So often when people think of time management they think in terms of tips, tricks, tools and techniques. What’s the latest new and creative approach? A focus on seeking out the latest trendy tool or technique misses the larger questions: What is my purpose at work? How can I figure out how to prioritize? What purposes does managing my time serve? If we view the way we spend our time as simply an issue of efficiency (doing things the right way) and not as an issue of effectiveness (doing the right things the right way) we are missing the point.
There is a process that, if followed, will help us be effective in the management of our time. First, we need to connect to a purpose larger than simply doing our tasks. After sorting out what our purpose is, we need to figure out how we currently spend our time. Then, finally, we can work out how we are going to spend our time in the future.
Purpose – Sort It Out
The Power of Purpose. What does that mean? The concept is that if we can deeply connect with our purpose in our organization—meeting the mission of our organization—then everything we do can be evaluated by whether or not it is useful in serving our organization’s purpose.
Most organizations have mission statements. To connect to The Power of Purpose means that we begin to evaluate everything we do in light of how it contributes to our organization's ability to meet its mission.
For most of us, our organization already has a mission statement. What we need to do is sort out how our role contributes to the purpose of our organization. How can we get to the point where everything we do at work is purpose driven? Ask yourself the following questions: “In my role, what one thing can I do that will have the greatest impact upon the mission of my organization?” “What major success can I imagine from my efforts, my team’s efforts, my department’s efforts in meeting our mission?” The answers will provide clarity as you sort out your contribution to the purpose of your organization.
Let your organization’s mission be your compass—let your organization’s purpose be the criteria by which you decide what to do and the criteria you use to evaluate everything you do.
Now that you are sorting out how you can contribute in major ways to meet your organization’s purpose, you need to analyze how your time is being spent.
Time – Figure It Out
You can figure out where you spend your time by using a time log. Then from your time log you can analyze how much time you spend doing “Important and Urgent” things, “Important and Not Urgent” things, “Not Important but Urgent” things, and “Not Important and Not Urgent” things. (See diagram).
For your time log to be accurate every activity needs to be recorded as you do it with the actual amount of time you spent on that activity. If you wait until the end of the day to do this your data will be useless because you won’t accurately recall how you spent your time. (It’s too easy to not count that five-minute chat you had with a co-worker about yesterday’s game). Good analysis requires good data.
Notice from the figure that there are two sections identified as unimportant activities. Obviously doing something unimportant is a time waster. Why would anyone waste time doing something unimportant?
First—Urgency deceives. It is easy to unintentionally be fooled into doing unimportant tasks. Why? Because someone else thinks it is important and needs it, “Now!” If your boss is saying, “Do it now!” then it is appropriate to do so. But, if someone other than your boss is saying, “Do it now!” you need to reflect upon whether or not it really is important no matter how urgent it is to the other person. If you carefully analyze how you spend your time you will find that the sense of urgency others have often deceives you into doing things that—though urgent to them—are really unimportant.
Secondly—You do not know what is important. If you are not connected to your purpose you have no criteria upon which to make good decisions as to what you should or should not spend your time doing. If you find yourself in this situation you must accept responsibility and intentionally work to connect, or reconnect, to the purpose of your organization so you are doing the right things—the important things.
When it comes to analyzing your time, the key is to eliminate anything that is not important and re-direct that time to “Important and Not Urgent” proactive tasks. This will have a dramatic impact on those “Important and Urgent” reactive tasks and allow you to begin reducing the number of crises you need to deal with. If you are going to manage your time wisely and be effective you need to find time for those “Important and Not Urgent” proactive activities. You can only find that time by eliminating the unimportant.
Once you have sorted out the purpose you serve in meeting the mission of your organization and have done the hard work of figuring out your time, you are ready for the final step in connecting to The Power of Purpose.
Management – Work It Out
So often, time management experts ignore the first two steps and start at this point advocating the latest new and creative approach. But trying to manage your time without being connected to your purpose in your organization and/or without analyzing your time will lead to frustration. Once the first two steps are completed, the task of making time management work for you becomes simplified.
- A. From your list of activities, prioritize things according to importance and determine how much time you need for them. Very important things usually require lots of time—you must schedule them. Allow time for less important things—necessary everyday tasks—but limit it (consider 30 minutes twice a day). This step will be very helpful in making sure that nothing of a lower priority impedes upon something of a higher priority (another time waster).
- B. Determine the urgency of each item from your list of activities. Urgency simply determines when you must schedule it (now or later).
- C. Schedule your priorities according to importance and urgency while exercising the discipline to stay focused on the important tasks.
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