means that you cost your company or organization £50 for every productive hour you work – an incentive not to waste time!
Recording this level of detail will almost certainly reveal things that you were not aware of about your working day. It may, for example, demonstrate that you spend more time than you had throught in travelling or doing routine tasks (one of my colleagues calculated that he spends a total of 15 minutes every day walking from his computer to the printer and back), or that you spend less time than you should in planning and thinking.
When working out the priority column, consider the following:
Which tasks are central to your role.
Which tasks could be delegated.
Which tasks could be done more effectively.
Which tasks you should not be doing in the first place.
Calculate your time on different tasks and your hourly rate with overheads.
If we had no stress in our lives, maybe nothing would get done. But most of us have too much stress – enough to make us read a book about time management! We find ourselves unable to make decisions and we lose a sense of proportion about life as we become more and more burdened.
We become frustrated at how little progress is being made on the project we’ve been working hard at, despite all our efforts. We think we’re too busy even to take a holiday. If such feelings are familiar to you, it is vital that you find ways that work for you to manage and reduce the stress in your life. Here are some guidelines (see also 4.8):
case study In Ron’s first eight years of working independently, he put in extremely long hours. He was often so exhausted that he couldn’t relax even when away from work, and his relationship with his wife and children suffered. His stress built up and took an emotional and physical toll. He eventually realized that he needed to learn how to build a more balanced lifestyle. So Ron scheduled in more family time. He also developed regular habits of walking around the block (5, 10, 20, 40 minutes depending on the time available) and developed a support group of friends who met regularly. He became more resilient and had ‘coping mechanisms’ in place to help him in times of stress.
Schedule in regular times of rest. If you know you’ve got a very busy week, try to make the weekend or the next week less busy.
Learn to say no. Don’t try to control everything in the universe: set yourself realistic goals (see also 5.5).
Plan holidays in advance. A colleague plans a weekend away every six weeks, to have something to look forward to.
Allow time to be with your partner and family. Schedule family time into the diary if need be!
Take up a new hobby. Or volunteer to help a local charity. Working with others will take you out of yourself.
Spend time with friends. Old friends and new friends.
Develop a sense of humour. It’s one of the best antidotes for stress.
Engage in physical exercise. For example, jogging, cycling, swimming, walking or dancing.
Absorb yourself with the arts or music. Make time to go to an art gallery, the theatre or a concert.
Attend to your spiritual side. Spend time in a form of prayer or meditation to help connect you with more than the physical world.
Think of practical ways to reduce the stress in your life.
An important part of this book is to help you identify what you need to change in order to manage time more effectively. But do you lack the motivation to change? Here are eight ideas to help you become more familiar with the idea of change in your life.
1 Try new ways of doing things. Move beyond the “I’ve always done it this way” mentality. You can begin with something relatively small, like driving a different way to work. Set realistic goals to make a small noticeable adjustment. Don’t get off at the closest bus stop to your work, for example, but the stop before and walk the rest of the way. If you can do that a couple of times a week, it’s a start.
2 Admit you don’t know everything. I have been helped by the saying, “It’s a strong person who admits their weaknesses”. This means you will listen more, acknowledge errors and be willing to receive feedback and learn from mistakes.
3 Ask more questions. Remember your underlying aims and goals, and think creatively about new ways to reach them.
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”
Victor Frankl, Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor
4 Move on from past experiences. Learn from your past, but don’t worry about specific events unduly.
5 Don’t be afraid of failure. The American inventor Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
6 Build in regular reviews. These could be in advance of your regular appraisal.
7 Evaluate your goals. An aspect of setting goals is so that you can see if you are reaching them or not.
8 Use friends to help you change. Gather friends around you with whom you can share your goals and frustrations. Allow them to help you and guide you where necessary.
Mentally prepare yourself for new ways of doing things.
Alongside knowing what kind of a person you are, it is important to think specifically about your job. You need to be clear about your role and the responsibilities that you are expected to fulfil. We all need help at times to maintain concentration on all aspects of our work: to stop putting off doing routine or difficult tasks, to overcome poor motivation, to keep focused and make good decisions. This chapter has techniques to help you do that.
We all spend a lot of time being busy, but it is important to stop and be clear about what our job is all about. We can then think how effective we are at actually carrying out our job.
1 Write down what you
