Brent wasn’t sure he heard me right. I know he was expecting some sympathy for all of his long hours.
“Your long hours are not because you are working hard,” I said. “Your long hours are because you didn’t budget your time.”
He tried the puppy dog look. “But I don’t know exactly how much work there is to do until it piles up on me,” he protested.
“That’s BS,” I responded. “If you would sit down and think about your week coming up, you would find that 95 percent of it is totally predictable.”
“Well, I have a TO DO list, if that’s what you mean.”
“No, I am talking about a Weekly Time Budget. I am going to email you a Weekly Time Budget Planner. It’s one page. Spreadsheet format. Let’s meet tomorrow afternoon and plan your Time Budget for next week.” -TF
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If you would like a copy of Brent’s Weekly Time Budget Planner, just reply to this email or follow the link to Ask Tom and I will email you one.
I sympathize with Brent, but I also recognize that “something has to give.†As a manager, I pride myself on servicing my internal and external customers quickly and effectively. So while my primary responsibilities are often predictable, my customer service requests (in the most general sense) are often erratic because they are based on my clients’ and colleagues’ schedules.
The generally random timing of requests for guidance and/or support + my urge to respond in a timely manner = a loss of control over my schedule.
Therefore, I am required not only to budget time for my primary responsibilities, but also for customer service. I overcame my knee-jerk opposition to this idea, by realizing that those individuals who approach me for assistance regard my time as a resource; one that each individual might fully exhaust on his/her pool of tasks if given the opportunity.
We must curb the inclination to relegate our responsibilities to the residual of time available after assisting all others… easier said than done.
Kevin,
You have learned a very valuable lesson.
Kevin: I’m sure I speak for many others when I say, “Exactly!” You have also stated it quite eloquently…I started and scrapped many responses (as I tend to do nearly every single night/morning I get my Foster Fix).
It’s a rough lesson to learn, and one with which I continue to struggle, gladly. As long as I keep trying I will succeed by completion and/or by another opportunity to learn.
And really, if it were easy, we would all be doing it already, wouldn’t we?
Thanks again, Kevin, for your great post, and as always, thanks Tom for providing this blog and communication.
Oh, please send me your Weekly Time Budget Planner. Thanks very much!
ind new and research stuff? Are there any opportunities that I can contribute to your blog. I believe other blog readers would love to read more related stuff. This way, your PR rank for this blog will raise if more visitors are coming.
Keep up the good work!
Eddy
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