| |
A Primer on Time Management
You’re in early, out late, and what’s in between
always seems to be a frenzy of activity – emails, phone
calls, meetings, lunches and impromptu conversations If
you’re lucky you’ll have a little time to close your
door and get some actual work done. Every day is the
same – extremely busy but hardly productive. You gain no
traction on larger projects and last minute deadline
dancing buys you one more day of chaos.
Meet Vilfredo Pareto, your oldest co-worker. Pareto,
a 19th century Italian Economist, observed that 80% of
property in Italy was owned by 20% of the Italian
population. His 80/20 rule is a succinct way of stating
that you are unproductive at work. 80% of unfocused
effort generates only 20% of results. The remaining 80%
of results are achieved with 20% of the effort. The
ratio is not always exactly 80/20, but the general
principle of a small amount of work generating
disproportionate results should sound familiar.
A little bit of focus and planning will go a long
way. Follow these time sculpting tips to do more in less
time:
-
Work hard during your peak hours.
Everybody has a time of day when they are most
industrious. Whether it’s in the morning after your
first cup of coffee or mid-afternoon, hone in on
your peak hours and use that time to shut your door,
put your head down, and get some solid work done. No
emails, no phone calls, no drop-ins. You’ll be
surprised at how much you can actually get done when
you are distraction free.
-
It’s no secret that Mondays tend to be more
productive than Fridays.
As the weekend approaches thoughts drift, motivation
takes a dive, and efficiency suffers. You can use
this sliding scale of productivity to your
advantage. Plan your week and get some
meat-and-potatoes work done on Monday. Save meetings
and calls for the end of the week. As temptation to
blow off work heightens tie your work commitments to
other people. Colleen, a Real Estate Office Manager
in New York holds a regular Friday meeting. “During
the week clients, reports, and running all over town
keep us so busy that everyone gets caught up in
their own world. Friday is the day where we touch
base, deal with issues for the coming week, and make
plans for the weekend. The meeting keeps everyone
focused when they would normally be counting the
hours until the weekend.”
-
Plan Ahead.
Scheduling your day in the morning is too late. Try
to schedule two days in advance and make sure you
glance at your schedule for the next day before you
leave work. When you arrive the next day you will
have a better idea of how your day will shake out.
-
Be
realistic about scheduling.
Scheduling only works if you stick to it. Many of
us schedule meetings or phone calls for a specific
time slot and always run over. That makes you late
for your next commitment, and the next, and
something always gets postponed. Be realistic about
time allotments. If you normally would schedule one
hour, schedule an hour and a half instead. Time is
hard to come by but if you are realistic about
estimates in the beginning you will plan better,
meet more deadlines, and have a better idea of what
your days, weeks, and even months will look like in
advance.
-
Don’t be afraid to re-organize on the fly.
If you begin a meeting and realize you are going to go
over the scheduled time, take a minute and either
re-organize your schedule if the meeting is a
priority or plan on finishing up another time.
|
|
