“Great looking list,” I commended. “So, how do you work it?” We had been talking about Marie’s project list and her daily to-do lists.

Her brow furrowed. “I look at the list, and really, I just start working on whatever I think is easiest to get done right then. Or I try to pick off an A priority. But here’s the rub. We just spent half an hour working on this list, and it’s likely I won’t even look at it again until next Tuesday. I don’t use it to focus, I mean, I don’t even look at it. And I don’t know why. And then something falls through the cracks.”

“What do you use to focus?” I asked.

“My calendar. I have a lot of meetings,” she replied. “I live and die by my calendar. I look at it ten times a day.”

“Then, stop making to-do lists,” I challenged.

“But, I thought, as a manager, that I had to make to-do lists? It’s one of those big Time Management ideas.”

I smiled. “That’s the trap everyone falls into. There are only about seven Time Management principles and the dirty little secret is that you cannot use them all, some principles won’t work for you and you won’t work some principles. So stop. Stop doing what doesn’t work and stop feeling guilty about it.”

“So, if to-do lists don’t work for me, how do I keep things from falling through the cracks?”

“What do you use to focus?” I repeated.

“My calendar?”

“Then, everything goes into your calendar.”

“Won’t my calendar get kind of messy?”

“What does it matter? You look at it ten times a day. It’s what helps you focus.”

“You are actually suggesting that I don’t prioritize?” Marie was having trouble with this.

“I know it sounds like heresy, but think about this. What is the biggest difference between an A priority and a C priority?” I nodded slowly.

Marie hesitated. “Well, it’s either more important or it has to get done first.”

“Good guess, but tell me, have you ever approached a deadline on a C priority and had to complete it before an A priority?”

“Sure, it happens all the time.”

“Then what does that say about your priority system? And bottom line, it all has to get done sometime, just schedule it. If it doesn’t have to get done, it shouldn’t be on your list in the first place.”

Marie was still trying to protest. “But, if I work hard all day and if something doesn’t get done, at least it was the C priority.”

“You are a manager. If there is something you can’t get done, it should be assigned to someone else. At the end of the day, don’t tell me something didn’t get done because you ran out of time. It did not get done because you did not manage it correctly.”

I had a hot tip to stop by and visit with Brent. As I entered his office, I noticed his eyes were sunk in. It was Friday, but he didn’t look like he was ready for the weekend.

“You look like crap,” I observed. “When did you get here this morning?”

Brent sat up, a bit startled. “Oh, man,” he said. “I rolled in around 5:00a. I just had to get some stuff done.”

“And when did you leave last night?”

“Well, I got out of here about 9:45p. I don’t know what it is. This has been going on for the past three weeks. On Monday, things don’t look so bad, but come Thursday and Friday, the work just seems to pile up. I have worked the last three Saturdays and last week, had to come in on Sunday. Missed the football game.”

“So, this is not some special project. Just your regular work,” I inquired.

“Yeah, in fact, if I had known about it ahead of time, I could delegate some of it out and it would already be done. But I don’t know about some of this stuff until it’s too late, or don’t realize how long it is really going to take. All of sudden, the pile is stacked up and everyone has gone home. The work’s gotta get done.”

“Brent, what if?” I started. “Brent, what if I don’t believe you.”

How we think about Time is everything in management. It is always a trade off between pace and quality.

Next Monday, we start, Managing Time, Managing Yourself, the next Subject in our Working Leadership Online series. First, the offer.

We are offering ten scholarships to this next Subject area. If you would like to participate in this program starting next Monday, send me an email. We will take the first ten people ($250 value). Here is your commitment and the schedule.

May 18 – Read the Presentation – Managing Time, Managing Yourself. This read will take approximately 30 minutes. At the end of the Presentation will be a Field Work Assignment. The Field Work assignment will take approximately 30-90 minutes sometime during the week.

May 25 – Sometime during this week, post your Report based on the Field Work assignment. Time required, approximately 20-40 minutes.

June 1 – This last week is reserved to read other participant’s Reports and post Comments, questions, helpful advice or to share a story.

I look forward to seeing you online.

Greetings from Dickinson, ND.
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“Everything important is in my INBOX. That’s why it’s so clogged up. And things that need a response get lost,” Diane explained.

