tick tock…..time management

I didn’t understand this idea before I put myself in a situation, which I felt I had no way out of. I read Bernard Meltzer’s quote a one stage which I think really sums this up. He says, “I really cannot give you the formula for success. But I can give you the formula for failure. It’s this: Try to please everyone.” If you take on to much work, you’ll have a hard time balancing projects and keeping clients happy. Basically if you learn to say no, the more jobs you are committed too. The skill of under-commiting and over-delivering reduce tremendous amounts of stress in your life and significantly strengthen your work and client relationships. After all there is no greater cause of stress, than not delivering on a commitment.

Many project come across problems, and some problems can becoming very time consuming. Give yourself a short amount of time (up to 30 minutes) to try to overcome the problem, but don’t allow yourself to stare blankly at the problem forever without progress. As soon as you detect that you are really stuck, switch to doing another task for the remainder of the block or day. Next time you revisit this task, you are more likely to be able to tackle it. Two effects contribute here: first, when you are focused, you can forget surrounding issues and fail to see the problem. When you go back to a task you may have a better perspective. Second, the way the mind works even though you conscious mind is occupied with a new task, the old task still is lingering in the back of your mind, and things may “click” even while working on other tasks. If your sstuck on any project for a long period of time, the secret to getting things done, is doing regular chunks of work on it. Al Secunda in his book “The 15 second principle” makes the statement that “a minimum of 15 seconds work a day on any project will bring it to fruition.” Now I’m not quite sure how true this statement is, but he did say a MINIMUM of 15 seconds. Then I guess after those 15 seconds once you’ve got going, you will find that most days there is a natural tendency to keep going.

A time waster prevents you from accomplishing a goal. Time wasters need to be recognised and then you need to figure out why it occurs and if the situation can be remedied so that you can be in complete control of your time. One of the biggest time waster that people identify is procrastination. Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task, which needs to be accomplished and can lead to feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression and self-doubt. If you clearly see yourself going off into procrastination mode, or any time wasting mode, it becomes easier to dislike it and stop yourself. Listed below are some internal time wasters that can create a significant loss of productivity. There are also external time wasters that if not used correctly, can interfere with your efficiency.

Internal
• procrastination
• failure to delegate
• unclear objectives
• failure to set priorities
• failure to plan
• poor scheduling
• lack of self – discipline
• attempting too much at once
• lack of relevant skills

External
• telephone interruptions
• meetings
• emails
• visitors
• socialising
• lack of information
• excessive paperwork
• communication breakdown

Tom Gegax bases his time management principles on “Six D’s”:
- Don’t do it
- Delay it
- Deflect it
- Delegate it
- Do it imperfectly
- Do it

Stephen Covey in his book, First Things First, shares the following story experienced by one of his associates:

I attended a seminar once where the instructor was lecturing on time. At one point, he said, “Okay, time for a quiz.” He reached under the table and pulled out a wide-mouthed gallon jar. He set it on the table next to a platter with some fist-sized rocks on it. “How many of these rocks do you think we can get in the jar?” he asked.

After we made our guess, he said, “Okay. Let’s find out.” He set one rock in the jar . . . then another . . . then another. I don’t remember how many he got in, but he got the jar full. Then he asked, “Is this jar full?” Everyone looked at the rocks and said, “Yes.”

Then he said, “Ahhh” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar and the gravel went in all the little spaces left by the big rocks. Then he grinned and said once more, “Is the jar full?”

By this time the class was on to him. “Probably not,” we said. “Good!” he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all of the little spaces left by the rocks and the gravel. Once more he looked and said, “Is this jar full?” “No!” we roared.

He said, “Good!” and he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in. He got something like a quart of water in that jar. Then he said, ” Well, what’s the point?” Somebody said, “Well, there are gaps, and if you work really hard you can always fit some more things into your life.”

“No,” he said, “that’s not really the point.
The point is this: Put the Big Rocks in First

Extract from: Covey, Steven. First Things First. Simon/ Schuster. 1994

Alright, so you know you need to get a task done, but some tasks are large and daunting. As I have stated earlier, breaking up large tasks into smaller pieces can sometimes help, also try consolidating similar tasks together, so your in the same frame of mind when you move onto a different task. However, I guess the main focus on getting started on jobs is to get started immediately on important or tough tasks first. Then once you get those tasks running properly then and only them should you take on the next.

EAT A FROG
“If the first thing you do each morning is east a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that it’ll probably be the worst thing you’ll do all day.” _METAPHOR
Another option is to tackle the tough jobs first so you can look forward to more pleasant tasks later.

