The People Bulletin

Lack of time is one of the most frequent complaints of our age. We all have far too much to do and not nearly enough time in which to do it. It is all too easy to blame these problems on our boss, our colleagues, the IT department and the rest of the organisation, but many of them are problems we create for ourselves. Lack of time is not a real problem; it’s a symptom, a symptom of unclear objectives, of poor allocation of priorities and of poor planning.

The formulae for effective time management have been known for years. There are dozens of books on the subject, almost as many as on dieting, and yet it is still one of the most frequently expressed needs of our age. How can it be that so many otherwise intelligent people lose control of their time? In the words of Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber, we are: ‘Like Gulliver amongst the Lilliputians, tied down by a number of subtle bonds, none of which is individually strong enough to immobilise us but which together deprive us of our freedom.’

We lose control of our time in much the same way we lose control of our weight. We give way to many temptations during the day and lose sight of our overall objectives.

The first step to effective time management is to accept that you are part of the problem. Your boss may be less than perfect and your job may be highly pressurised, but the bad news is that there is nobody to blame but yourself. The good news is that this makes the problem treatable. You can do things to improve your situation. Amongst the myriad of tasks you might tackle today, there are a few which could make you more effective in the future.

High leverage tasks

• Planning – thinking about your job and your objectives, planning the month, the day, the meeting, etc.
• Learning – any skill or knowledge that will help in your job.
• Setting up systems – from complex computer systems to simple personal ones like organising your work place.
• Delegating - setting objectives for others, gaining their commitment, coaching and motivating them.
• Building relationships - with key people, customers, suppliers and colleagues whose support you must have to get your job done.

These tasks have the power to transform our lives, to help us achieve more with less stress and effort; they are the keys to continuous improvement. So how much time do you spend on them in a typical week? When I ask that question in a teaching session I find that a lot of people start looking at their shoes. These are the things we could do to make us more effective in the future and we almost seem to ignore them. Why is that? Well there seem to be some traps that some of us fall into. Maybe you don’t, but see if you recognise any of them:

Time traps

• We are tyrannised by urgency, we do the urgent and we don’t have time for the important. Now if the building is on fire, we must put it out, but surely fire prevention is the real job.
• Fire fighting is fun and is glamourised on television. When did Batman and Robin last ask ‘What’s wrong with this city that there is so much crime?’ ‘Shouldn’t we do something about the education system?’ Fire fighting is pumped down our TV sets night after night and then we go and do it at work.
• Fire fighting is visible and sometimes fire fighters get promoted. These macho fire fighters need fires to fight and when bored some of them will go round starting fires – but they don’t just create them for themselves, they suck in everybody else.
• Some people do this by taking on far too much. Too many projects on the go, never time to finish anything, always rushing off somewhere else.
• Others do it by leaving everything to the last minute. Anything can become a crisis if you leave it long enough.
• Then there is the post adrenalin dip. After two hours of adrenalin fuelled crisis, when the fire is finally out and the phone has stopped ringing, we go back to our desks and…nothing happens. So we get a cup of coffee and interrupt somebody else until we are feeling better.
• Finally the terrible trap of immediate reward. If you start the day with 20 jobs on a list, it’s nice to tick off half of them by mid morning. But the only way to achieve this is to start with the little ones, and that is the road to disaster because the high leverage tasks are usually the biggest and we never get to them.

The road to salvation

Successful people are clear what their priorities are and somehow or other they give them a lot more time, whilst also putting out the fires. I’m afraid fire fighting is and always will be part of the job, but the high leverage tasks which can make a real difference to you should be a major focus of your energy and your time.

Handling crises

Every time you face a crisis, large or small, there are two things you must do: first deal with the crisis; put out the fire; second ask yourself: ‘What can I do to make sure that sort of crisis never occurs again?’ If it really is out of your control then the second becomes: ‘What can I do to make sure, next time that happens, that it’s less disruptive, that we are more ready for it.’

The Japanese call this ‘the five whys’. Whenever there is a problem you ask ‘why did that happen?’ When you have an answer you ask ‘and why did that happen?’ and so on to about five levels. We love to treat the symptoms. If you can understand the real underlying cause of a problem and solve it at that level, the outcome will be much more powerful.

I hope this helps and good luck with the implementation.