Time Tips: Use Time as Your Ally

Time Tips: Making Time Your Ally

Time: friend or foe?

"Use time as your ally." This is a mantra that I started using over 20 years ago. Let's look at some ways to do this.

Look long range. Everything from "start saving now" financial practices to your health practices comes under this concept. Many things in life are cumulative. Even love is that way, so take care what you say to those around you. A little barb here or there may not seem like much, but over time those add up. So, then, do kindnesses. Use time as your ally to build your relationships through small kindnesses over time.
Understand lead times. For example, you may need to buy something for a trip. Waiting until the day before means you might not have it in time--perhaps the store is out of stock. I operate one manufacturer's largest online retailing presence: http://www.easytranslators.com. Folks often are leaving on Monday and they want a translator shipped to them before the go--and they order on Friday. Ain't gonna happen. And, even if it go there, what if it had a problem? The lesson here is to predict the "baking time" various items need and then schedule them accordingly. In electrical projects, it takes about 9 weeks to build the gear for new power to a large facility--if you are on the fast track. So, ordering that gear a couple weeks before starting means you will be starting 7 weeks late. If you had to bring a cake to a party, and you started mixing the ingredients 10 minutes before you had to leave, it doesn't matter how hot you get your oven--that cake will not be done in time. Baking time--important concept. And not just literally.
When coordinating projects with other people in a "I do this, then you do that" fashion, do your "turnarounds" as fast as possible. Then, give the other party a shortened "deadline" for response. This gives you extra time you would not have otherwise had.
Understand what you can multi-task and what you cannot. I put clothes in the wash while I am doing my weight training regimes. The washer does its thing while I go off and do something else. Most folks probably catch this one, but occasionally I hear someone say, "I have to stay home and do the laundry." Well, if you let the clothes wash while you are answering e-mail, making and eating a meal, cleaning house, reading a book you need to read, or whatever--such a statement need never cross your lips.
When something is coming up, start preparing for it in little pieces. For example, suppose you are going on a trip. Start getting trip itineraries in spare moments, jot notes, keep an area just for trip items. When I write an article, I often do one section at a time over several days. Then, when I am ready to publish, I go through the whole thing--but much of the work is done. This is far less stressful for me than trying to cram it all in just before the due date, and the product is noticeably better than it would be with a rush approach.

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.