| A failure to manage time effectively has a cumulative effect: it increases pressure on you, which is likely to reduce your efficiency, and it makes you feel that you are not doing your job properly. Therefore, unless you tackle the problem, it is likely to get worse. This Element will provide some strategies for managing priorities and for using your working time more effectively. If you have problems with time management the causes are likely to include wasted time, interruptions and changing priorities. It therefore makes sense to address these aspects of your work routine. You can do this by analysing your actual use of time and comparing this with how you would like to use your time. Over the next 20 minutes of study you will be introduced to some techniques for managing priorities in your work. |
Urgent versus important Distinguishing and finding a balance between between urgent and important tasks is vital to effective working. If you are frequently distracted from important work by more urgent issues you are likely to neglect important ones until they too become urgent.
Use this list to distinguish between the important and urgent activities you have to do. Prioritising activities on a daily or weekly basis can help. A simple 2x2 matrix can be used for this purpose. The matrix categorises activities according to their importance and urgency. Think about what is currently urgent in your work: the things you must do soon. Then think of some of the important tasks which you want to do but which always seem to end up at the bottom of the list as urgent matters which demand attention. Try to think of three examples of each in your work at the moment and make a note of these. |
Managing your time If you have identified some important tasks but know you have not given them enough time you may need to find ways of managing your time more effectively. The best way to analyse your use of time is to keep a detailed log for a typical day at work. You may wish to repeat this exercise to see if a pattern emerges. How much of your time is spent dealing with unexpected urgent issues? Although all managers have to attend to unexpected tasks, if these dominate your working time then you need to consider carefully whether your planning, work processes and use of time are appropriate. You need to distinguish clearly between the urgent and the important and allocate your time accordingly. Anna knew that she needed to update the product publicity brochure. It had not been changed for two years and, although it was still accurate, it looked out of date and old-fashioned. It compared poorly with those of her competitors. She really needed to establish a website with the current information - the existing brochure did not even have an e-mail address on it. She was embarrassed every time she gave one to a potential customer. What is more, updating the brochure had been one of the priority tasks agreed with her manager at her quarterly review last month. She began work on the brochure that following Monday and she thought it would take her most of the week to get it ready for the printer. At 11.30 that morning she received a call from David, the Sales Manager. He was due to give a presentation to a large potential client the next morning but he had just had a call from his wife saying that their daughter had been taken into hospital with a high fever. He expected to be available to make the presentation but he thought that Anna ought to know. Then, at 2 pm, her secretary Maria came in to say that she had been having lunch with a friend from Production who said there had been an equipment failure and one line was likely to be down for at least a week. Anna made a cup of coffee and considered how she was going to cope. She decided it was not fair to ask David to go ahead with the presentation as she knew he would be worried about his daughter. She would do it herself and would need the afternoon to prepare for it. The production hold-up was worrying because she had some major orders that were already on tight deadlines. She would not be able to do anything about that today but would need to give it priority later in the week. The first thing she needed was to get information on the likely delays - Maria would collect that for her when she came back on Wednesday. As for the product brochure, well, that would just have to wait. Perhaps they could print a sticker with their e-mail address to put on their existing brochures. She asked Maria to come into her office. |
Summary Three common causes of time management problems are wasted time, interruptions and changing priorities. It is important to analyse your actual use of time and compare this with how you would like to use your time. A frequent difficulty is balancing urgency against importance. A 2x2 matrix can help with prioritising activities according to urgency and importance. |