time management training

Keeping a Time Log
Draw up a log that reflects the way in which you work, dividing your day into representative blocks of time - for example 15 minute or half-hour divisions. Complete the log in real time, as remembering what you did several hours earlier can be very difficult.

At the end of each day, conduct a simple analysis of the activities you have performed under four simple headings: Priorities, Delegation, Time Wasters and finally Operations and Management.

Priorities are those activities which represent genuine priorities for that working period. This should include only those activities that make a significant contribution to what you are trying to achieve. Be disciplined in only identifying real priorities, they are by definition the few rather than the many tasks.Delegation indicates those tasks that you could or should have given to someone else to complete, including priority activities where appropriate. On consideration you may identify priority tasks that you could have delegated a significant part of, even if you needed to tackle part of the work personally.

Time Wasters include the things that distracted you from your main objectives, such as interruptions, as well as those activities which, on reflection, you should have said no to. Time wasters are often insidious and yet when totalled up will often represent a significant part of the working day. Again, be disciplined when identifying time wasters - they are an essential component in regaining control over your working day.

You may find the Operations and Management category to be slightly more difficult to classify. Here use two letters: an O for operations and an M for management. Operating tasks encompass the technical or professional part of your job as well as the routine work much of which could be delegated. Management tasks relate to achieving results through other people and include activities such as planning, delegating work and reviewing results.

Analyzing Your Time Log
As you look at your time log at the end of each day, it may draw your attention to some activities that you wish to record in more detail. For example, if you have identified that much of the time you spend on the telephone was non-essential; then you should analyze this area in more detail. Keep records of whether the call was incoming or outgoing, who it was from or to, and estimate how much of the time spent was actually productive. If you feel that you are spending too much time in meetings or in conversation then record details like whether attendance at the meeting was mandatory and whether the conversation was the result of an interruption. When you are happy with your classification of the day’s activities, add up the number of time divisions you spent on each of the categories and factor it over the total divisions in the day. Draw a bar chart with appropriate columns and add each entry from the log into the appropriate column. This analysis should provide you with two important pieces of information. Firstly, are you investing enough of your time in areas that are essential to achieving your goals? Secondly, in which areas, that are not essential to your goals, are you spending significant time?

You may also find it helpful to write a short critique of the day in response to asking yourself questions like:

What kind of day was it: effective or just busy?
What was good or disappointing about the way your time was spent?
How typical was it of a working day?
What is the data telling you, how could you use your time better?

Keeping a log over a working week is always revealing, sometimes reassuring but, more frequently, disturbing. When you perform this exercise you are likely to be surprised by how little time you actually spend on your real priorities. It may also highlight how many of the activities you perform could be delegated to others. Finally, don't be surprised if your log shows that a significant part of your working day is lost to distractions. Typically around 20% of time is identified as being lost in this way.

Your Work Diary
A permanent record of where your time has been committed is your working diary. Depending on your job you may keep this yourself or it may be delegated to secretarial staff. Look at your diary over the preceding three month period and see how your time was spent - are there recognizable patterns with regard to meetings, visits, presentations, travel and professional training? See if you can identify the tasks that take up the majority of your time, do you need to reduce these commitments or find more time for them? Look at your diary and ask yourself how you can start to gain more control over your working day.

Don’t Confuse Urgency with Importance
Many people find that they spend a large proportion of their time dealing with tasks that are urgent but not particularly important. It is very easy to confuse urgency with importance when you are trying to identify your priorities. Whilst many factors can change to make any one of your activities more or less important, time is not one of them. An unimportant job is still unimportant even if the deadline for delivery is in an hour's time.

The Urgency/Importance Grid
You should draw an urgency/importance grid, then plot and label the activities you have identified from your time log. You can then add in the percentage of your time spent on each type of activity.

Urgent but Unimportant Tasks
You should put tasks here that are fairly urgent but relatively low in importance. It is easy to find yourself spending too much time on these tasks because of their urgency. Ideally they should be completed adequately but above all quickly. Ask yourself "How can I avoid spending too much time on these tasks?"

Non-Urgent and Unimportant Tasks
You should put tasks here that are neither important nor urgent. These tasks represent a particular danger, because if you reduce the time spent doing them, you may find that you enjoy your working day less. If some of these tasks involve interacting with others then you may feel that reducing the time spent will distance you from your co-workers. If you really want to manage time effectively you will need to be disciplined enough to eliminate some of the things that make your work enjoyable and to persevere in the face of resistance from colleagues. Ask yourself "How can I avoid the temptation to do these easy or enjoyable tasks?"

Urgent and Important Tasks
Tasks that appear here should be both urgent and important. The danger is that you fail to properly plan these tasks because of their urgency and then crisis manage them because of the pressure you're under to complete them. Tasks that are both urgent and important require immediate attention. Suppose, for example, that an important customer needs a detailed proposal on their desk for Monday morning. This may require that you re-arrange existing commitments and prioritize working on the proposal, you may decide to concentrate on the key parts of the document whilst delegating more straightforward parts of it to others. Ask yourself "How can I give myself enough time to do these tasks well?"

Important but Non-Urgent Tasks
Tasks that appear here should be important but not urgent. They may have no specific deadline or a deadline that is a long way off. If there is no deadline you may never get around to them, or you may wait until the deadline is very close and resort to applying crisis management to get them done. Tasks that are important but not urgent are in danger of being deferred. Critical functions that relate to long-term effectiveness often fall into this category; such as strategic planning and progress reviews. It is often the non-urgent nature of these tasks, combined with the slightly daunting prospect of tackling them that leads to them being constantly placed on the back-boiler. Take control of these tasks, set aside time to address them and break them down into manageable chunks. Ask yourself "How can I avoid putting these jobs off?"

Flowcharting Tasks by their Type
A complementary approach to the urgency/importance grid is to allocate a letter to each type of task.
Type A tasks are those that are important and urgent.
Type B tasks are those that are either important or urgent, but not both. This category will therefore cover two sections of the urgency/importance grid.
Type C tasks are those that neither important nor urgent, but routine.

The flowchart shown represents a quick and simple way of classifying each type of task.

When it comes to scheduling tasks into your working day, the following guidelines should be borne in mind.
Type A-tasks. Try to complete a few of these urgent and important tasks each day.
Type B-tasks. These are likely to represent the majority of your work and should take up most of your day.
Type C-tasks. These low-priority tasks should be fitted into your schedule, as time allows.

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time management training

The Urgency/Importance Grid You should draw an urgency/importance grid, then plot and label the activities you have identified from your time log. You can then add in the percentage of your time spent on each type of activity.

The Urgency/Importance Grid
You should draw an urgency/importance grid, then plot and label the activities you have identified from your time log. You can then add in the percentage of your time spent on each type of activity.