We all have the same 24 hours in each day. We can either use our time wisely or squander it away. Once the day is gone, it will never return.
As the old saying goes, “The days can feel long, but the years are all too short.” Effective managers discipline themselves to use their time well. Those who don’t will likely be replaced by those who can.
The first step in eliminating time wasters is to identify them:
1. Unproductive Meetings are unnecessary or held in such a way or at such a time that they fail to deal with their desired objectives—or, sometimes, no objectives at all. Consider how things could be done differently.
2. Firefighting or Crisis Management Work disruptions speak loudly of management ineffectiveness. They often happen when we allow ourselves to be distracted. Too often we deal with the urgent, but not necessarily the important.
3. Lack of Delegation Ineffective delegation happens because someone believes that direct reports are incapable of doing a satisfactory job. This methodology is flawed. Good supervisors create a learning environment and develop, mentor, and train those on their team.
4. Inability to Focus This happens when we allow our minds to wander. This can occur when our minds are most productive and creative. One idea evolves into two or three more ideas. The process is exciting, but let’s face it, the process is also unproductive if we have things we have to accomplish.
5. Shifting Priorities Planning and goal setting will prevent us from shifting our priorities from one project to the next at short notice.
6. Interruptions When you have an "Open Communication Policy" but fail to manage your time, interruptions can happen constantly: drop in visitors, unscheduled meetings, excessive coffee breaks, long lunches, personal commitments, or socializing. Block out times when you intend to work on highly focused initiatives and do not allow interruptions during these times unless there is an extreme emergency.
7. Technological Interruptions Modern technology is actually designed to interrupt our day, our plans, and our thought processes. Non-important phone calls, emailing, Internet searches, and social networking can happen all too frequently when we work without a schedule. There is a time and a place for these, but not when they prevent you from making the best use of your time and energy.
8. A Simple Word with Great Power: “No” When we avoid a direct and conclusive answer—usually that answer being “No”—we signal that we are a people pleaser and that we will allow the agenda of others to take over our own precious time, energy, and resources. Often the failure to say no means that we have just accepted a task that will make us do more than others in a similar position.
9. Exhaustion It doesn’t get any better if we repeatedly take on more than we can reasonably be expected to accomplish. When we are exhausted, we shortchange ourselves and our personal lives, which means that we have less renewable energy. And when we’re exhausted, we don’t do our best work; we expend more effort to accomplish what needs to be done and we shortchange the project.
10. Commuting Think about ways to use to your advantage minutes or hours that seem wasted. If you have an hour’s drive time, for example, use it for think time, for planning your daily activities, for listening to motivational or book audios. Air travel time can be used for reading, reviewing reports, sending emails. During airport waits, return calls. If you are in a carpool line waiting for children to emerge from schools or lessons, bring a book to fill your minutes constructively or create a “To Do” list.
Sources: Women and Time (ebook for $.99 or paperback for $7.99)
