There are only 24hours in the day
Managing Time
June 10, 2010 by myminutementor
Bob Proctor once asked Earl Nightingale how he managed his time. Earl, apparently threw down his papers and growled “You can’t MANAGE time, you can only manage the TASKS within time!”
Advances in technology make time even more precious now than it has ever been. There is a perception that everyone is immediately available and if we are not then the fault lies with us.
There are only 24hours in the day. The recommended hours of sleep are 8, so that leaves 16hrs. The majority of people work a minimum of an 8 hour day (I can hear some of you exclaim “If only that were true!”) and therefore the question is how can we use those 8 hours as effectively as possible.
One of the best methods passed to me is to write out all of the tasks that need completing for the week ahead and then plan this whole week on the Sunday before. Consider each task and, according to its ability to help move you towards your goal, assign it to a particular day. As you do this, don’t overload yourself and factor in time during the day for unplanned events. Another method, which can be integrated into this system or to be used on its own, is to select the 6 most important things that need to be completed each day and focus on each one individually.
Munir Samji, Chairman of Blitz Communications and former MD of Saatchi & Saatchi for EMEA, recently gave me some excellent advice. He said never go to bed until the tasks from that day have been completed. If you think about it, it’s rather like waking up to a sink full of last night’s washing up! Not a good feeling…
What methods do you use? It would be really valuable if you passed on your strategies in the comments section.
Great post but not convinced about the Sunday planning. I do find though that a home notebook particularly for work stuff is a good idea, ideally in a drawer by your bed. So if you do remember something when you’ve left work you can make a note of it and put it with your stuff you’re taking to work the next day. I find that if it’s written down (i.e the task acknowledged) then I can forget about it and therefore get a better night’s sleep (I manage 6 hours on average and it’s not enough I agree). I have tried this strategy for washing up too but that hasn’t worked so well!
I can not live without lists. I have different lists for different parts of my life. Each day I look at them and see which things on the list are the most urgent and then try to work my way through them. I find that writing tasks or ‘to do’s’ down is invaluable. Once it is written down you can forget about it until you look at the list again and action it.
charlotte rivers Jun 10, 2010#1 – Always block out ‘hold’ time in your diary for weeks in advance, an hour here or there, or maybe a couple of hours on a monday. Henceforth treat this time as ‘precious’ and encourage PA’s, colleagues etc. not to mess with, ie. schedule meetings during this precious time, where possible. ‘Holdtime’ is a winner for crunching through the tail end of your tasks list, and just gives you some hope of holding your head above water – brilliant for de-stressing. Block out your lunchtime too!
#2 Write a task list for the day, at the beginning of each day, and stick to it. Keep it realistic, don’t overcommit yourself.
#3 Lose the habit of trying to respond to all e-mails immediately upon arrival – you’ll go mad if you try.
#4 Go easy on the social networking, Facebook lovers!
#5 Don’t try meetings after 2pm on a Friday. Waste of time.
#6 (I’ve never actually done this, but its common practice in the US I hear). Lock the door of your meeting room 5 minutes after scheduled start time. If someone’s late and finds they are locked out, they’ll get the message and wont waste your time in future.
Jon White Jun 10, 2010I love it. Although surely you don’t have to worry about stress working in the public sector Jon? Meetings after 2 on a Friday definitely a bad move.
Dave Harrison Jun 10, 2010