Time Management made simple…
This is the only Time Management Tool you will ever need and it can be applied to your work and your personal life. So how does it work?
This is not a new revolutionary system and many of you will have seen it before, or use something similar. The problem is that the majority of people don’t use it properly. There are two key issues you need to be very clear on for this system to work, and they vary for different people –
What does Important mean?
What does Urgent mean?
Firstly let’s talk about Important. To understand what tasks are important you need to understand what is important to your project stakeholders and then ask yourself “Is this task getting me closer to achieving the outcomes that my client wants for this project?” If the answer is Yes then it’s important. If No then it’s not important. Remember it’s not what you think is Important, it’s what is important to that particular project stakeholder, and that may be very different for different jobs.
Now let’s talk about Urgent. In its simplest form ask the question, “If I don’t do this task today, will it have major financial or time implications?” If the answer is no it could be done tomorrow, then it becomes Not Urgent. If yes, then it is Urgent.
The problem with urgency in the workplace is that what you consider urgent is not necessarily what your boss considers urgent, and this can be exacerbated when you are working on multiple projects with multiple stakeholders.
The best way to try and resolve this is two-fold –
1. Be clear on the project timeline
Understand the project timeline. Be very aware of what are Critical Path tasks and what are not. Critical path items can easily sneak up on you if you are not across the project timeline.
2. Strong Communication
Have very strong communication and relationship protocols with the stakeholders and team leaders. Whenever there is conflict on what is urgent, don’t ignore it, raise the issue, discuss the problems and come up with a solution. I can’t stress how important communication is in making your life easier.
So…the way I use this Time Management system is, at the end of each workday I gather all my outstanding tasks, emails awaiting answers and phone calls to be made or returned and I sort them as follows –
Step 1 – Sort each item into Important or Not Important categories
Step 2 – Sort the Important category into Urgent and Not Urgent
Step 3 – Sort the Not Important category into Urgent and Not Urgent
That now leaves you with 4 categories –
Important and Urgent
Important and Not Urgent
Not Important and Urgent
Not Important and Not Urgent
Now you can start the next day working through these categories in order from 1-4. By doing this means that when you are very busy, you may only get through category 1, but that means you have dealt with the most important and urgent tasks that day, and it will leave you feeling at least that you have accomplished what was needed. It puts a full stop to “doing what’s easy” and “paper shuffling” which many people get caught up in.
But a word of warning… problems arise when you start to see everything as Urgent, or you have not clearly defined what is Important. Without a clear understanding of these two key areas, then no Time Management system will ever work for you because you will simply become a manager by reaction.
