Tag Archives: time management

An Expensive Meeting

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“One more thing, there is one more discipline that is critical to the success of this time management system,” I responded. “I was taught this several years ago by a firm who truly understood its power, it’s the weekly review.”

“Each Monday, every Monday, without fail, even if some members of the team were absent, there was a special meeting to review the action plans for the week. Daily was too often, monthly was too long, weekly was just right. The firm did this as a group.

“To that meeting, attendees would bring all the tidbits, scraps of paper, file notes, phone slips, due date reports along with the schedules of every person in the firm. The purpose was to review every possible action step in the time frame of that week, to make sure every person and every thing was fully scheduled.

“Around the table sat approximately $3000 per hour of billable personnel. The meeting lasted two hours so double that number. This was a $6000 meeting. That was the value the company committed to that meeting.

“The value of a full-on action-step-review on a weekly basis has been proven time and again. If you work alone, you need to meet with yourself to schedule your personal weekly calendar. If you work with other people, a mutual meeting can accomplish both personal calendars and cooperative calendars. The meeting can happen face to face or through some technical hookup when necessary.

“I always look for leverage. This is one powerful lever.”

Friday at 5:00p

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Kyle wheeled around into the sun, cupping his hand over his eyes to see who was calling his name. It was Barry, his manager. Friday afternoon at 5:00, and it was Barry. Again. Kyle already knew what was coming.

“Hey, Kyle,” said Barry as he stepped up his pace. “Listen, I was just wondering if you could do me a favor on Monday. I have this project that I’ve been trying to wrap-up and I am just jammed. I know it would be extra work for you, but I really need your help. It has to be finished by noon on Monday and I just can’t get it done.”

And Barry wondered why Kyle was never excited about things he tried to delegate.

There are two purposes for delegation. One is time management, the other is people development. Delegating for time management is okay, but short sighted. The longer term purpose for delegation is people development.

So, if the true purpose for delegation is development, it is important enough to schedule a real meeting, with committed time in an appropriate room over a conference table. Plan ahead.

If you haven’t planned ahead, and it’s Friday at 5:00pm, you already blew it. Just go home. Have a beer. Come back next week with a better plan.

It’s Not a Technique

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“I am thinking about taking a course in time management,” Earl announced.

“So, you think you need more time to get things done?” I asked. “I have some bad news for you. The clock never slows down. I cannot give you any more minutes in a day and the rate of those minutes never changes. You cannot manage time.”

Earl had a quizzical look on his face. He was certain that I would give him a referral to a time management course, or at least give him a book to read.

“You can manage yourself, you can be more productive, you can manage tasks, but no matter how much you stare at the clock on the wall, the second hand will continue to tick. You know the techniques.

  • To do list
  • Prioritize
  • Uninterrupted time
  • Time budget
  • Weekly review
  • Only handle it once
  • Action list
  • Say no
  • Delegation
  • Pareto principle

“And, understanding techniques to be more productive, techniques for self-management, techniques for task management seldom work.

“It is not desire that fails people, for most want the outcomes that time management produces.

“What fails people most is discipline. The discipline to perform something over and over until it becomes a habit. It is only when you create a habit that you will gain the benefits from any time management technique.

“I can teach you the techniques, but only you can supply the habit.”

A Team Member’s Perspective

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James stared at the project on his desk. It was a tidy project that he could delegate, probably free up four hours of his time this week.

This is where most managers start. For the manager, delegation is your most powerful time management tool.

I asked James to make a list of the benefits of that delegation to his team member. The list was quick. The team member would:

  • Learn a new skill.
  • See their contribution as valuable.
  • Have a better sense of the big picture.
  • Experience more job satisfaction.

I asked James if the list had anything to do with time management. As he studied each item, it became clear that, from the manager’s perspective, we were talking about time management, but from the team member’s perspective, we were talking about learning and development. Delegation may be a powerful time management tool, but it is also your most powerful people development tool.

All in the Way You Think

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Management is about leverage.

Most people work on a ratio of 1:1. They work for an hour and they get one hour’s productivity. Managers have to get far more leverage from their time than 1:1. A manager cannot afford to get only one hour’s productivity for one hour worked.

How can you get two hours productivity from one hour worked? It’s a fair question.

The obvious answer is delegation. But the challenge continues. How can you get three hours productivity from one hour worked?

But here’s the real challenge – How can you get 50 hours productivity from one hour worked?
Chicken feed. How can you get 100 hours productivity from one hour worked, every month, month in and month out?

Most managers view delegation from the perspective of time management. Dumping. If you dump enough stuff, you can get five, six, even ten hours of time back, but you are still working on a 1:1 ratio.

Only if you look at delegation as development, do you begin to understand true leverage. One hour can turn into 100 hours productivity. How would you like to work for 5 hours and gain 500 hours productivity over the next 30 days? It’s all in the way you think. So, how do you think?

