I’m collecting beliefs about time management and making daily progress. Could you share your beliefs with me? These are simply the “conventional wisdom” that you now take for granted. These beliefs may or may not be true, the key element is that we no longer question them.
Here are some of mine:
- I haven’t enough time to get everything done.
- I need large blocks of uninterrupted time to work.
- It’s possible to have consistent, high levels of productivity day after day.
- If I’m not frantically doing stuff, I’m not working.
- I should do things my boss asks for first, even if it means slipping other schedules.
Great project, Stever! Here’s one for you:
If you’re not getting EVERYTHING done, you’re not working hard enough.
– C.J.
If you only have 5 minutes a day to devote to a project, that’s 5 minutes more than what you’re doing right now.
This is how I motivate myself to do just about every house chore I can think of – and it works wonders on my filing. I’d rather get a root canal than file paperwork.
I’m getting that you’re looking for what are probably misconceptions that are taken as truisms.
A key one for me is that I need to get to a point of orderliness before I can move forward on the tasks (special projects) I really want to work on. Since there’s an unending supply of ‘papers scattered across the desk’ (to use a metaphor to cover all examples, physical and electronic), I will never get to my projects.
When I’m doing stuff I don’t want to think. Just give me a punch list /honey do list and I’m golden.
Before action mode, brainstorm on ways to avoid even doing the work. Sometimes thinking outside the box reveals that a different (less expensive) action yields a better result
There are always too many things to do. Priorities are key.
Distinguish between things that need to get done and the nice to haves.
Belief: I’m accomplishing things if items are getting checked off my mental “to do” list.
One of my mentors used to say to me, “You will do what’s important to you.” But I find that I do what I feel like I can actually accomplish. That often turns out to be the short-term quick tasks.
It will only take a sec to retweet…just a minute to answer that email…2 minutes to check the battery in the smoke detector…surely I can spare 5 minutes to comment on this blog…
Before I know it, 3 hours has gone by and that revision to my resume I was inspired to start when I listened to a recent podcast from a fabulous productivity guru…well, that hasn’t quite taken off yet. But I sure have done a lot of stuff.
“If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
Actually, to be truly productive, it’s important to know which tasks must be done by you and which may be delegated to others. Spreading yourself too thin is a proven formula for not getting things done, or getting them done poorly. I still sometimes have a hard time letting go of this.
Bonnie,
I think we use the same method. LOL
Stever,
Conventional wisdom states: “Do your most important tasks first.”
But is this really true? Is this always the best approach? It just seems like you have to force some tasks if the timing or motivation isn’t right.
I have some internal resistance to the statement. But I’m not sure why.
Scott Quitter
Here are mine:
* No one will remember whether or not you stay an extra two hours working on a document. You and your family will certainly remember your son’s starring role in the fifth grade play (this is a corollary to my mantra “go home every day.”)
* More time devoted to a project does not necessarily provide a better outcome and can sometimes diminish the value…or not
* Limited time and resources can help generate creative ideas and solutions that may not have been considered previously. This approach needs clear goals, however.
* Working faster, harder, and longer never works. Providing focus, removing obstacles, and keeping everyone motivated has a happier ending all around.
* Any clarity in the midst of chaos will allow movement forward (similar to another -ism, “every change is an opportunity.”)
* And my favorite: “Time management?!? We don’t need no stinkin’ time management.” Although this usually only works while on vacation or possibly weekends. This never works as comic relief in scheduling meetings with VPs or VCs.
If you are sitting on the couch watching Kate and Jon…the archives, like I was last night, you are NOT getting enough done.
(I did do a little updating on my site at the same time, is that wrong?)
A few of my beliefs:
* My current task is dictated by context, not priority.
* In extreme situations, priority must unfortunately trump context.
* Giant blocks of time without interruption are good.
* Breaks are necessary to maintain focus and stay happy.
* Never be afraid to ask for help.
