Successful Time Management

 

Get organized 〰Learn to prioritise〰Minimise paperwork〰Maximize your performance

Time: a key resource – opportunities, and difficulties

"Success is a process, a quality of mind and way of being, an outgoing affirmation of life. Alex Noble"

Whatever job you do, if you are in a management or executive role, you will utilize a number of resources. People, money, materials – all are important. In any particular job, one resource may predominate. But there is one resource we all have in common: time. And time is a hard taskmaster. Everyone occasionally experiences problems getting everything done, and doing it all in the time available. For some, such problems seem perpetually to exist to one degree or another; others will admit to having moments when things seem to conspire to prevent work from going as planned, and a few live in a state of permanent chaos.

Who then needs to think about time management? Everyone, potentially, can benefit from reviewing how to manage their time effectively. In any organization many of the things that actually characterize its very nature make proper time man[1]agement difficult: hierarchical structures, people, deadlines, paperwork, e-mail, computer problems, meetings, pressures, and interactions, both around the organization and externally; all these and more can compound the problems.

Time management is not optional. It is something that everyone who wants to work effectively must consider, whether formally or informally. In fact, virtually everyone practices time management to some degree; the only question is how well they do it and how it affects what they do. Yet, time management is not easy – as you may have noticed! Nor, even for those who work at it, is it something that anyone gets 100 percent right. If you think that is a rather ominous start to a book on time management, there is worse to come.

The classic author G K Chesterton wrote: ‘The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult, and left untried.’ So too with time management: just because it is difficult, the temp[1]tation can be to despair of ever making a real difference, and to give up on it, letting things take their course and muddling through somehow. To varying degrees, this temptation is often very strong.

Making it work

But, and it is a positive, you can make a difference and such a difference cannot only be worthwhile, but it can also have a radical effect on both job and career. Make no mistake: the effect of getting to grips with time management can be considerable and varied. It can:

1.       Affect your efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity. This alone makes your attitude to time management very impor[1]tant, for it affects your work day by day, hour by hour, all the time

2.       Condition the pressure that goes with any job.

  Create greater positive visibility. Time management is something that will influence how you are perceived by others within the organization. Good time management is an overriding factor that can differentiate people of other[1]wise equal talent and ability, making it more likely that some will succeed better in career terms than others. 

Thus, although it may take some time, getting to grips with your own personal system of time management is immensely important. Time management must be seen as synonymous with self-management; it demands discipline, but discipline is reinforced by habit. In other words, the good news is that it gets easier as you work at it. Good habits help ensure a well[1] organized approach to the way you plan and execute your work. On the other hand, bad habits – as many of us are aware – are difficult to shift. And the changing of habits is something that may well be a necessary result of any review of how you work.

Making time management work for you is based on two key factors: how you plan your time and how you implement the detail of what you do. The first of these, which is reviewed in the early part of this book, create an important foundation

upon which you can then build and work. The second consists of a multitude of operational factors, practices, methods, and tricks, all of which can individually and positively affect the way in which you work. Such factors may be absurdly simple, for example, visibly checking your watch from time to time will tend to make visitors less likely to overstay their welcome, especially if such checks are accompanied by the appropriate look of concern. Or they may demand more complexity, for example, a well-set-up filing system can save time, ensuring that you can locate papers quickly and accurately.

Other factors may be downright sneaky, like having a private signal to prompt your secretary to interrupt a meeting with news of something demanding its rapid curtailment or your prompt departure. Furthermore, there is a cumulative effect at work here. This means that the more you adopt or adapt the tricks of the trade that work for you, the more time-efficient you become. This is a process that most of us can continue to add to and work on throughout our careers. So, unless you are a paragon of time-efficient virtue, a review of whether you are working in the best possible way is nearly always worthwhile. Indeed, it can pay dividends to keep a regular eye on this throughout your working life. This too can become a habit