Time Management Expert, Event Speaker: Mark Lamendola

Productivity Case Histories | Productivity improvement articles | Time Tips Articles

Productivity Knowledge Base: Mistakes

Here are some common mistakes people make when trying to increase productivity:

Outsourcing as a panacea. While outsourcing can make sense, it doesn't always lower costs. Look at each outsourcing option and ask yourself where the real cost-savings come from.
Longer hours. The U.S. government measures productivity by dividing output by the number of workers. All that tells you is the output per worker. It doesn't tell you the cost of that output or if it's efficient. What matters is the unit labor cost per worker. Longer hours typically will lead to a higher cost--and lower productivity.
Technology as a panacea. Simply adopting technology won't make you more productive. Your processes and technology must work together to eliminate wasted steps and speed up essential steps. That takes intelligence, information, and planning.
Tying wages to productivity. Companies that have tried this have found their people sacrifice quality or some other important attribute to make their numbers--or they falsify records. This approach doesn't work. There are ways to use financial rewards to boost productivity. You can find out what they are, if you bring us to your location for a productivity seminar.
Multitasking. This approach attempts to make the human brain do what it is incapable of. Focus works, multitasking does not.
Raising goals. Some managers mistakenly think performance appraisals are useful. The evidence says the opposite. For those in denial, the allure of raising performance appraisal goals is strong. The theory is that the typical employee is unaware that layoffs are occurring in massive numbers, has no motivation to do a good job, and needs the manager to prod him or her to do a better job. Managers who "think" this way simply encourage cheating, build resentment, and stifle motivation. That annual review is one of the most counterproductive things a manager can do. Instead of engaging in that hurtful charade, keep communication channels open and work with your direct reports to increase their productivity. We show you ways to to that in our productivity seminars.

More thoughts on time management

The phrase "time management" is an unfortunate language quirk. You can't really manage time. It just is. You can't gain time, create time, or even lose time. Time is what it is, regardless of what we do. And, paradoxically, many common "time management" techniques and practices are timewasters because they divert limited resources (such as time) to the wrong things.

It would be better to say "time allocation" or "activity management" "time usage" or some other phraseology to indicate that it's not time itself you're managing but how you use the time that exists. But we'll use the common terminology here to avoid confusion.

Some things time management is not:

Being more efficient. Suppose you become very efficient at making buggy whips. Does this fact mean you are managing your time well?
Getting more done in a given amount of time. Getting more done of what? And to what degree of quality? If you rake the leaves on a lawn from one side to the other all day long, does that mean you are a good time manager?
Being able to juggle multiple priorities. Instead of juggling priorities, assign priorities. First tend to the urgent things, then the most important things.
Mastering multi-tasking. This concept conflicts with what we know about the human brain. If you buy into this self-defeating, time-wasting, quality-killing ideology, you might also be interested in practicing solo flight by flapping your arms frantically.
Working faster. No, this mode is how you make mistakes that you subsequently have to spend more time fixing.

Some things good time management involves:

Deciding what to do. This is trickier than it sounds. Which is why there are time management experts.
Deciding what not to do. This is even trickier than deciding what to do. Which is why there are time managers and why discipline is a huge, huge factor in accomplishing this.
Deciding what to do when, and in what order. In essence, prioritization.
Determining the scope, goals, and metrics for each activity you undertake. In this area, we the find most room for improvement. Precision here allows you to avoid waste on the one hand, and falling short on the other.
Planning out the work, task, project, or activity such that you determine the necessary steps to quality completion. That is, what must you do to meet the intended goal and quality metrics?
Identifying unnecessary steps. Get this right, and you can cut your wasted hours significantly.
Figuring out what resources to use. Not all resources applicable to a task are equal. Picking the right tool for the job saves time, improves quality, and makes life less stressful.

We've highlighted only some of the factors involved in good time management. We actually teach extreme time management, which is a methodology that allows you to make effective use of your time almost second nature. You don't need a complicated system. Our system puts many of the variables on autopilot, so you have more time to do what you need to do. Our system goes way beyond most other systems in results, yet is far simpler.

Contact us for a presentation to your organization: comments @ mindconnection.com (remove the spaces after pasting into your e-mail client's "to" box.