THE TYRANNY OF THE URGENT
Nick Repak states that “people tend to schedule the urgent but not the important,” this he calls the ‘The Tyranny of the Urgent’. If people aren’t scheduling important tasks, urgent jobs will continues to get in the way, and the job will not get done. Actually, most of our so-called “emergencies” aren’t emergencies at all. They are simply situations which was have neglected so long that they have come back to bite us.

80/20 RULE
Nineteenth century Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto’s puts this idea in a more formal way, he calls this the 80/20 Rule. This rules states that 80% of all that happens is really the result of 20% effort and that we tend to spend 80% of our time on projects that have a 20% return. Therefore if you concentrate your efforts on the 20% of things that have the highest value to you, your time management will benefit accordingly.

Your work environment is a huge factor or your work output. You need to be able to feel comfortable and engage in what you are doing, you will become ineffective with your time.

OUT OF SIGHT; OUT OF MIND
The above saying is true. Equally true is the reverse, “in sight, in mind”. Avoid unnecessary clutter and distractions, and make yourself feel organised. If your desk is clear, you will think clearly, locate papers easier and keep your mind on the task at hand. Documentation is one thing, documental retrieval is another. Establish a place for everything, and then put everything in its place. “You lose, on average, an hour a day looking for things. If you want more time, spend less of it looking for what you need. If your not very good at this, there are two strategies that can be used in conjunction with each other to combat this problem.

FILE/PASS ON/THROW AWAY/ READ TECHNIQUE
This can be used to manage paperwork. The idea is to handle each piece of paper only once. When you open a piece of mail, receive a note, or email react to it immediately. Either respond to it, or mark down to return a call or visit. That way the paper can be thrown out of filed away accordingly and forgotten about, therefore leaving your workspace clean and your schedule undisrupted.

DO SHEET SYSTEM
It is suggested by some that each task should have its own sleeve, manilla folder, envelope etc. to keep project files together and easy to locate.
When each project has its own file, you can create four different baskets or piles to separate jobs, so you know what stage they are up to, and keep them from cluttering your desk.
These four baskets are each labelled:
- urgent
- continuing attention
- to see or call
- awaiting developments

Circadian rhythms are internal biological clocks that regulate many functions and activities, including sleep, metabolism, alertness, blood pressure and heart rate. Every 24 hours our bodies cycle through metabolic and chemical changes which are reset by sunlight each morning. These cycles determine whether you are a morning or a night person. If we listen to our bodies, we can work with these natural rhythms instead of fighting them. We can make more efficient use of our time by scheduling certain activities at certain times of the day. Everyone has a prime time of day when they’re at their best. Once your aware of what yours is make sure you reserve those two or three hours and use it for your highest priority tasks. Then you can build this time into your daily schedule, to make sure you make use of this time everyday. So when scheduling, work out your important tasks and schedule these in when you are most productive, that is to say, don’t schedule one of these projects from 8 to 10am if you are an afternoon person.

After you’ve completed your TO-DO list and prioritising the tasks it is now time to fit them into your schedule. There are many different ways to tackle this, and some of them are shown below.

HEADLESS CHICKEN PRINCIPLE
This is where you rush around doing a bit here and a bit there, constantly getting distracted by whatever is making the most noise at the time. This is something that you don’t want to be doing! The idea is to force yourself to stay with an activity until it is completed. Therefore when scheduling try reserving whole blocks of time to accomplish tasks within. Try and fit in small tasks during small blocks of time and larger tasks in bigger blocks.

SWISS CHEESE TECHNIQUE
If you have major projects try breaking them into manageable pieces, this way they can be handled in shorter time slots and are easier to tackle. For example, you may not have time to write a whole essay, but you may be able to structure it and write the introduction.

BREAKS AND FLEXIBLE TIME
Don’t schedule all of your time, leave around 10% of your schedule open to allow time to deal with unexpected jobs or emergencies, this is called “flexible time”. Procrastinators can use this time to do work they’ve put off, or reward themselves when they haven’t. Plan frequent breaks, especially when you’re under a lot of pressure. Your brain needs time to digest and process information, and breaks help relieve stress, sustain motivation and provide a transition period when changing tasks.

PARKINSON’S LAW
Try to take advantage of Parkinson’s Law that “a project tends to take the time allocated for it.” If you give yourself one thing to do during the day, it will most likely take all day to complete it. If you give yourself two things to do, its likely you’ll accomplish both. If you give yourself twelve things to do during the day, you may not get all twelve done, but you may complete seven or eight items. Having a lot to do creates a healthy sense of pressure on us to naturally become better time managers.

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