During a recent Time Management course I asked the group "What are your priorities?"
almost immediately one delegate answered "everything!" - this was quickly followed by agreement from other delegates on the course.
To be honest this is not an uncommon response to hear, and you may well be thinking that you agree that everything is a priority.
The ability to identify priorities is one of the core methods of managing our own personal effectiveness and not doing so more often than not leads to stress, frustration, panic and chaos.
One of the simplest methods of identifying what needs doing is the approach adopted by Charles M Schwab, Chairman of the Bethlehem Steel Company in the early 1900's.
At a dinner party Schwab challenged a Management Consultant show him a way to get more things done with his time, in return he would pay any fee within reason. The Consultant gave Schwab a blank note pad and told him each evening to write down all the things he had to do tomorrow in order of importance, then first thing in the morning start working on item one until its completed, then move onto item two and so forth. Schwab was told not to worry if he didn't complete the list by the end of the day just carry over any incomplete items and re-number their priority for the next day.
A short time afterwards the Consultant received a cheque for $25,000, Schwab was heard to say it was the most valuable business lesson he had ever learnt!
There are many people who are successfully using this method today for others however the problem can be identifying the priorities.
Priorities have two key components, URGENT and IMPORTANT.
URGENT meaning it has to be done immediately or today.
IMPORTANT meaning it contributes to goals, objectives and job purpose.
By combining these words together we can create four categories, a PRIORITY GRID, by which we can prioritise our workload.
In box 1 URGENT / IMPORTANT place the tasks that need to be started today and contribute to your objectives and job role. Try to avoid putting too many tasks in this box as it will become a case of fire fighting to meet deadlines!
In box 2 NOT URGENT / IMPORTANT these tasks do not need to be started today; but because they contribute to objectives and job purpose you will reduce your stress by starting them before they become Urgent and working towards a deadline rather than firefighting.
In box 3 URGENT / NOT IMPORTANT we have the tasks that need doing immediately or today but don't contribute to objectives or job purpose. These tasks should be delegated or assigned to others if possible, or tackled during those periods when we are waiting for something that will help progress on our IMPORTANT TASKS. A further approach to items in box 3 is to allocate a max amount of time to complete them.
In box 4 NOT URGENT / NOT IMPORTANT we have tasks that we get to when every thing else is done or has gone as far as possible today, at best these tasks might be a fill in between our other tasks but really they deserve very little time because they don't contribute anything.
If Time Management is one of the areas where you feel your people need to development their skills then check out our courses or contact us to discuss more specific requirements.
Last Updated: 04/02/2011