The issues below have been identified as the top 40 business timewasters worldwide. Do these sound familiar?
- Lack of objectives / priorities / planning
- Crisis management, shifting priorities
- Attempting too much at once / unrealistic time estimates
- Waiting for transport / appointments
- Travel time
- Haste / impatience
- Personal disorganisation / cluttered desk
- Confused responsibility and authority
- Duplication of effort
- Multiple bosses
- Paperwork / red tape / reading
- Poor filing system
- Inadequate equipment / facilities
- Untrained / inadequate staff
- Under / over -staffed
- Absenteeism / tardiness / turnover
- Personnel problems
- Over-dependent staff
- Ineffective delegation / involved in routine details
- Lack motivation / indifference
- Lack coordination / teamwork
- Telephone/email interruptions
- Drop-in visitors
- Inability to say "NO"
- Incomplete / delayed information
- Lack self discipline
- Leaving tasks unfinished
- Lack standards / controls / progress reports.
- Visual distractions / noise
- Over-control
- Not being informed
- People not available for discussion
- Meetings
- Lack / unclear communication, instructions
- Socialising / idle conversation
- "Memo-it is" / over communication
- Failure to listen
- Procrastination / indecision
- Wanting all the facts
- Snap decisions
Attending to emails could now be added to this list.No matter how busy your working day can get it
is possible for you to manage how your time is best spent. You may not think so immediately, but there are some aspects of your working day which you can plan and certain aspects which you can remove, delegate or improve. Even with competing demands, ongoing commitments and bound by a limited time frame you can become more productive, work more efficiently and achieve set objectives.
You may be extremely busy spending your working week in a frenzy of activity, but when you analyse what you have achieved you may find that you have actually achieved very little because you haven't been concentrating on the right or more important things. At the heart of efficient time management is a concentration on results, not on being busy.
This is neatly summed up in the Pareto Principle, or the '80:20 Rule'. This argues that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results. The remaining 80% of results are achieved with only 20% of the effort.
Your working day may be frenetic from the time you start until the time you finish but your energy levels through the day are not constant. They may vary resulting in you functioning at different levels of effectiveness at different times. Your effectiveness may differ depending on the amount of sugar in your blood, the length of time since you last took a break, routine distractions, stress, discomfort, or a range of other factors. There is also some good evidence that we all have daily rhythms of alertness and energy.
How to manage your time effectively and efficiently - Maintain an activity log
You can track changes in your energy, alertness and effectiveness throughout the day by using an activity log. Though an extremely simple audit tool of the way that you use your time they are also extremely powerful, both as a method of organising yourself and as a way of reducing stress. Often problems may seem overwhelming or you may have a seemingly huge number of demands on your time. This may leave you feeling out of control, and overburdened with work.
Don't think you don't need to go to the trouble of recording activities in a log because you have a good memory. Memory is a very poor guide when it comes to the time you have spent reading junk mail, responding to emails, talking to colleagues, making coffee, eating lunch, having a smoking break, etc.
Activity logs are useful tools for auditing the way that you use your time. They can also help you to track changes in your energy, alertness and effectiveness throughout the day.
By analysing your activity log you will be able to identify and eliminate time-wasting or low-yield jobs. You will also know the times of day at which you are most effective, so that you can carry out your most important tasks during these times.
Keep a "To Do List" If a normal day for you consists of many different tasks, priorities and commitments then it is imperative for you to compile a 'To Do List'. This documents your daily activities. It consolidates all the tasks that you need to do and enables you to prioritise these tasks in order of importance. This will lessen the chance of you forgetting to do something and ensures that you remember to do all essential tasks in the right order. They can also assist you to know where to pick up after interruptions. Lists can provide evidence of the work you achieve and are good to support a case for negotiating extra help or to show that you don't have time for extra tasks. Lists are also good self-motivators. Writing down a task is like setting a goal and once the task is completed and crossed off the list there is a sense of achievement and job satisfaction.
People use "To Do" Lists in different ways for different situations. Some find it motivational to keep their list relatively short with the aim of completing it every day. Others who have large tasks or are dependent on many other people, may prefer to keep chipping away at list where in completed or low priority jobs get transferred daily, weekly or monthly. If this method is employed the priorities are raised as deadlines become closer.
Not only is a "To Do List" an extremely powerful personal organisational and planning tool it can also be a way of reducing stress. Prioritising tasks in a list format enables you to cross off tasks as they are completed. This can lessen the feeling of being overwhelmed or out of control by having too many demands on your time.
Develop action plans An Action Plan is a list of tasks that you have to carry out to achieve an objective. It differs from a "To Do List" in that it focuses on the achievement of a single goal.
Wherever you want to achieve something, draw up an action plan. This allows you to concentrate on the stages of that achievement, and monitor your progress towards it.
To draw up an Action Plan, simply list the tasks that you need to carry out to achieve your goal.
Plan your activities Planning your activities is essential for effective management. All planning is simply thinking forward in time. What varies in plans is how far ahead they stretch, how precise they are and whether they are limited to how far ahead it is feasible to plan. A good plan will always answer what?, why, how?, who?, when? and where?
Planning involves goal and objectives setting - the end to which an effort or ambition is directed; the purpose – the reason for undertaking the effort; and strategy – the thinking, planning and employment of methods and activities which will secure goals. Goals must be clear, realistic, specific, challenging, measurable, agreed, attainable, consistent, recorded, worthwhile, time-bounded and participtative.
Prioritising and scheduling activitiesActivities are the tasks done to achieve objectives and goals: they are your daily doable chunks. How and when you go about performing activities involves tactical planning, listing, prioritising and scheduling.
Tasks may be defined as active tasks – those that you must do to achieve the objectives of your job and reactive tasks - everything else that lands on your desk, and must be dealt with to keep things running. You should prioritise your tasks in light of importance, which will depend on how long you need to spend on the task; and urgency which will depend on how soon the task has to be completed.
You should code your activities so that their priority is readily identifiable ie:
- must be completed today
- should be completed today
- must be completed this week, or
- should be completed this week
Or use a more finite deadline ie. complete by Wednesday close of business (COB).
Ensure that you build time into useful blocks and make sure you allow for discretionary time and reactive tasks.