The ABC'S of Time Management
Time
Management. This seems to be the focus of the the new millennium. We have more
time saving devices available to us yet we seem to have less time. We spend
millions of dollars annually on time management books and seminars but we still
seem to have too much to do in too little time.
I have made a career of time management. No, I'm not a time management
consultant. Just a busy executive longing to find more time in every day. And
over the years I have discovered that there seems to be four key elements to
effective time management skills:
1. An accurate understanding of how long tasks really take to complete.
2. A single focus on the goal or task at hand.
3. Efficient uses of small amounts of time you don't even realize you have.
4. More efficient ways of completing the more mundane, but necessary tasks in
your life.
An accurate understanding of how long tasks really take to complete
I've been managing people for over 15 years and I have found that those who
share poor time management skills have one thing in common: they have NO idea
how long activities really take them to complete. For example, I once managed a
woman who was going to go to Starbucks on her 15-minute break to get a café
mocha. Starbucks was a 20-minute drive from the office, one way!! She insisted
it was a five-minute drive. It wasn't. Many who are habitually late
underestimate how long they spend getting ready to leave the house or how much
time their drive will take.
So the first key to time management is to obtain a REALISTIC estimate of the
time it takes you to accomplish most of the tasks you perform every day. The
only way to do this is to time them! Next time you leave for work in the
morning, look at your watch the minute you get into the car. When you arrive at
work, look at your watch again. How much time lapsed? If you are "time
challenged" I bet you will be surprised at how long it really took. When
you get out of bed in the morning, look at the clock. When you're ready to leave
the house, look at the clock again. How much time lapsed? When you begin to
clean the house, look at the clock. When you're through, look at the clock
again. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. The objective is to take a
typical day in your life and clock everything you do. It's probably a good idea
to jot your findings down. Keep a log of the time it took you to get to work, to
leave the house or to do your weekly cleaning, etc. etc. Once you have a
REALISTIC perspective of your actual time requirements, then you can begin to
plan your day in accordance with the priorities you created using the Conscious
Prioritization method discussed above. Remember NOT to underestimate your time
when you plan. Refer to your time log and learn how to say "no" so
that you do not over commit yourself.
A single focus on the goal or task at hand.
This is a BIG ONE! So many "time challenged" individuals do not even
realize that when they get little accomplished it's because they have been
easily distracted from their goals. An example of this is when you say you're
going to clean out the closet. In the course of doing so you find some old photo
albums which you spend a significant amount of time looking through (although
you'll swear you only spent an hour looking at the albums!). At the end of the
day you discover that the contents of the closet are all over the floor around
you and that you are no farther along in your efforts to clean it out. So you
put everything back and sincerely wonder why you made no progress at all!
If you're going to clean out the closet, clean out the closet! Do NOT allow
yourself to become distracted by the contents within it. If you were going to
drive from your house to the grocery store, would you turn down streets that
wouldn't get you there? Would you deter along the way? Probably not. So why do
it with any project you're going to undertake. This principle can be applied
equally to your work environment and your home environment. Choose a task and
stayed focused on only that task until it is completed or until your allotted
time has run out.
Efficient uses of small amounts of time you don't even realize you have.
This is my favorite strategy of all. It has become somewhat of a game to me. I'm
constantly trying to find ways to be productive with the few minutes here and
there that I'd normally waste. For instance, I purchased a cordless phone. It
turned out to be (as I'd hoped it would) the BEST investment I've ever made with
respect to accomplishing more with the time I have. Whenever I talk to anyone on
the phone and ESPECIALLY when I've been left on hold, I wipe down the kitchen
sink, the kitchen counters, the microwave oven, the stove top, the refrigerator
shelves, the bathroom sinks or the bathroom mirrors. Or, I may do the dishes or
throw in a load of laundry or two.
I don't know about you but I find I am constantly struggling with clutter and
things that are out of place. So, whenever I walk from one room to another I
take something with me to put away.
