Welcome to another episode of all things “time management”. I’m your host, Audra Fournier! And we are going to talk about ways to identify the time-consuming areas of our day or week, discuss strategies for prioritizing tasks, discover how to plan your energy and workload so you can manage the ever elusive “focus” and learn how to implement an evaluation process to ultimately find more time in your business.
To support WHY this topic is so important, here are a few incredible statistics related to productivity:
It’s really amazing to me how much time, energy and focus is wasted each working day!
Now that we know what we are working with, let’s start with lesson point number 1. I know it sounds rudimentary, but just write it all down!
Monday mornings we arrive at our desks reeling from the weekend, knowing we have so much to do! I suggest a “Monday download” Does anyone do this?
Start with the “Have To’s” then move on to the “Want To’s” then think “WHAT ELSE?”
You can use lists, bullet journals, Kanban boards, post-its or a software program. I don’t care. I just want you to dump it all out.
Get on top of the project or client related tasks, office related, and personal errands.
Get it all out to avoid distraction later.
So Now let’s take that list and prioritize it! Who is familiar with Covey’s 7 habits of highly effective people?
I’LL SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK! Stephen Covey is a world-renowned thought leader in management who wrote a book by the same name in 1989. The tools he created, namely the 4 quadrant theory, have been used by leaders for decades! It helps you delineate between important and urgent tasks.
Now let’s talk about the difference between an urgent task and an important one – Time! However, what we find is that urgency generally arises for 1 of 2 reasons. 1 – poor planning on our part, 2 – poor planning by someone else. Now that is not to say that urgent and important aren’t things we need to do, but let’s try our best not to be the culprit dropping the ball.
So which quadrant do we really want to be in?
Quadrant 2, so as we prioritize our task list, let’s do so based on WHEN a task needs to be done because as we just found out, time is the great prioritizer, right?
Since we have figured out what’s urgent, what’s important and what’s not. Let’s apply the focus funnel to this list of tasks. For each of the tasks on your list can we eliminate anything that is redundant, or non-productive by saying no? Can we automate anything that is repetitive? Let’s find a way for us to delegate any tasks that can or should be done by someone else because they are more capable or cheaper than we are! Is there anything that we can purposely procrastinate on because it is so far in the future? And by procrastination I mean put it on the task list for future rotation.
Picture this: I’m swamped this week and have dry cleaning I reallllly need to pick up… I am giving myself permission to be imperfect for a week on that task, because I simply did not have the time, and that’s okay!
So then what are we left with that we MUST concentrate on THIS week??
So now we have our priorities right, and have focused our tasks down to what we REALLY need to concentrate on, we need to figure out how to fit it all in our week. Let’s take our energy into mind…
Knowing how our energy/focus ebbs and flows is important in this next step: I start by saying “conserve” energy and focus because when things are just hanging out there on our to-do list it’s rattling around in our brain just waiting to cause stress and anxiety! So next to each task assign a deadline. When does it need to be done by? Next, take into consideration, do you have the most focus and energy in the morning or is this a task best done in the afternoon based on what is your most productive time of day.
Next put the tasks on your calendar in the day/afternoon slots that correspond with the date of deadline. Don’t over pack your day or you will drain your energy and have nothing in the tank for the unexpected firestorms that arrive. You have to recognize the reality of the “pop-ins”, the frantic client emergencies, and calls from kids at school that forgot lunch money, etc.!
Now throw the to-do list away. We are now working exclusively by our calendars, not a list. The list can get lost, but things on the calendar have significance. They have been put there with consideration to priority, focus and energy.
We need to manage our projects effectively, and make sure that we are assigning an appropriate amount of time to get our tasks done.
I have to say that for me and my ADD this has been the HARDEST lesson to learn. I’m that person that says I’ll be there in 10 min when I clearly live 30 min away, or I think it will only take me 45 minutes to draft out an hour speech and thus far it has taken me 4 hrs to put this together!
Parkinson’s Law is true! Work will expand to fill the time that is allotted for it. I know a writing coach that asks her clients how long they think it will take them to write a book. They will respond something like a year. She tells them to set their deadline for 6 months because if they set the deadline for a year it will take them that long because they will procrastinate/research etc. for the 1st 6 months!
Finally, know that if you do not get it done in the time allotted, you may have to work during some of your “free” time. to complete the task, so do your best to estimate appropriately!
So how do we make sure we can give our tasks our undivided attention and the energy and focus they deserve? We manage our environment.
Have you ever realized that it takes over 23 minutes to regain focus once it’s interrupted? It is just not worth it for a 5 min question unless it really is an emergency.
A few things to keep in mind – avoid those “got a minute” pop ins. You have 1440 minutes in each day of which 480 you sleep, theoretically, and only 480 you spend at work! Each one is valuable!
Don’t multitask – it’s actually counterproductive and means you are spreading your focus AND energy. Try instead to focus on 1 task at a time… all the way to completion! You will actually get more done in a shorter amount of time then jumping around
Use digital tools to manage projects and time. If you have a system that uses checklists and task lists to keep a project moving forward, use it. It helps with cross communication and keeps you and others on track of where the project is in the pipeline.
We know from the statistics that meetings that don’t have substance can be completely ineffective, that facebook and social media cost companies and employees billions, that we are over notified, over interrupted, over multitasked and over disrupted.
So let’s review the process and provide you a way to review your effectiveness:
This process should take no more than 15-20 min on Monday morning and will set your week off right.
For the first week, I’d suggest doing a time journal. This is where you will track everything you do in 15 min increments. At the end of the week rate each task based on the quadrant theory to see how you did. Did you stick to your deadlines? Did you allot the right amount of time for each task? Did you have more or less interruptions? How was your energy level? How were your stress levels? Do you feel satisfied with the outcome?
More than anything —— what did you learn? The whole point is to find some kind of balance and enjoy your work, go home less drained and come back tomorrow knowing how much of a difference you make in the lives of others! Hopefully you are able to take at least one helpful tip from these 7 great ways to find more time in your business. And if you didn’t? Well, we have work to do and my contact info can be found below!
