Management fundamentals: Manage your time
Time can sometimes defeat you and thwart your goals, but Scott Beagrie shows how some simple steps can help you to conquer the minutes and hours to maximise your efficiency and improve productivity levels at work
March 2010
Time is at a premium for all managers. But managing it well has always been one of the role’s bigger challenges and in recent years the problem has been compounded by yet more time-stealers entering the workplace.
In addition to the usual mix of disruptive team members, disorganised bosses, constant interruptions and having to deal with unforeseen matters on a daily basis, our almost total dependency on computers means we feel compelled to check our emails every five minutes and waste precious time on Facebook and Twitter. Add all these factors together and it’s easy to see why come 5.30pm we’re left feeling swamped with overflowing in-trays and unfinished tasks.
While good time management is one of the hardest skills to put into practice in today’s increasingly pressurised workplaces, it is also one of the most vital. The good news is that time management is a skill that can be learned, even by the most disorganised among us – you just have to stop and make time to do so.
1 Take control
Conduct an audit of how you spend your day so you can arrive at a clear picture of an average working week. The most accurate way of doing this is to log your activity in 15 or 20 minute intervals. Once you’ve done this, look at your priorities and goals, and evaluate how much of this activity is aligned to them. Establish how much time is uncategorised. By identifying activities that place a burden on your time you can then try to reduce if not eliminate them altogether if appropriate.
Ultimately this may mean saying ‘no’ to somebody when you are asked to do something, possibly your boss, so be sure to handle any such situation sensitively and politely. Unless you start to make these adjustments, however, you will never be able to take full control of your time, which is fundamental to managing it. It may be that a compromise can be reached over such tasks by discussing them with your boss.
2 Develop routines
Focus on your key objectives for the next month and set achievable targets. Stuart Duff, partner and head of development at business psychologists Pearn Kandola, recommends segmenting the time so that you have milestones in mind rather than one final deadline. Having mapped out the bigger picture, assign blocks of time each day for routine work such as answering emails, making phone calls and dealing with queries.
While you can never plan for everything, as a key part of your role is to react to situations and deal with problems, it’s essential to factor time into the day for this.
Take full advantage of dead time such as a commute or business travel to plan or do any background or report reading. Identify what jobs can be delegated at the start of each week.
Whether your preference is for a traditional diary planner or an electronic organiser, ensure it is always up to date. Use technology to help you organise your day: set the alarm on your mobile phone when you have to leave for a meeting or make use of email reminders. And when it comes to email, get into the discipline of checking it at specific times, two or three times a day, rather than being a slave to your inbox.
3 Use your prime time wisely
Understand what time of day your concentration reaches a peak and you are most effective. This so-called ‘biological prime time’ accounts for roughly six hours of a 24-hour period so it is a case of tuning into your body clock to determine when you are most awake and alert.
Once this has been established, match tasks to your frame of mind. For instance, if you have to make a presentation, schedule it when you know you have most energy while reserving less demanding tasks for periods of low productivity such as directly after lunch.
“Recognise where and how to focus your energy most effectively,” says Duff. “While we may tackle some tasks with energy and efficiency, others can drag on and take up a disproportionate amount of time.”
4 Check your gauges
Some managers always feel there aren’t enough hours in a day because they underestimate the time it takes to do a task. Paradoxically, the same people are strikingly accurate when it comes to assessing how long jobs will take for others. Duff stresses that managers need to be more realistic in their judgment of time. “Recognise your own personality preferences – if you know that you underestimate the time it takes to do something, set yourself a time and double it.”
5 Keep your desk functional
A cluttered and untidy desk can play both a mental and physical part in making you less time-efficient. File away anything you don’t need immediately and just keep out documents that relate to current projects and tasks. Adopt a lean file policy: throw away duplicate documents or those you don’t need.
Sort and label your in and out trays and avoid using them simply to pile up paper. Assess how ergonomic your workstation is and seek expert advice on this if necessary. At the end of each day, spend 10 minutes tidying and organising your workspace ready for the next day.
The way I see it
Stuart Duff, Pearn Kandola
Q. Why are so many of us bad time managers?
Many people try to do too much in the time available. They tend to be too optimistic and simply misjudge the amount of time required to do something, which results in the common problem of over-committing and under-delivering. If you experience this, try to work out what causes you to underestimate time. Are you eager to impress others or demonstrate your ability? Try to develop a reliable formula for guessing how long it might take to do something, such as ‘think of the time required and double it’. It may teach you to be more realistic with your time.
Q. What are the biggest challenges to successfully managing your time?
From a psychological perspective, personality and memory are among the biggest challenges. Some people are naturally less organised in the way they work and are more relaxed with deadlines. They need to find a suitable motivator, such as a fear of letting others down, to ensure they manage time effectively. And then there’s the challenge of actually remembering to do something. Psychologists call this ‘prospective memory’, which means we store future events in our mind in a similar way to how we store past memories. Researchers have found that we are far better at remembering to do the things we enjoy than routine tasks which are more easily forgotten. You may need to incentivise yourself to do the dull stuff on time.
Q. Are there more advanced techniques to improve skills?
Learn how to judge time more effectively. This sounds easy but we vary considerably in our estimations of how quickly time passes. Some people always overestimate the length of an hour, others underestimate. Knowing your own tendencies will help you to be more alert to the risk of overcommitting.