Real Leverage

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It all starts with purpose And there are only two purposes.

If you make a list of all the benefits to the manager from delegation, you get an impressive inventory (Be selfish, think only of yourself):

  • More time for golf.
  • More time for lunch.
  • More time for surfing the internet.

That’s nice. But you also get:

  • More time for thinking.
  • More time for higher level work.
  • More time for planning.
  • More time for organizing.
  • More time for analysis.

Things you were hired for in the first place, but have no time for.

Now, list the benefits of delegation to the team member:

  • Cross training.
  • More responsibility.
  • Eligible for promotion.
  • Understanding of the bigger picture.
  • Feeling of importance.
  • New skills.
  • Credit for a new “job well done.”
  • Feeling of pride.
  • Eligible for higher compensation.
  • Feeling of teamwork.
  • Higher level of motivation.

Two different lists, one for the manager and one for the team member. Look at the themes. What do you see?
List one, for the manager, the theme is unmistakably time.
List two, for the team member, the theme is unmistakably development.

And, so these are the two purposes for delegation.
One: Time (Delegation is your most powerful time management tool)
Two: Development (Delegation is your most powerful people development tool)

So, which one gains the manager the most leverage?

Stop Working Harder

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From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
Last night, I got out of the office at 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 worked the last three Saturdays and last week, had to come in on Sunday. Missed the football game.

If I had known ahead of time, I could delegate some of the work 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.

Response:
I don’t believe you. If you sat down and thought about it, almost all of your work is predictable, you just don’t think about it. You don’t delegate out, because you like working under the gun. Here’s the thing. You think you will get sympathy from me for all your hard work, but the just dessert for hard work is more hard work. You have to stop working harder and start working differently. -Tom

Are You Busy?

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“I know planning this project is important, but I have so much to do today,” Lauren explained, hoping I would let her off the hook.

I nodded my head. “I know you have a lot to do, today. How much of what you do today will be effective?” I asked.

“What do you mean? I have phone calls to return, emails to answer, meetings to go to. I have a couple of employees I have to speak to, about things they were supposed to take care. I have a couple of other projects that are behind schedule. A lot of things are piled up.”

“How much of what you do today will be effective?” I repeated.

“Well.” Lauren stopped. “I know some things are more important than other things.”

“And, how do you make that decision? How do you know what you do is effective? How do you know what you do is important?” Lauren’s posture shifted. She backed off the table between us. She was listening. “I will venture that 80 percent of what you do today will be wasted time and only 20 percent of what you do will be effective. How will you know you are working on the 20 percent?” -Tom

Not Enough Time

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“I gotta get something off my plate,” Adrian shook his head. “I am so busy, I just don’t have time to get everything done.”

“Busy?” I asked. For me, busy is a code word, a clue, that there is a mis-match in level of work.

“Yes. Busy. I get here early to catch things up from yesterday, make some headway on one of my projects, but about 7:30, the chaos begins.”

“Chaos?” I asked. For me, chaos is a code word, a clue, that there is a mis-match in level of work.

“Yes. Chaos,” Adrian replied. “Unsolved problems from yesterday. Yesterday’s decisions delayed until today. It hits my email, it hits my text messages, it hits my phone, it walks through my office door.”

“So, you think you have a problem?” I clarified. “And, if you could get something off your plate, you would have more time? And if you had more time, you wouldn’t be so busy? And if you weren’t so busy, there would be less chaos?”

“That’s it,” Adrian agreed.

“Then, why did you start coming to work so early?” I probed.

“Because I was too busy during the day. There was too much chaos during the day. I couldn’t get anything done,” Adrian was frustrated with his circular problem.

“So, you came to work early to get more time, but you are still too busy and there is still too much chaos? Do you think not-enough-time is really the problem.”

Not a Time Management Issue

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“Yes, you could call it stress,” Daniele replied. “And it’s building. I seem to get farther behind and I can see there are things that need to be done, there is no way I will get to them.”

“What do you think is happening?” I asked.

“I get to work early to get a few minutes of peace and quiet. It’s usually my most productive hour of the day. But then, there is an email, or a note on my desk about a struggling project and boom, I am in the weeds again. I am not complaining about the work, but I feel the stress. I am torn between these urgent projects and the work I know I really need to be doing. It even affects my work-life balance. I feel like I need to come in to work two hours early.”

“Do you think you have a work-life balance problem?”

“Yes. My husband thinks so,” Daniele nodded.

“You know I am a structure guy. I don’t think you have a work-life balance problem, I think you have a structure issue. Why do you think you get pulled into the weeds and cannot get to the work you need to be doing as a manager?”

“My team has questions that have to be answered, problems that have to be solved and decisions that have to be made,” she described. “If I don’t spend that time, they just get stuck and don’t know what to do.”

“Your stress is only the symptom. It looks like a time management issue, but it’s not. It’s a structure issue.”