Time management in general

Much has been written about time management and much is not totally practical. The irony is that to manage your time you are supposed to start recording on a daily basis where and how you spend your time so you can analyze where your time is spent. However all that takes even more time, crazy isn't it. So many people are performing tasks that aren't even in the job description but just don't dare say "I'm not doing that anymore". Many people are performing tasks that aren't in alignment with their values. When they shed these tasks that aren't in alignment they feel quite liberated. If you examine the three most important things you do in a working day one theory holds that you should just do tasks that satisfy that criteria which is getting a little bit better.

We really need to re-examine our notions of time management. Unless its based on reality we will just bang on and get more and more bogged down in unproductive areas. Now not losing our focus is one of the main ways to manage time most effectively. Some years ago now the writer Stephen Covey in his excellent book, The seven habits of highly successful people discusses his method of separating tasks into two main categories, firstly there are IMPORTANT tasks and secondly there are URGENT tasks. Isn't it strange that everything seems urgent.

His argument is that we spend too much time on urgent things instead of focusing on important things. The basis of good time management is that we organize and execute around priorities.

This grid focuses on the two key dimensions of ttme management : The urgency and importance of tasks clamouring for our attention. Along the top is the urgency axis : LHS is very urgent, RHS is less urgent. The vertical axis is the importance axis. The top boxes contain more important activities, the bottom activities are less important. This gives us four quadrants :

• Quadrant 1 represents things which are both urgent and important. We've called this "firefighting". The activities need to be dealt with immediately, and they're important.
• Quadrant 2 represents things which are important, but not urgent. We've termed this one "Quality Time". Although the activities here are important, and contribute to achieving the goals and priorities - they don't have to be done right now. As a result, they can be scheduled in when you can give quality thought to them. A good example would be the preparation of an important talk, or mentoring a key individual. Prayer time, family time and personal relaxation/recreation are also part of Quadrant 2.
• Quadrant 3 are distractions. They must be dealt with right now, but frankly, are not important. For example, when you answer an unwanted phone call, - you've had to interrupt whatever you were doing to answer it.
• The final quadrant, Quadrant 4, are things which are neither urgent nor important. Some meetings could fall into this category - they've been scheduled in advance, but if they achieve nothing, or you don't contribute to them, then they have simply wasted time. Other examples could include driving time and low quality relaxation or family time.


Using the tool : consciously strive to maximize Quadrant 2 time. Allocate time in your diary to carry out these tasks when you are at your best. Doing so can reduce the amount of time taken up by firefighting quadrant 1 activities, since many quadrant 1 activities could have been quadrant 2 if they had been done earlier. You can also seek to reduce time spent in Quadrant 3 by improving your systems and processes for dealing with distractions, and you can seek to eliminate as much as possible of quadrant 4 activities, by either not spending time on these things, or changing the nature of them to make them more productive. For example, driving can be quadrant 4 if the time is unproductive, but there are a number of ways of making this time more productive by listening to a praise tape, praying, learning new skills with a tape course, planning and so on.