Action Coach: Do you know how to take control of your time?
Most people agree that time management is key to success. No one ever argues with me on this. The challenge is that few people know how to take control of their time. Where do you start?
If you want to take the first step to improving your time management, do this simple exercise.
Imagine a target, not a business target, but a shooting target used for something like archery.In the centre of the target is the bull’s eye, surrounded by three rings.
Take a piece of paper and draw a bull’s eye circle in the middle of the paper and write the words “Important and Not-Urgent” in this area called “The Zone”. These are the things that you should spend the majority of time on and yet because they are not urgent they tend to be put on the back burner. Activities in “The Zone” include planning, budgeting, documenting workflow, learning, building and maintaining relationships (like time with your family or team).
Draw another ring around the first circle. This is the “Demand” ring. Items here are “Important and Urgent”. Sometimes these items are put here by others who drop things on our desk at the last minute and other times we put them here because we didn’t take care of something that started out in the “Zone”, but has now become critical. Deadline-driven tasks are often routine – which means you can plan for them or delegate – but the real demands on your time come from putting out fires and the unexpected urgent tasks due to poor planning.
Again draw another ring, around the other two. We are now in the “Delusion” ring. These are things that are “Urgent but Not Important”. We jump on taking care of these tasks because we perceive them to be urgent but forget that they are not important. If you are in the middle of a conversation with someone and the phone rings, do you answer it? Who’s more important? The person you are talking to or the phone call? Before you answer that question, answer this one. When someone interrupts your conversation to answer his or her phone, how does that make you feel? Ask yourself if responding to your emails as the messages arrive is actually effective, or if you are wasting time that should be spent in the bull’s eye?
The outer ring (draw it now) is the “Distraction” ring. These are all such activities that are “Not Urgent and Not Important” – often a waste of time. Have you ever seen someone play solitaire at work or go to a networking session just to eat and talk with friends. From a business perspective, these are a waste of time. That isn’t to say that there is no value in such activities as sometimes there may be a purpose to these. For example, you get home at the end of a stressful day and decide that you are going to spend an hour just playing computer games as a way to relax and unwind. In fact, if you played the games with your spouse or your kids then the activity could become a bull’s eye activity because it may actually become a relationship-building activity.
One key to success in managing your time is to recognise which ring any given activity falls in. Create columns for each of these zones, and make a list of the tasks you do on a daily basis under the various categories. Then get into the habit of spending most of your time in the bull’s eye. This means you must learn to delegate the delusion activities and as many of the demand activities to others on your team.
Too often business owners spend the majority of their time in the demand and delusion rings, leaving no time for the bull’s eye. It’s time to get into “The Zone”.
Written by ActionCoach Greg Mason.
Contact ActionCoach George Clarke for more information at 0834742212 or e mail to georgeclarke@actioncoach.co.za