Time Management

Good and Bad News about Managing Your Time

By: Eddie Williams

Time Management, how do we do it. Many -- if not most of us -- wake up with this first conscious thought: "Let me survive another day!" At the end of a long, interrupt-ridden, deadline-driven day, we might collapse with this final waking thought: "Whew! I survived another day."

With our myriad of professional and personal to-do's, we're busier than ever. We struggle daily to manage things we have to do, the places we have to be, and handle the volume of information we must absorb, remember, or file away. There must be a better way!

Well there is -- and there is both good news and bad news about it.

Here is the bad news. You cannot manage your time! "Time management" is an oxymoron, like the terms "jumbo shrimp" or "pretty ugly". We already have all the time available to us...24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

The good news: There are only three critical time management habits, and you are already doing them. Realize that it takes about 21 days to modify a habit - even if it feels uncomfortable for a little while. Any change in our habits can be worth some temporary discomfort, if it improves your life. Consider this definition of insanity: doing things the same way you have always done them and expecting different results. So, why not make incremental changes to your current time management habits, but achieve better results?

Here's your first habit. You refer to a daily calendar. You might have two, six, even ten of them, and they are all over the place. Modify your habit so that only ONE master calendar runs your life and it contains only information about where you physically need to be at a specific time and place. Do not put down all those to-do's on the calendar -- only "be there's". Jot down your professional and personal "be there's" on it.

Now, for your second habit. You write down to-do's. On what? Sticky notes, legal pads, scraps of paper -- anything you can find. Modify your habit so that you use a series of 31 to-do lists. Why? Because 90% of the things you need to do, you will do within the next 30 days. Have a to-do list for each day that looks forward for 30 days. Keep a separate "don't forget" list for tasks beyond 30 days, and plug them in to the appropriate date when they get within your 30-day-to-do window. Again, you are only slightly modifying your current habits, but keeping a better focus on your to-do list items.

Finally, your third habit. You probably take notes during meetings, conversations, and phone calls. What do you do with those notes? You put them either in a file (a physical file or in your computer) or lay them on top of one of the many piles on your desk or workplace. These piles are stressors, distractors, and even visual reminders of stuff you've collected. Modify this habit by setting up a filing system (e.g., a drawer with a series of A-to-Z hanging folders). Then file this information alphabetically, either by the person's name, the person's company or organization, or the topic of your discussion with them. You will soon tend to file information by one of those three ways based on how you are mentally "wired" to recall the information. Stay consistent with your filing.

As you can see, by modifying your current habits only slightly -- using calendars, writing down to-do's, and taking (and filing) notes -- you improve your ability to plan your day (and future days). As a result you will be more focused on goals, can make and keep commitments, track details, prioritize, retrieve information, reduce stress, and better manage your life.

The best part about this process is that you can apply these habit modification techniques to any time management tool you currently use, whether it's a paper planner, a Blackberry or Palm Handheld device, or computer based software. All these tools feature calendars, daily to-do or task lists, and places to write or enter your notes. Just slightly modifying your habits can vastly improve your productivity.

Let me close with an analogy. The horse that wins the Kentucky Derby has to outrun the other horses by how much? Just milliseconds. But the winning horse's prize money exceeds the others' by how much? Thousands, even millions, of dollars. Here, the difference in productivity (prize money for the first-place finish) far exceeds the difference in performance (milliseconds).

Eddie Williams (a West Point graduate and former US Army Airborne Ranger and Green Beret) is a consultant for Weber Associates in Atlanta, GA. He offers workshops, presentations, and keynote speeches on such topics as personal productivity, stress management, conflict resolution, team building, self-esteem, and motivation. Visit Weber Associates or email Eddie Williams