My belief about time management is that one cannot manage time. One can only better manage commitments within healthy relationships where it is okay to decline requests or negotiate conditions of fulfillment. Where the symptom of overwhelm or a time management problem exists, one can usually identify relationship breakdowns that do not allow for the conversatios that qould yield iron-clad commitments. In their place commitments are made that are highly likely not to be fulfilled.
You cannot manage time you can only manage how you use it.
Balance of everything is key, even housework as earlier comment says can contribute to a successful and therefore a happy day.
For me, I think a lot of time is wasted overall. Mindless chatter, wasting time doing the wrong thing–or nothing at all, avenging each and every wrong done to you, and plotting to hurt others in any way, shape or form are all time not well spent. When I hear, “God, I wish I had more time for (fill in blank)…” I think of my own situation, and the amount of time I waste that could be put toward getting things done. I, like many others, do have time. It’s just wasted in many cases. Better time management is a dynamic goal and, while maybe not ever being achieved in full, should always be there as a goal.
There are so many good comments here, many that I share. I find that what you spend time on is what’s really important to you, trumped only by those tasks with non-extendable deadlines that must get done now. If you’re not spending time on something, or find yourself procrastinating on it, it’s because you don’t enjoy it or it seems like such a big mountain to overcome.
Managing time, in my opinion, is easier said than done, especially when you have family members, clients, bosses, friends and vendors all competing for your time. The best I can do is try to put in filters to minimize the interruptions and have a clean, comfortable and quiet place to work without “pretty shiny objects” to distract me from my mission. Yep, I’ve often thought that time management is an oxymoron.
I’m also always interested in improving my time management… I find that prioritizing my daily things to do list has proven highly effecient in improving mine.
Another post on another blog shared a new method for prioritizing that was new to me, I went to the posted link and downloaded a final ‘release candidate beta copy’ of this new product. You might want to check it out with your experience and knowledge. It is awesome and I find now that I use it for many decision needs.
http://www.choiceanalyst.com
Cheers,
Howard Fine
Director of IT
I think a big thing is what Covey talks about in 7-Habits, and beginning with the end in mind.
There will NEVER be enough time to do all the things we need to or want to. If we know what the “end” is and keeping that in mind, it will be much easier to prioritize the most important things to achieve the END. Everything else is just not important.
-az
If you use a scheduler like Outlook then schedule dummy appointments with yourself during which you stop doing email and get work done. Otherwise your colleagues will eat up all of your time. Know when your personal best time of the day is and make sure those are the times you reserve for real work.
Make sure you achieve something every week. At the beginning of the week work out what you could actually complete and so tick off your list, then half it and make that your target. If all your tasks are so big that there’s no achievable milestone each week then they truly need breaking down further – get it done.
Turn off that “You have new mail” reminder. It stops you getting your work done. Everybody is easily distracted so remove that distraction. I set my mail to manual download so it only downloads when I want to look at mail and I let everyone know not to count on me reading it more than twice a day – once at the start and again at the end (to help plan tomorrow).
Here’s some assumptions and fallacies I run into a lot:
* We have less time than ever before. (In fact, everybody who ever lived had 24 hours a day. What’s changed is how we choose to spend that time. It’s a different mindset.)
* Tasks can be prioritized. (I find that coming up with the ultimate prioritization method is a never-ending quest, and my belief is that it just doesn’t exist. It’s too fluid, it’s too complex, and there’s attributes that are impossible to quantify.)
* Your value is measured by what you do for others. (In fact, you have inherent value just because you exist. What you deliver for others is great, but this assumption puts you in the mind-set that nothing matters unless – and until – others say that they value it. That’s incredibly short-sighted.)
There’s no such thing as time management, it’s all about self management. However, my self disagrees with this conclusion.
Here’s a real doozy: if people are meeting their schedules, the schedules are too easy and they’re not working hard enough. An all too common management technique. This is quite the opposite of my belief.
Another one that I do believe in: clear the small stuff (reply to email, reply to phone calls, take care of garbage paperwork) quickly — either do it or don’t do it at all.