Leaders of professional service teams are very busy people. Juggling the pressures of the leadership function with the professional work, client relations and marketing and selling activities is far from easy. If you find it difficult to manage your time effectively you can do no better than think about, and try out, the very practical tips offered by Martin Scott, an expert in time management, in his book of that name (1992). The ideas that follow draw on his work:
Think clearly about problems and symptoms. If you lack time then it is probably due to your having unclear objectives, prioritizing poorly and planning ineffectively. Clear objectives, good and careful prioritizing and planning are the keys to using time effectively.
For team leaders in particular, the concept of leverage is important. Assess what makes a difference in the long run in your work. What are the tasks requiring investment of time and effort now that will actually save you time in the longer run? Make sure that you spend a reasonable amount of time on these ‘high-leverage’ tasks each week.
‘High-leverage’ tasks, which are investments of time to save time in the future, include setting clear objectives, planning future work, developing systems and building and maintaining relationships with people who can help you to succeed in your work. They include coaching your people so that you can delegate more work to them and gaining commitment from your team members to high levels of performance. Reading, talking to others and attending training courses, thereby developing your own abilities, are also examples of high-leverage tasks.
Remember Pareto’s Law: ‘Most people get 80 per cent of their results from 20 per cent of their effort and 20 per cent of their results from 80 per cent of their effort.’ Good use of leverage could allow you to get a much better return from your work.
Try to minimize distractions from high-leverage and other important tasks. The main distractions are when we:
- spend most of our time coping with urgencies, crises and panics, leaving no time for high-leverage and other important tasks, with the result that we go on being overwhelmed by urgencies, crises and panics in the limited time available;
- enjoy fire-fighting: it is much more fun to solve crises than doing the slow, boring, tedious but necessary tasks of setting objectives and planning;
- do comfortable, easy tasks rather than important ones;
- do and tick off the quick and easy tasks on our lists of work to be done to provide the immediate gratification of having accomplished something;
- allow the post-adrenalin dip, following a high that comes from pulling off new business, completing a successful negotiation or achieving a breakthrough, to continue for too long;
- allow team members to delegate their problems upwards to us rather than helping them to solve and deal with the problems for themselves.
Avoid distractions from high-leverage and other important tasks by allocating regular amounts of time to tackle them. Do routine and less important tasks faster (like the day before your last holiday when you cleared your desk in double-quick time).
Effective team leaders are ruthless about their priorities. One way to cope is to list all of the tasks that you need to do tomorrow. Then rewrite them in order of importance. Work through them. The last task tomorrow is to list the next day’s activities and priorities. It won’t work perfectly but it will begin to shift the balance of work from the urgent to the important.
Avoid procrastination. Here are the more common reasons why people procrastinate at work, together with some simple solutions:
- The task is so big you don’t know where to start. The answer is to break the job down into small chunks. If you are writing a report, for instance, plan the structure, gather the data, write the draft, refine and finish.
- The task involves making difficult decisions. You don’t know what to do. The best way to overcome this problem is to follow a simple procedure: 1) Ascertain the deadline for the decision. 2) Collect information. 3) List options. 4) Evaluate options by listing pros and cons. 5) Check tentative decision with others. 6) Decide. 7) Treat the matter as closed. Don’t agonize over decisions taken. Remember you will always get some wrong but most will probably be right.
- The task involves doing something unpleasant like discussing poor performance with a team member or admitting a mistake to a client. A simple solution is to mentally list the advantages and disadvantages of postponing the decision. In 99 times out of 100 the answer is obvious, that is to take early action.
- You are feeling low. Agood way to resolve this is to take some exercise or get some fresh air. Another possibility is to tackle a tiresome but quick job even if it is not of high priority. Getting it out of the way gives a lift.
- You have trouble getting started. Why not cut off the ‘escape routes’? For example, always have a clear desk and close the door or find a quiet place for concentrated effort. Discipline yourself to do real work within a few minutes of arriving at the office.
- You have trouble finishing a project. One answer is to break the task down into sub-tasks and reward yourself before moving on. For instance, you could take a coffee, have a chat or look at the newspaper for five minutes (but not before the sub-task has been completed).
Keep your desk tidy. A cluttered desk is not a sign of genius despite what those with impossibly untidy desks will tell you. It gives rise to two major time wasters: searching for papers, reports, notes and letters; and periodic spring-cleaning, ie sorting, tidying and filing.
The solution is simple. When paper arrives on your desk, ask the question, ‘Am I ever going to do anything with this?’ If the answer is no, then chuck it out. Don’t be scared, because it always gets thrown out when you spring-clean. If the answer is yes, then ask the question ‘Can I do it now?’ If the answer is yes, because it is a five-minute job, then do it. If the answer is no, put the document in the pending file. Remember that paper placed in a pile will naturally gravitate towards the bottom. An item on a list will automatically rise to the top. Keep lists and avoid piles of paper. The simple trick is to organize the working area rather than to keep tidying it.
Don’t be intimidated by, or addicted to reading, e-mails.
- If you have an e-mail alert signal on your computer screen then why not switch it off? Decide how often to check e-mails, for example two or three times per day, but depending on the nature of your work, and stick to your decision.
- Audit your e-mails for the last two weeks. Sort them into the following categories: those that you ignored; those that you actioned immediately; those that you actioned later; and those that you passed to someone else for action.
- Learn from your audit and from then on: delete ‘ignore’ e-mails immediately; deal with ‘action immediately’ e-mails at once; put ‘action later’ e-mails in a folder and deal with all of them at the end of the day; and immediately send ‘pass on to someone else for action’ e-mails to appropriate recipients.
Avoid being interrupted when engaged in high-concentration tasks. Most professionals have many of these. Let your colleagues know, even if normally it is your policy to be available, that for the next two hours you are writing a paper, doing some research, preparing a design or engaged in some other high-concentration activity and cannot be interrupted. Arrange for colleagues to intercept enquiries both personal and by telephone. Don’t abuse the privilege. Keep it short, probably no more than two hours at a time. Let people know that you will be available afterwards and always honour that commitment. Tell them the time that you will be free. Respond immediately to enquiries that you have missed in the meantime. You have to strike the right balance between being available and giving yourself time for concentrated effort. Finally, play the game and be prepared to intercept enquiries for colleagues when they also need uninterrupted time to think, write, design or calculate.