give you the right physique for dealing with all the other tasks.
This feeds into Tracy’s thinking on prioritization – offering a tip that can easily be added to your to-do list or checklist or to Covey’s timetable. He calls it the “ABCs of Success” although also adds D and E. His suggestion is that you categorize your to-do list with an ABCD or E:
Of course, the stressed person may be tempted to load their tasks with “A” and “B” labels, which Tracy says is fine – “simply number them sequentially … A-1, A-2, A-3 and so forth.”
I also think it important to be opportunistic when it comes to efficiency. Helped by my RAS, I am always on the lookout for a chance to quickly fulfil a need. Queueless cashpoints always attract my eye, for instance, and I never pass the stationery store without it occurring to me that this may be a good moment to stock up.
Yet this can go beyond small tasks. Grabbing a coffee or a sandwich is a great opportunity to discuss a major project with a colleague; travel to meetings offers a strong chance to read boring documents that have to be digested (often called “airplane reading” in the US) or practise presentational skills with a colleague; and commuting offers us an excellent opportunity to undertake Box 3 tasks such as acquiring knowledge and research.
Does all this sound a bit manic? Perhaps it should. In his ground-breaking book Outliers (2008), renowned business author Malcolm Gladwell focuses on what turns ordinary mortals into outstanding achievers. One clear trait is endeavour. In tracking potential professional musicians, he states that researchers noticed a pattern between the hours of practice and the level of achievement. Strong amateurs put in around 2000 hours by adulthood while teachers put in around 4000. Professionals, however, put in around 8000 hours and the elite 10,000.
“Virtually every success story … involves someone or some group working harder than their peers,” was Gladwell’s conclusion.
Hard work matters. No one else will achieve your goals on your behalf. But does that mean you are never off duty, never relaxed? All this activity can make you feel and appear hyper, which can irritate those around you and lead to nervous exhaustion. Your aim here is not to alienate people who may now seem to you disinterested, disorganized and, frankly, in the slow lane. You are simply trying to make progress towards your goals by producing better results. You must realize that this will take time and may not always involve smooth progress, so you may need to inject some wind-down time within your schedule if you are not to burn out. And you must also realize that you remain connected to others – especially significant others – and shouldn’t alienate them through your potentially over-zealous words and actions.
This means you should reframe those Box 4 “not urgent and not important” tasks. If they are the moments you reconnect with friends and family – making sure you are carrying them with you on your journey – then Box 4 has its place. If Box 4 tasks are also the moments you can recharge your batteries with exercise, disconnected stimulation or relaxation then they definitely have their place. And if they are, crucially, the moments you reflect on the tiny self-confirming steps you are taking each day then they are valuable indeed.