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Time Management

Get twice as much done in half the time and take an extra day off a week with effective time management.

Time is your biggest issue – there’s never enough of it. Why? Well, usually it’s not that

you’re doing too much work. You’re doing too much of the wrong kind of work and

because of that, right now it’s difficult for you to see how to do more of the right kind of

work and even know what the right kind of work is.

We’re going to examine how you use your time each day and what you can do to

maximize your productivity.

First of all, there really is no such thing as time management. Time is not your problem.

Attention is your problem. Achievement follows attention. Managing your attention will

make the best use of your time and, in turn, the best use of you.

© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

Productivity doesn’t depend on how much time you have. Everyone has the same

amount of time – 24 hours a day/seven days a week. You can’t manage time any more

than you can manage the weather. Time passes at its own rate and it’s the same for

everyone. So why do successful people seem to get so much more out of the same

amount of time that everyone else has?

Productivity does not depend on the time available to you. It has to do with your

attention. What you choose to do. Your mindset. Your attitude towards work and time

and some productive habits which eliminate the busy-ness and replace it with

accomplishment. You’ll find that you may do the same amount of work, but by doing

different work differently, you’ll get more done. More importantly, you’ll get the right

things done.

In dealing with time, we have to define

what work is. Work is any activity

directed toward achievement of a

business purpose. You probably won’t

find this definition in the dictionary, but it

has the virtue of being results oriented.

Achievement of a business purpose.

When you look at what work is and what resources are needed to get the work done,

you have a starting point for improving the work and becoming more productive. The

elements of work is a checklist. If you want to improve your productivity, and the

productivity of others, you look at these elements and find ways to change them, or

manipulate them, to get the right work done, to get more of it done and to get it done in

the best and most cost effective way.

The first element of work is the task, or tasks. These are jobs, projects, or systems.

© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

They’re all ways of doing work and they can all be broken down into tasks. So, a task is

an activity that produces a result. It’s the actual work you, or someone else, performs.

Your work is simply a series of tasks. A task can be anything from a trivial, one second

task to a major, complex, multi-year project. Major tasks and projects can always be

broken down into a collection of smaller tasks. When you do your business systems

designing, you build a system from a series of interconnected tasks. So your job is a

collection of tasks. A project is a series of tasks so you might say that the task is the

basic building block of work, at least from a managerial point of view.

I was once told that a T/ask is

something you ask someone to

accomplish by a certain Time, giving

you the T for time. T and ask in task.

This is a nice tool to remind you what a

task is because a task has to be done

by someone within a certain amount of

time. Saying to someone, “Could you do

that report for me?” is asking them to do

something, but it’s open ended. Saying instead, “Could you complete that report for me

and have it to me by nine o’clock on Friday?” now makes it a task. It has someone

assigned to it, there’s an action, and there’s a time for it to be done in.

Tasks are one of the elements of work. Another element is systems.

Most people do not take a systematic approach to managing themselves and the way

they do the work. They simply follow whatever habits they’ve built up over a life time.

Some of those habits are effective and some are not. The key to being more productive

is to work intentionally and systematically, not randomly, and to build effective, system-

based habits.

© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

People are another key element. Work in a business always involves people. Managers,

peers, subordinates, advisors, suppliers, lenders, and of course, the all-important

customer. The interactions you have with these people can contribute to your

productivity and you can deal with them in ways that minimize their consumption of your

time and effort.

Tools and materials is an obvious element of work. You need them to do many kinds of

work. You might not think of them that way,

but this includes in and out boxes,

telephones, computers, pencils, paper, tools,

etc. They’re all tools that can contribute in an

important way to the way you do your work,

as well as your own tools of trade. The age of

computers has added a growing list of tools

to increase your productivity. Many of them

are effective and some are just trendy toys.

You need to decide what works for you.

Information in business is a necessary element. You can’t work without information.

There’s no shortage of information in today’s world, but there’s often a shortage of the

right information, or information in the most useful form.

Another element – your environment. That is, the surroundings in which you do your

work. Your space, the way it’s set out, conditions, noise, smells, the activities of

surrounding people or equipment, safety, etc. Your environment can have an enormous

impact on your ability to do work.

© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

Access is also an important element. If you were supervising an assembly line, or a

project, you have to be there. You can’t do it unless you’re located on site. You need

information. You need some form of communication channel, whether that be paper and

pen, electronic, or interpersonal. If your

work requires interaction with

customers or workers, you have to

communicate with them in some

fashion, whether it’s in person, or by

text. However it is, there’s

communication and there’s access.

And access means physical presence

and location is important for getting the

work done and some form of

communication that allows you to do the work. So access also means being able to get

the information, the materials, the equipment, the services, etc., whatever is necessary

to get the work done. And, of course, there’s you – the heart of the matter. The single

most important element in your work is you.

We could easily manipulate the other components of work when you identify them as

we have here. It’s just simply a matter of applying the principles of systemization. Your

productivity, your effectiveness, your ability to get more of the right things done and

maintain your sanity. Doing so all starts with your mindset.