From time to time I find myself waiting, waiting for my son, waiting for my
husband, waiting for the babysitter, waiting for the phone repairperson or just
waiting. So once again I use those previously wasted moments to pick up toys,
put away folded laundry or clean out the refrigerator. Commercials are another
great source of time. Remember that there are LOTS of chores around the house
that CAN be done in 2 or 3 minutes. If you take advantage of those moments
you'll find you can do more in seemingly less time.
Lastly, don't forget to make productive use of the time you spend in the dentist
or doctors' waiting rooms. Be sure to take all the reading you want to catch up
on or your bills to pay. You could decide to take your cookbooks or recipe cards
to plan the next week's meals and your grocery list at the same time. Write
those letters you've intended to write. The point is to remember to make
efficient use of the small amounts of time you don't even realize you have.
More efficient ways of completing the more mundane, but necessary tasks in your
life.
This strategy is really about devising better (i.e. quicker) methods to get
things done. Since housecleaning is the one thing that's probably universally
dreaded, I'll use it as an example again. (I've chosen this example specifically
because if you're doing something you ENJOY you really don't want to rush
through it, do it more efficiently or do it in the small amounts of time you
don't even realize you have. The point is to FREE up time from the "have
to's" so that you can give more time to the "want to's").
If you want to clean your home more quickly (to save time to do more of the
things you enjoy) than you must reduce scrubbing! You'll notice that the goal of
all of the housecleaning methods below is to eliminate it entirely. Scrubbing, I
have decided, is the root of all evil (okay, not really but it does take up a
tremendous amount of time!) Additionally, you'll discover that the majority of
the following tips are focused in the bathroom and kitchen areas. This is
because these areas, more so than any other part of the house, seem to be the
most time consuming to clean.
Using an inexpensive shower squeegee wipe down the shower doors after every
shower and save oodles of time cleaning and scrubbing. To clean white grout or
caulking around the bathtub, soak paper towels in bleach and lay them directly
on the affected area. Walk away, or do something else for about a half-hour or
more. Remove the paper towels to find the grout and caulking clean and white. To
clean the bottom of the bathtub fill it with just enough water to cover, add
bleach and let it soak. A half-hour or an hour later, come back to let the water
out and enjoy the sparkling clean bathtub bottom. For mildew and soap scum,
there are no better products than Scrub Free. The Scrub Free SOAP SCUM product
also works well on faucets. Put as much in the dishwasher as you possibly can.
Load it with pots and pans, Tupperware, spatulas, you name it, just about
everything except china and crystal. Some pots and pans may not be suitable for
the dishwasher so be sure to use discretion. And obviously you'll have to run
the dishwasher more so the cost of running that should be balanced against the
benefit you gain in time saved. Use rubbing alcohol to clean stainless steel
sinks, bleach to clean ceramic sinks. (I love bleach-have you noticed?)
Dust less often, unless someone in your family has allergy problems. Vacuum
tile, hardwood or vinyl floors weekly. Scrub them bi weekly or monthly.
These are just a few of the household hints that have saved me hours of time
throughout the years. Remember, the objective is to spend as little time as
possible on those mundane yet necessary tasks in your life. I have illustrated
my point using housecleaning as an example but really this can apply to any
area. I'm sure if you analyze some of the less enjoyable chores you do, you too,
can find more efficient methods to complete them.
As you have seen, time management is about:
1. An accurate understanding of how long tasks really take to complete.
2. A single focus on the goal or task at hand.
3. Efficient uses of small amounts of time you don't even realize you have .
4. More efficient ways of completing the more mundane, but necessary tasks in
your life
But ultimately, the real goal of time management is to organize your days more
effectively so that you can create more time for yourself and the things that
you enjoy! I have.
Jacqueline
McLaughlin Hale is a CPA and the editor of "The Balanced Woman" a
monthly ezine. It contains parenting tips, household hints, ideas for pampering
yourself and more. Subscribing is easy and FREE. Just send a blank TheBalancedWoman-subscribe@onelist.com
She is also the author of The Woman's Guide to Resumes and Interviewing, Lessons
From a Toddler and 77 Ways to Pamper Yourself. All of these publications are
available through AJAY Publishing at: http://angelfire.com/sd/jobsearchforwomen.