Time Management

Misnomer…What you’re actually managing is your activity during time

How many of you feel time-pressured & like you’ve never quite completed all those things you have

to do?

Lack of time or time pressure is one of the most quoted stressors of GPs.

Successful time management starts in the

mind…Take control by reflecting on your

situation:

• Your life as a whole - time spent in various activities

• Your work life – time log may help (divide day’s activities into 15min blocks - ?how much time

spent consulting, visits, paperwork, meetings, computer work, e-mails, interruptions, informal discussion, social chat, learning, self-care inc eating, breaks etc)

Exercise…• Consider your current situation: what various roles define who you are in

your life

• Draw a PIE chart: what proportion of time is spent on each

• Ideally, what proportion would you LIKE to be spending on each, how might you achieve that: d/w neighbour, ?2 action points

Some “Time Laws”…

• Parkinson’s law: Work expands to fill the time

available

• Pareto principle: 20% of time produces 80% of the

results (ie disproportion in how we use our time…

relatively small amount activity generates real results)

Habits…

Yours… Are you super-efficient or a

procrastinator?

If you procrastinate:• Divide complex tasks into small parts• Set timescales for each part• Get unpleasant tasks out of way 1st

Others…• Are you frequently interrupted?

uninterrupted work is far more productive, be firm about protecting your time

“Can I just have a word?”… go to them, easier to leave when you want!

• Are you asked to do more and more? -“learn to say no” - learn to delegate

• Is the workload unequal, are you being given more than your fair share

Managing your tasks…• Task lists:

A – highest priority (?do today)

B – middling priority (?do this wk)

C – lowest priority (?do this month)

• Eisenhower method:Tasks are IMPORTANT or UNIMPORTANTURGENT or NOT URGENT

Important AND urgent…Do immediately and personally

Important but NOT urgent…Set a date and do personally

Not important BUT urgent…delegate

Not important AND not urgent…bin

Tools to help you…ORGANISATION is key…

Information retrieval:find a system that works for you so not wastingtime searching (eg for guidelines, PILs, websites)

“to save time you have to invest time”

Planners, paper or electronic (PDA)

‘To do lists’

Paperwork…

Various methods of dealing:

• ‘triage’ – do now, do later (urgent & non-urgent), delegate or bin

• ‘one touch technique’ – you only pick up a piece of paper once…you act on it there & then

Time eaters in General Practice…

• Do your surgeries run overtime?

• Do you do many visits?

• Telephone calls – do you have a lot, are they scattered through the day/week?

Summary points…• Get organisedGet organised

• Be realisticBe realistic

• Remember Parkinson’s & Pareto’s Remember Parkinson’s & Pareto’s principlesprinciples

• Learn to say no and to delegateLearn to say no and to delegate

• Give sufficient time to life outside work, Give sufficient time to life outside work,

don’t neglect the other parts that make don’t neglect the other parts that make you who you areyou who you are

Scenario

Thinking about why surgeries may run over, (apart from fact there’s usually a ridiculous amount to try to pack into 10 or 12 min consultation):

E:\management course\2008\Surgeries running longer.doc

10 tips I devised for myself:

E:\management course\2008\Time Management - 10 tips.doc