Last year I watched a YouTube video about a lady who was trying to improve her time management skills. Being a bit of a productivity junkie, this was right up my alley. I’ve tried to find this video so that I could cite it properly here but was unsuccessful - apologies.
However, I do remember the name of the time management expert she spoke with to gather some tips and tricks. Peter Turla.
Turla is a former NASA rocket designer (how cool!) that developed techniques to improve his own time management skills. Colleagues asked him to share these techniques, word spread and over time (no pun intended) he became a time management expert, training people in many organisations across the US.
Now back to the lady in the above-mentioned video. I found what he said to her so interesting, that I made sure to write it down. He explained that time management is a behavioural issue and went on to list some behaviours that drive poor time management:
overcommitment
inability to say no
trying to do everything yourself
excessive perfectionism
underestimating how long it takes
setting the wrong priorities
procrastination.
Do any of these sound familiar? I know I’ve been guilty of all of the above at some point.
It’s great to see them in a list like this because if you know which behaviours apply to you and cause the problem, you are better able to tackle them. Below I share some suggestions for this, based on things that have worked for me.
Focus on what matters
To start with, you need to figure out what matters. These are your values, your goals, the things that matter to your boss / clients / stakeholders, what you get measured on, etc. Once you identify these, you can use them as a reference point for prioritising well and tackling overcommitment by saying ‘yes’ only to what matters and ‘no’ to the things that don’t.
OK, that’s three of the seven drivers sorted. Moving on.
Help wanted
Trying to do everything yourself….this is either because you don’t feel comfortable asking for help or because you don’t trust others to do a good job (a control issue).
If it’s the first, ask yourself whether asking for help is more or less comfortable than working every weekend or working late into the night while everyone else is doing normal hours.
If it’s the second and you are a manager, you are not doing yourself or your team any favours. Staff miss out on learning and you miss out on time for self-care or strategic thinking (the non-urgent but important stuff).
Done is better than perfect
I like the fact that Turla uses the word ‘excessive’ when referring to perfectionism. It’s OK to take pride in your work, strive for good quality or excellence. However, when you perfect something beyond the care level of your boss / clients / stakeholders, it’s not a good investment of your time. As I mentioned in my blog post about corporate writing, your boss doesn’t need the perfect document next month but rather an adequate document today.
I’m sure there will be more on this blog about tackling perfectionism and its sources. In the meantime, I have the same advice as in my other post. Test an early draft with a colleague or your boss. You may find that what you have is already good enough and that only a few more tweaks are needed to wrap it up.
Timesheets - the necessary evil
In terms of accurately estimating how long things will take, this is not an easy one so don’t expect to get it 100% right.
Experience is key here. The more times you’ve done something, the more accurate the estimate.
If you don’t have experience, you could try capturing how long each phase / step took for future reference. I know timesheets are painful but they do come in handy later on.
It’s also a good idea to correctly identify any underlying assumptions and interdependencies. Are you clear on the scope of the work? Will some of the work be done by others, saving you time? Do you need information from others and will they be able to promptly deliver without you having to (spend time) following up multiple times?
Reward yourself
Procrastination is another topic I’m sure I’ll explore further on the blog. For now, my main tip is something I used to force myself to study on the weekends after a long week at work. Set a timer for 15 minutes and tackle the thing you don’t want to do, followed by a thing you do want to do for 15 minutes. Repeat this until the first thing is done.
Other things you could try are to do the unwanted thing at the beginning of your day or block out a time in your week for boring or dreaded work followed by chocolate or wine…or both. Hey, whatever it takes!
Any thoughts?
Do you suffer from any of the behaviours mentioned above? Do you have additional tips for tackling them? Contact me and share your thoughts.
Thanks for your time.