Time Management

If you cannot manage yourself for effectiveness, you cannot expect to manage others” (Peter Drucker).

Time ManagementStudies show that on average, managers are interrupted every 8 minutes (or about 73 times per day)

Interruptions

• An average interruption time of 5 minutes – equates to about 4 hours

• Once interrupted, it can take 20 minutes to get back to the level of concentration you were at prior to the disruption

• This makes time management a very important skill to master because often we can find ourselves trying to deal with so many different things that we actually deal with none effectively

telephone calls

email messages

colleagues

the odd crisis

Tips to improve productivity

Write it down Prioritise

Avoid phone calls & emails

Expect the unexpected

Stop reverse delegation

Avoid unnecessary meetings

Schedule downtime

Write it down

• Write down everything that needs doing – that way you don’t have to stress about remembering everything

• Update your ‘To Do’ list on a daily basis

Prioritise

• Once you have a list of things to do, put them in order of importance

• Sometimes it may make sense to do a bunch of small tasks first, to clear your mind for a bigger task

• Other times you may have to just ignore the small stuff to get the big projects done

• If you are more alert at certain times of the day, do harder tasks then and save the more menial stuff for another time

Avoid being interrupted by phone calls and email • Turn off email and message alerts - and schedule specific times of

the day to read and reply to email

• Turn off your phone for 2 hours per day while you take action on your key strategic priorities

• Ask for your phone calls to be held during this time 

• Check all your phone messages and return your calls at a specific time every day

• If you must answer a phone call when you are in the middle of a task, let the caller know you are busy, and schedule a return call later that day

Expect the unexpected

Turn up slightly late all the time? You are probably not allowing for the unexpected… give yourself a little extra time to get places and do things

Put a stop to “Reverse Delegation” • Stop your people coming to you with problems and expecting you to

solve them. Leaders are usually to blame for creating this scenario, and must break the habit by holding themselves back from automatically giving their opinion. Your people will never learn to think like leaders if you let them take the lazy way out by bringing all their issues to you to solve, and likewise if you take the lazy way out by giving them all the answers

• You lose a valuable coaching opportunity when you train your team to let you make all the decisions. Instead, whenever a team member wants to discuss a problem or an opportunity, ask them to also present to you a range of options, as well as their recommendation as to what action they would take if it were up to them to make the decision. It will take longer initially, but the long-term benefits are worth it.

Avoid wasting time with unnecessary meetings • If you are running the meeting, ask yourself – do you really need to

have this meeting at all?

• If you are invited to a meeting, ask yourself – do you really need to attend, or is it a better use of your time to review a copy of the meeting notes afterwards? (This decision can be a catalyst to improve the quality of note taking and decision making in your absence)

• Only invite those who absolutely need to be at a meeting to discuss the topics in question

• Create an agenda to define the purpose of the meeting, and the

specific topics to be discussed

• Prioritise the agenda so the most important issues are dealt with first

• Send the agenda out with a reasonable notice period so people can come prepared and ready to contribute

Schedule downtime – make sure you get that time away from work where you don’t have to think or stress about it. You will come back fresher and more productive. Unless an absolute emergency, avoid giving up your downtime for work