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Time Manager Questions and Answers:
It's probably a good idea to once again review how
the world's most successful organizational leaders manage their time.
Listed below are a summary of some of their strategies. Some are quite
obvious, and others be surprising.
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Prioritize activities, and then prioritize them again. Senior
level people never stop looking at the order in which events get done.
Otherwise, they report, you tend to go on automatic pilot, and that's almost
never effective.
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Get others involved with your priority setting. Chances are
you'll overlook some critical items if you only rely on what you think
is important.
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Delegate problem solving to others. Involve others with strategy
and vision, but take responsibility for it yourself.
-
Schedule in times for things that are important but can easily
be put off, such as spending time with customers. If you don't do this,
you'll probably put off spending time on these kinds of tasks.
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Have a strong sense of your discretionary time. High level
senior executives probably have fifty to seventy-five percent of their
time for the rest of the year already booked by January. It's discretionary
time that people can use to truly make significant differences for their
organization.
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Keep track of the big items by yourself. Delegate tracking
minute-by-minute schedule details to your staff.
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Be willing to change your schedule as needs demand. At the
same time, you don't want to be known as someone who can't keep your word.
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Schedule in "unbooked" time for emergencies. Everyday is
going to have them, so you might as well assume they are as likely to happen
as your daily senior executive meeting.
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Build in cushion time. Things almost always take a little
more time than you anticipate. Cushion time gives you the flexibility to
get back on schedule at various points during the day.
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Manage your meeting time effectively. If your meetings aren't
working for you, then do something about it. Encourage your staff to use
them to "batch" their issues so you aren't interrupted all the time.
-
Use today's technology to your advantage. Most senior level
people find e-mail and cell phones absolutely essential. Learn how to type.
You'll save time in the long run if you do some tasks yourself.
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Use your travel time, whether in cars or in airplanes. Most
senior executives get critical pieces of work done while travelling.
Obviously, some of these ideas are relevant only to
people who have power inside an organization. But if emulating behavior
is one way to get there yourself, then integrating some of these practices
into your own practices, wherever you sit in the organizational hierarchy,
will help.
J
Janelle Barlow, Ph.D.
President
TMI, USA
Please submit your questions to Time Manager Questions
and Answers. If you have questions, undoubtedly someone else has the same
question. By asking a question, you'll help a fellow Time Manager user
become more effective.
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