“And you said Outlook allows you to set up folders?” I asked.

“Yes, in fact, I set up some Project folders, but I put things in there and forget I need to respond to something in a Project folder, and then it’s too late. So, I stopped using them.”

“So, you have a Business folder and a Personal folder, those came with your system and you set up a bunch of Project folders, but you don’t use them anymore,” I confirmed.

Diane nodded.

Let me suggest the following. Delete the Business folder and the Personal folder. They are empty and useless, anyway. Set up these three folders.

• Important, Due Soon
• Important, Due Later
• Information Updates

If you decide to keep your Project folders, I would recommend you keep them only for your bigger projects, and don’t put anything in there that needs a response or a decision, at least until you have responded or made the decision.

Instead of sitting at your computer all day, combing through your emails, set 2-3 times per day for a short period. Keep your INBOX empty and by the end of each day, empty out your Important, Due Soon folder. The only folder you need to comb is your Important, Due Later. Decisions that get close, you can move to your Important, Due Soon folder.

Keeping the INBOX empty is the key to this system. When your INBOX is empty, your head is clear to respond and make decisions.”

This is a big time subject in Managing Time, Managing Yourself, (begins May 18) in Working Leadership Online.

“I am not suggesting that you stop using email,” I continued. “I am suggesting that you use it like a tool.”

“But there are so many emails, every day,” Diane resisted.

“How many of those are junk, that don’t even need to be opened?” I asked.

“Well, there are some, but most get trapped in our spam filter.”

“And, of what’s left, how many need an immediate 1-2 sentence response?”

Diane was thinking, “About 10 percent.”

“And what do you do with those?”

“I leave them in my INBOX so I don’t forget them, until I can get around to replying.”

“And what about the ones that need a decision, where you have to think about the alternatives. What happens to those emails?”

“Those are important, so I keep those in my INBOX,” Diane replied.

“And what about those emails that are informational, don’t need a response, but you need the information for some reason, like an update on a project? Where do you keep those?”

“Well, if it’s an active project that I am working on, I will likely leave it in my INBOX so I can get to it quickly, in case someone asks me about the project.”

“Diane, do you see a pattern, here?”

“You use Outlook for your email. Can you set up folders for your email?” I asked.

“Yes, it comes with a folder for Business emails, Personal emails and I guess I can set up folders for each of my projects,” Diane explained.

“What seems to be the problem?” I asked.

“I get so many emails and they stack up in my INBOX. I could literally sit at my desk all day and answer emails.”

“Really, is that why your company hired you, to answer emails?” I pressed.

“No, of course not, but email is one of my primary communication tools to get things done,” she protested.

“Is it a tool, or a weight around your neck?”

“It’s supposed to be a tool.”

“Well, is it a tool, or a weight?”

We all start with the same inventory. We all choose how we are going to spend it. Some people spend it wisely, some foolishly. If we choose not to use it, it vanishes into thin air.

Time can never be recaptured. Lost money can be recovered, made back. Lost time is lost forever.

Managing Time, Managing Yourself is the next subject area in our series Working Leadership Online. Kicks off on Monday, May 18.

Here is what a past graduates had to say.

“I read the material over the weekend and immediately implemented the ideas. This is very effective, my INBOX is clean every day and I can work with my EA on the items in the folders to see what I can delegate. This was new and an immediate quick hit.”

Follow this link to register, Working Leadership Online.

“If you cannot manage time, you cannot manage anything.” -Peter Drucker

Looking forward to seeing you online. –Tom Foster

“I just feel like I am a little overwhelmed,” Sam explained.

“Your manager says it’s more than a little,” I replied.

“Yes, some days it borders on out of control.”

“Would you agree, that if you worked 16 hours a day, every day, seven days a week, you would still not get everything done?”

“That’s the way it feels, sometimes.”

“How can I help you get more organized?” I asked.

“You’re the expert, I thought you were going to tell me what to do?” Sam insisted.

“I can tell you what to do, but I will guarantee that you won’t do it.” I laughed.

“What do you mean?”

“The way I organize time may not work for you. You have to figure out your best way. There are a dozen things you could do, but you won’t do nine of them. You have to figure out the two or three that work for you.”