leadingtoday.org

Leadership Tip of the Month

December 2004

Copyright 2004 ã weLEAD, Inc.

Leadership and Time Management – Part 1

Time Management is an important quality to a leader. What is time management? It is organizing our time to bring value and efficiency into the tasks we perform! It is not working more hours, or just harder, but more effectively. We are often rightly concerned about how we spend our money. Yet, we should also desire to maximize the worth of our time as well. By managing our time wisely, we can convert the minutes or hours now wasted during a normal business day into time that can be used more productively and effectively. We won’t reclaim time by looking for large blocks of time. We reclaim time by looking at small pieces of wasted effort! Here are some examples…

- If you save 30 seconds every five minutes, by the end of the day you have saved an hour!

- By reclaiming 15 minutes a day, 7 days a week, you will retrieve an extra 2 ¼ working weeks per year!

The first place to begin is by taking a serious analysis of how you spend each day. Purchase or create a “time analysis log” that reflects a typical 24 hour period on a work day. The log should have each hour of the day divided into 10 or 20 minute sections. To the right of the time divisions write down what you did the last 24 hours.

For example…

Time Activity

8:00 AM __________

8:10 AM __________

8:20 AM __________

8:30 AM __________

8:40 AM __________

8:50 AM __________

This will help you to identify where your time goes every 24 hours during a typical week day. This self-analysis is much more effective if you perform this examination for an entire 7 day week! You may find that you are either wasting time, or using it poorly because of an acquired habit or mere convenience. Many folks are surprised to discover how much time they spend in front of a television or in unproductive meetings. Look for ways you are wasting time or using it poorly. Are there activities you can change, consolidate or even eliminate? See how much time you can reclaim at home or at work by looking for the small pieces of wasted effort.

Another way we can begin to reclaim time is by knowing the difference between important and urgent. Important is defined as “of much significance or consequence”. On the other hand, urgent is defined as pressing; compelling or requiring immediate action or attention. Don’t confuse “urgent” matters with what is really important, as it will consume your valuable time and effectiveness. People will often bring matters to you that they believe are urgent. The real question is… are they important? There is not enough time to do all the worthwhile things you desire and need to do! Therefore an effective leader must focus on the high-value important activities. If you don’t do this your entire day will be consumed with seemingly urgent, yet unimportant issues brought to your attention.

We often start out a day with the best of intentions, but then “problems” arise that seemingly must be solved now! This is often referred to as “crisis management”. Some organizations have a dysfunctional culture that constantly operates in a crisis management mode. If you seem to be forced to confront this problem on a daily basis, it is difficult to manage your time effectively. Here are some things to consider…

1. Schedule and complete your own work and projects before they become urgent and contribute to the problem. Learn to control what you can control. This means not procrastinating and waiting to the last minute to get your own work done.

2. Give yourself more time than you think you’ll need to complete a task. (Most of us tend to underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete something we consider “easy”, and to overestimate the “difficult” tasks.)

3. When faced with a large project, don’t let it overwhelm you. Break it down into smaller components (goals) and tackle them one by one. Start by simply collecting ideas and information and put them in a new file.

4. When something urgent “comes up” don’t under-react or over-react. Give yourself a little time to think it through. A well thought out answer or decision is better than an impulsive one.

5. You can schedule a block of time on your daily agenda to work on spontaneous urgent matters. Very little happens that is actually life threatening. In most cases you can put off an urgent problem for at least a half hour or perhaps half a day. Acting instead of reacting to an urgent problem will result in better solutions.

Next month we will recommend a time management system that will help you to organize your life.

For weLEAD, this is Greg Thomas reminding you that it was John Randolph who wrote, “Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions.”

On the weLEAD Website you will find over 70 other free helpful leadership tips. They are all available in a text version or as an MP3 audio!