Regaining Control of Your Time

A follow up to September 10’s Time Management Tip

Bob, a vice president with a large general contracting company, carefully tracked his time over a two week period. After analyzing the data he was surprised to discover that his 72 work hours are spend doing the following:

40% responding to unanticipated situations,
10% checking and responding to e-mail,
30% attending meetings,
5% doing his own work,
5% listening to Henry complain,
5% doing administrative tasks (scheduling appointments, making copies, etc.),
5% on miscellaneous breaks.

Bob’s own work is suffering so he’s serious about taking control of his time. What can Bob do differently?

Here are a few suggestions.

1. Bob could further evaluate the almost 29 hours he spends responding to unanticipated situations. How many times was his expertise really needed verse how many times was an employee looking to Bob to solve his or her problem? If an employee comes to the door when you are in the middle of something it is okay to ask a few questions before dropping everything. Try “Is this urgent or could it wait 30 minutes until I complete this task?” You’ll be surprise how often someone resolves their own issue in that 30 minutes.

2. Build blocks of time into your schedule to respond to e-mails. Sitting on e-mail is a huge time waster. If you have a Blackberry respond to a message by asking yourself “is this urgent or could it wait until later?”

3. Get rid of Henry the complainer. If Henry’s complaints are legitimate either work to alleviate them or send him to someone who can appropriately address the issues. If Henry’s complaints are way off base take control of the conversation and tell him you don’t agree. You want to nip this in the bud.

4. Bob has an assistant who can be doing 90% of his administrative tasks. Learn to ask for assistance and cultivate a good working relationship with an assistant. This is the person who is going to look out for you.