Time Management Expert, Event Speaker: Mark Lamendola
 

Time Tips: Learn to Relax

We hear all the time about hard-driving people, as though they are the ones who accomplish everything. When I introduce myself as a time management speaker, people are often curious because I don't seem at all anxious. I don't even wear a watch. But that's precisely because I manage my time.

Here's my advice: Learn to relax. This seems counterintuitive. But, what happens when you are rattled?

A customer contacted me about a purchase her boss wanted her to make for two people in her department. She didn't take the time to read three lines of instruction for ordering that product. But, at least she e-mailed me. I e-mailed her back, then called her.

I tried to walk her through this simple procedure, but she kept jumping ahead of me. Because we had to keep emptying the shopping cart and starting over, this 40 second process took about 5 and a half minutes.

Then, she e-mailed me later asking me to e-mail her a receipt. The system sends receipts out automatically, but she tried to print hers out and accidentally deleted it. To "save time,' she has her e-mail client set such that deleted items are gone for good. She asked me to snail mail her a paper copy, and I told her that was very time consuming. I e-mailed her a replacement copy.

Her problem is she's got too many demands on her time. So, she works frantically to keep up. My advice to her would be to slow down and work at her capacity. This way, she won't spend time fixing mistakes. I have been in her mode many times, myself. I have to stop and realize that's what I'm doing, then correct my behavior.

If you find you are doing things over, following up to correct mistakes, following up with "oh, I forget to tell you" messages, overlooking key information, or making other "I'm rushed" mistakes, then you need to stop what you are doing. Get up, walk around, take a breath. Yes, this takes up time. But, it relaxes you. Then, return to what you are doing and ask yourself what is the most urgent item you need to do. Do it, while ignoring the rest. If you can't decide which item is most urgent, just pick one at random (or alphabetically, if you prefer).

Then, move to the next most urgent item. Repeat this until all of the urgent items are completed. Of course, not all urgent items may be doable at the moment--perhaps you need a resource you are waiting for, or you need to reach a particular person.

Once you have completed the urgent items, ask yourself (or your boss, as the case may be) which of the remaining items is most important. That is, which item will provide the most benefit or prevent the most pain if you do it. After you do it, move on to the next.

Yes, you'll have a queue of items waiting to be done. So be it. You can do only so much. The rest will just have to wait.

Just remember, if you try to work too fast, you end up working half-fast. Say this out loud: "I will not work too fast, because doing so results in half-fast work."

Now you get the picture.

 

 
A great way many businesses are managing time is using software. There are many forms of time and attendance software which allows managers to track and monitor employees time usage.
 

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.

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.