Successful Time Management isn’t about Getting More Done
You can find lost keys, but a wasted hour is gone forever.
You complain that you don’t have enough time. But if you can’t manage time, it doesn’t matter how much you have.
Time management isn’t:
#1. Time management isn’t about getting more done.
There’s always more to do and there’s never enough time when managing time is about cramming more into your day.
Constantly working to get more done is a never-ending treadmill of despair. The get-more-done treadmill eventually ends with apathy.
Time management is about doing what matters, not getting more done.
#2. Time management isn’t about time.
Time management is self-management.
Imagine you could add 8-hours to your frantic day. Instead of a 24-hour day, you had a 32-hours day, every day. It doesn’t matter how much time you have when you can’t manage yourself.
“… until we can manage our own personal time, we can’t manage anything else.” Peter Drucker
You can manage how you use time, but time can’t be managed.
If you’re consistently frantic during a 24-hour day, you’ll be consistently frantic during a 32-hour day.
The second hand never negotiates.
#3. Time management isn’t complicated:
Managing time is about two things.
- Avoiding what matters less.
- Doing what matters most.
There are only three ways to ‘get more’ time.
- Accelerate. Increase your speed.
- Delegate. Get someone else to do it.
- Eliminate. Stop doing something.
7 time management tips:
- Establish priorities that align with mission and vision, not urgencies.
- Forget most urgencies. Schedule priorities.
- Integrate rituals.
- Leave work on time. Constantly working late is mismanagement.
- Eliminate low-value activities. What could you stop doing?
- Schedule micro-breaks throughout the day. Take 3 minutes to prepare for your next meeting, for example.
- Build in buffers. Don’t schedule anything back-to-back.
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” Socrates
What time management strategy has most helped you?
Still interested? 20 Time Management Tips for Professionals | Indeed.com
“Time management is self-management.”
True, but for the leader it is also about the responsibility of managing others’ use of work time. I tried to approach it from the perspective of “managing tasks and leading people.” All the ideas you present are extremely valid and useful to a leader, but implementing them throughout a team is the real challenge. Certainly one needs to start with oneself and work outward, but helping others experience them is the ultimate objective. I have seen “well managed futility” in organizations, and it isn’t useful. So many insights in this post!
Thanks for challenging us with the next level. Leadership is first about you, then about others. We violate that order to our own peril. But moving from ourselves to others is essential.
If we pivot to the concept that working an enormous number of hours is not a sign of commitment, dedication and resiliency, but rather a sign of a need to change focus and manage ourselves, it could do wonders for culture and work life balance.
Delegation is key. It not only ultimately frees up time for the delegator, but provides growth for everyone involved. It’s also one of the hardest things to do well – letting go of something you’re good at (and is therefore easy and fun) can be tough.
Thanks John. Perhaps one challenge of delegation is it might take more time at the beginning. (Depending on the competency of people involved.) Plus, as you indicate, it can be tough to let go of some things. Humility is one factor when it comes to letting go.
Reminds me of one of my favourite quotes: “You can’t save time you can only spend it. The trick is to spend it wisely.”
Nice! Thanks for jumping in, Andy.
I love your 7 rules for time management. Since returning from maternity leave, I have had to manage my time. I leave work on time, where I used to spend hours here, I remove myself from meetings that I don’t contribute to, and focus on what needs done. I am getting so much more done in a day and getting more time at home! A win-win! I am printing out your 7 rules and posting them so I don’t forget!
Congratulations, Teri. What a great testimony to effective time management.
Some people might be surprised to learn that the world goes on even when they leave work on time.
“Some people might be surprised to learn that the world goes on even when they leave work on time.” so true, Dan. The struggle comes when you work in a team and all members do not contribute equally- you can help others prioritize and provide deadlines and supports, but ultimately, as you say, time management is about self management… You cannot self-manage others.
Thanks Bardohn. You bring up an ongoing “opportunity” in organizational life. How to deal with under-performers, energy vampires, social climbers, favoritism, and holding people accountable.
It would be great if magic fairy dust existed, then we could sprinkle it over this one. 🙂 … I guess this is way good leaders/managers are so important.
Amen to all of that! Such a dissatisfier and a tough one to impact when you’re not in the leadership position to do so, and the leader who is responsible for those underperformers neglects their responsibility due to conflict aversion.
Dan, I love these two comments.
Managing time is about two things.
–Avoiding what matters less.
–Doing what matters most.
There are only three ways to ‘get more’ time.
–Accelerate. Increase your speed.
–Delegate. Get someone else to do it.
–Eliminate. Stop doing something.
What’s helped me manage my time is creating a daily to-do list but doing it only after I have reviewed my high priority goals.
Thanks Paul. So glad you added a to-do list. It’s a great tool. I find that a to-do list that has more than three important things on it is too long. … I do like making to-do lists for a larger number of small items that are easily checked off…. But I have to be honest with myself. I can’t accomplish very many important things in given day… things beyond day-to-day responsibilities, for example.
This article was soooo timely and so for me!! Thank you for every nugget that you put into this.
I especially appreciate the two things of managing time!!! .
–Avoiding what matters less.
–Doing what matters most.
I will also be using some the of the 7 tips…. I am forwarding this to my team right now!
Thanks Rosanne. It’s wonderful to be of service. It’s exciting to be reminded that simple things can have a big impact. I wish you well with your team.
I agree 100% with all that was posted. I found that I had the greatest success when I delegated to others – got more done myself and developed people in the process. There were times when I was not allowed to pick my own team, or remove unproductive team members, and my ability to delegate was adversely impacted by incompetence or laziness. Delegation is a great supervisory and leadership tool!
Thanks Dale. Your insight about connecting delegation and development is brilliant. One important aspect to this is delegating to people who have aspiration. Cheeers
As with most important things, the hard part is actually using time effectively, and maintaining that discipline in the face of all the forces and corrosives that kept us from doing it in the first place. We’ve all heard this all before; thanks for the reminder, Dan.
Individually, it’s hard enough. But every organization I’ve ever worked in has a systemic issue, though. They focus on resource utilization–keeping people busy so they don’t leave money on the table–over how quickly they deliver value to those they serve–customers, constituents, what have you. Search “The Resource Utilization Trap” to see a 6-minute example.
The result is that half the work that the individuals do better, through better personal time management, is work that only needs to be done because the organization is trying to do too much at once. The best thing leaders can do for time management, IMO, is help their teams “Eliminate.” “How might we meet this customer way differenömtly–often more quickly–so this report / meeting / follow-up is no longer needed at all? I’m learning a lot from “This Is Lean” by Modig and Ahlström.