Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least” - Goethe
Here’s the truth about time management. It’s not time management but self management.
I first really got this many years ago when I read Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective people”. And the thing is, you can’t “find” time. When you want to find time or don’t have enough time for yourself or anything else, you must ‘create’ time for what is important to you.
Thinking about the “finding time”, I want to know “what kind of finding is that finding” and “where is the time that we want to find.” Delving deeper with a few of David Grove’s Clean questions and with some coaching we can discover a lot more about what “finding time” means for you.
Is time lost somewhere and we’re wanting somehow to get it back or retrieve? Ultimately, there really is no such thing as time, there is only eternity. Time is a human construct, especially as all of life takes place in the present.
Finding time is about choices and productivity. We are all bombarded with and inundated with a lot of data and choices. Most people are crazy busy doing stuff. And, with all the digital tools it is easy to be distracted and thrown off track by emails, Facebook posts, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, phone calls and much much more.
A friend and I were having a conversation today about how we tend to be switched on to some kind of media almost all the time. I see people on public transport constantly on their phones - browsing the web, watching movies, listening to music… None of this leaves much time to think or just to be.
Utilising your time effectively and making time for yourself, family, yoga, exercise, to learn, to have fun or whatever you feel or think that you are missing out on requires that you spend time on activities that are highly important to you based on your goals, your unique gifts and abilities, your passion and your interests. Apart from time spend working especially if you have a job with a specific start and end time, it really is a choice.
Stephen Covey talked about “Putting first things first”. Putting first things first means doing the most important things first. It means being clear about your priorities. It’s also having self-awareness and self-knowledge about your purpose, mission, values, vision, roles and taking actions towards these every day.
You and I know intuitively that if we want to find time for something it means that we are likely not making that thing a priority or important enough in our life. Often the things that are low down in the list of importance include you, your wellbeing, time for leisure, fun, learning and to focus on what gives you deeper meaning in your life.
The reality is that you are in charge of what you do and where you focus your attention.
It’s okay not to do everything and to say no when necessary so that you don’t overextend yourself and then focus on your highest priorities. Sounds easy doesn’t it? And, why don’t we all do this and create a more balanced, less stressful life?
One of the things that has stayed with me from Stephen Covey’s book is the time management quadrant. Many of us get it wrong by not organising and taking action around our highest priorities. Instead we are in reacting to the forces around us rather than being proactive. Here is the matrix:
Urgent Not Urgent
|
Important |
Quadrant 1 Urgent Activities Emergencies e.g. unforeseen events, sudden meetings and constantly putting out firesCrisis management |
Quadrant 2 First Things first Actions Creating vision, working on important goals, systems and long term planning and prevention Creative thinking. Learning and professional and personal development. Relationship building - family, partner, focused networking. Recreation and improving health and wellbeing. Spend most of your time proactively engaging in these activities.
|
|
Not Important |
Quadrant 3 Distractions Needless interruptions. Unimportant phone calls, emails and other tasks e.g. spending a lot of time on tasks that have little impact on your goals and life.Focusing on other people’s agendas/priorities/issues/needs. Inconsequential/irrelevant meetings. Many of these activities can be eliminated without any impact on your goals and life. |
Quadrant 4 Waste Trivial work Procrastination /avoidance activities. Excessive TV watching, surfing the web, gaming. Gossip. Engaging with time wasters. Any time wasting activities. These activities can generally be dumped. |
It’s quite sobering for me looking at this time management matrix and reflecting on how I am spending my time. For example, yesterday was creativity day for me (quadrant 2 action), which included writing this newsletter. On reflection a lot of time was spent on quadrant 3 activities with many interruptions and also a little less time on a quadrant 1 activity . Thus, today I’m completing the newsletter and it feels like I’m behind. So I was at the computer at 6.20am this morning to catch up, so to speak.
Where are you spending most of your time on a daily basis? What activities are you engaged in?
You don’t have time for this now? Making time for this self-reflection activity is important quadrant 2 action. It’s not urgent, however, and can be placed on the back burner. A better thing to do is to schedule a block of time in your diary to do this.
Remember that time for yourself, wellbeing, to learn; for personal and professional development, for nurturing relationships, finding your life partner… falls into quadrant 2 and have high payoff and impact. If you don’t allocate specific time for these they likely won’t happen.
Just before you do a task ask yourself: Which quadrant does this fall into? Then make your choice to do it or not but with awareness instead of unconsciously.
Stephen Covey puts this nicely:
“The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.”
Here’s a simple suggested time management task.
Draw a time management matrix on a sheet of paper or even use the memo facility or have a document that you can update on phone/tablet/computer. Get creative. Log the quadrant where you spend your time for the next week from 8am - 5pm. Choose your own timing if 8 to 5 doesn’t work for you. How are you spending your time? By doing this exercise you will be more conscious of where your time is going. Conscious awareness is a first step towards managing you and your life better.
So if you want to find more time or are frustrated that you don’t have enough time to do important life expandingactivities, remember that it’s about your self management and not time. Make sure that you are doing things that really DO matter and that really DO need to be done.
“There’s nothing more useless than doing well that which need not be done at all.” Peter Drucker
Be aware and constantly question what you’re spending your time on because quite frankly a not to do list is just as important as a to-do list. How have you spent your day so far. Grab a piece of paper and write down 10 things you’re doing that are time wasters and are robbing you of time to do the things that really matter to you.. And, remember not to confuse activity with accomplishment. As I said earlier, time management is about self management.
