Time, like money, is finite. But today, when more schedules are overloaded and we are often bombarded with more information than our brains can handle, time becomes too difficult to manage. When our schedule is overloaded, time vanishes before our eyes.
Scarcity and time go hand in hand, but is time genuinely scarce, or are we managing it wrong?
In a lecture on time management, Carnegie Melon University professor Randy Pausch stated, “Americans are very, very bad at dealing with time as a commodity. We’re good at dealing with money as a commodity.” Now, I can name some people who are bad at both, but I can understand what he’s saying. Not everyone treats time and money equally, but they should.
It’s not as simple as sitting down one day and saying to yourself, “I’m going to use my time better.” Effective time management is tied to effective processes, procedures, and routines that are put in place. If that structure fails, there is a good chance that your ability to manage time will fail; however, if you take the time to set up a process that works for you, the ability to manage your time becomes infinitely better.
I’ve identified the following four steps you can take to more effectively budget your time. I may insert some anecdotes from my own process as we go along, but finding what works for you within the context of these steps is essential.
Assess/Analyze/Action
It’s ironic that in an article about time management, I’m asking you to take time to evaluate how you use your time, but making positive changes in your time management can only happen by looking at what you do now. To properly assess how you are using time, evaluate your time usage for one week (or another measurement that works for you). Create a chart to log everything you do and how long each activity takes.
After the evaluation period, analyze the data. Look for tasks you do well, but also look for opportunities to reclaim more time from the clutches of time wasters. Get a sense of how much time you actually take to do those tasks and how much time they should take. With this big picture view of how your time is used, you are ready to take action.
Time Takers
When you review your time log, consider everything you do in a given day as a time taker. All of those activities that you captured during the assessment process can be sorted into one of five categories:
- Must do (e.g., work, family care)
- Should do (e.g., health, wellness, education)
- Want to do (e.g., vacations, dining out)
- Long-term goals (e.g., promotion, retirement)
- Time wasters: items you should never prioritize over the first four categories
Time Procedures
Having identified those items, you can start establishing procedures to get things done.
- Prioritization
How many times has something been thrown on our desk or sent to our email that immediately ascends to the forefront of our mind and top of our to-do list because it was the last thing we saw? But was that item more important? Probably not. Finding a way to separate the urgent from the important is essential.
One tool is the Eisenhower Matrix, which prioritizes tasks on the basis of urgency and importance. Those tasks deemed urgent and essential get top priority, while those unimportant, nonurgent tasks go last. Some tasks may not readily identify themselves as urgent or critical. In that case, ask yourself a set of questions to determine a task’s priority.
- Why will I succeed by doing this task?
- What will happen if I don’t do it?
- How long will it take to accomplish?
- Delegation
Delegation can be a struggle for those who have trouble relinquishing control, who don’t want to take the time to train other people to perform specific tasks, or who simply don’t trust members of their team to perform tasks the right way. Superseding all of those barriers is one simple fact: you cannot accomplish everything yourself.
Learn to let go and trust your team. If you don’t want to take the time to teach someone how to do a task, think about how the little time spent explaining how to accomplish a task pales by comparison with the time saved by not having to do that task yourself in the future.
Communicating clearly to your team the reason something is important and illustrating your own expectations while giving them the tools and resources to succeed should alleviate most concerns about letting go. Delegating important tasks to others on your team can empower them and free up time for you to take on other more critical tasks. That’s a win for everyone.
- Planning
Now that you know what you must do, how do you plan to tackle everything? More often than not, a good plan involves both a schedule and a to-do list.
A well-planned schedule does three things: (1) it blocks out time for necessary commitments, (2) it identifies tasks to be completed in each time slot, and (3) it is adaptable.
A well-planned schedule does three things: (1) it blocks out time for necessary commitments, (2) it identifies tasks to be completed in each time slot, and (3) it is adaptable. When I say adaptable, I mean that if an important situation arises, such as a last-minute meeting, your schedule is not set in stone.
I’ve read literature on why to-do lists are bad, but I don’t subscribe to those beliefs. If there is a rhyme or reason for how to structure your to-do list, it can be effective. Take time each day to reflect on what happened that day and make a list to set up your plan for the next day.
- Organization
Budgeting your time effectively is difficult without a method of organization. I mentioned earlier about all of us being bombarded with information. That is why being organized is more important than ever. Here are some questions to consider:
- How do you ensure that your calendar is up-to-date?
- How do you keep track of physical items (e.g., filing system)?
- How do you keep track of digital items (e.g., email inbox, files)?
- Do you keep pen and paper on nearby to organize your thoughts?
Workflow
Workflow is the most personal part of the time management setup process. You’ve analyzed your own strategy, identified the time takers, and considered those four procedures that will help you toward your goal. Now, you need to find the right tools to implement the procedures and create an effective workflow.
Daily Plan. Have a plan going into each day. Whether it’s a separate written plan of action or simply a review of your calendar and a peek at your to-do list, wake up every morning knowing what the day looks like.
To-Do List. Some people prefer paper because they can touch it, write on it, or simply engage in the satisfaction of crossing off an item. Others prefer digital lists because they can sync their phone with their computer and never be without it. Some are crazy and use both.
I use the Todoist App as a repository for all of my obligations, organized by deadline and priority. When I create my plan for the day, I write down the items from my to-do list so I’m not constantly referring back to it. By doing so, I remove a potential technological distraction. At the end of the day, I reconcile my paper list with my digital list, crossing items off and adding those that came up during the day.
Calendar. Again, there are paper believers and digital believers. Google Calendar runs my world (both family and work). My wife and I share calendars so we know what’s going on.
Email. Let me state here and now: your email is not your to-do list. We’ve all fallen into this trap. Pick dedicated times to check your email and find a way to organize it so that you can separate important items from nonimportant items.
As a Gmail user, I swear by multiple in-boxes. I’ve set up my Gmail with a general in-box to sort through, but I also have an in-box for tasks I need to do immediately, one for tasks to add to my to-do list with a deadline, a box for to-do items without a deadline, and one for items I need to read.
Setup. What does your environment look like when you sit down to work? Do you have access to everything that can make you productive? I’m assuming you have a computer. You should have a clear area on which to write or work, but is clutter getting in your way? As I write this, I’m staring at a pile of papers I need to sort through. We all know what must be done here!
Apps.We are all going to wind up on our phone or computer at some point during the day. What are those apps that help you be more productive and don’t distract you? I previously mentioned Gmail, Google Calendar, and Todoist, but I use Evernote and Google Drive/Docs as well. Chances are I’ll have Spotify open with music to get into the right headspace. Several apps out there can help you, but you need to identify those that don’t.
Filing System.When a piece of paper or an email comes to your attention, make sure you have a place for it, even if it means the trash. Don’t let anything linger. For email, I use the multiple-inbox method I mentioned earlier. Then, when I’m finished with the email, I archive it. If I need it later, I know where to find it.
With papers, I identify each as an item to file, read, or take action on. I file documents by topic. I put the papers yet to be read in the “To Read” folder. Those that require action are reviewed, labeled with the associated action, added to Todoist, then placed in my action folder. Having a good filing system reduces the time wasted trying to track items down.
Ideas and Thoughts
All of us have moments during the day when a random idea or thought will pop into our head. It is important not to let it distract you; simply write it down and decide later where it should go. I keep a notepad handy at all times, and I can jot down an idea that will be added later either to Todoist or to a file in Evernote that contains random thoughts that pop into my head.
As Carl Sandberg wrote, “Time is the coin of your life.”