TIME—a Strategic Corporate Asset

Thinking  of Time Management, most of us are considering the complex time balancing issues we leaders face with the opportunities/demands from family, church, business, staff,  and many other sources.   Wikipedia--Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. We can learn about Time Management from Dale Carneige.com, Mind Tools.com, Dartmouth College, and hundreds of other expert sources.

Does the electronic/digital age create too many time indicators for us to follow?

Some researchers indicate that meaningful communications and conversations with associates and loved ones are disemboweled with frequent “productive” glances at the inbox; smart phone clock, thus our ability to think is decimated by the distraction of the ping and the ring. We maintain a state of chaotic mental activity that some call psychic entropy. This is the opposite of the optimal psychological state of flow, where attention is allowed to linger, to sink into an activity without distraction.

Andy Stanley has stated--“Direction, not intention determines your destination.” –If we look at this statement from the time management axis— would say that “Schedule management, not distractions , determines successful completion.

Are you focused on corporate time management at this time?

For most enterprises- this is the season of  annual budget/planning.  Businesses are gathering forecasts, planning for marketing/sales activity, developing the annual budget with some consideration given to multi-year expectations.  As this annual plan is developed—are we as careful considering time as a planning variable and asset as we are when considering financial capital.

Does your  performance reporting and variance analysis deal primarily with financial measures or does it also focus attention on corporate and individual time management issues?

Procrastination and poor time management: is one of the leading reasons small businesses fail--Putting off tasks that you don’t enjoy will sink your business faster than anything else. You can’t afford to waste time on unimportant tasks while critical tasks pile up. All tasks need to be done; if you don’t like to do them (or don’t want to spend your time doing them), hire someone to do them for you. If your time management and prioritizing skills are rusty, hire a small business coach or take a class to help you. - See more at: http://www.passionforbusiness.com/articles/why-businesses-fail.htm#sthash.LSZvoq3L.dpuf

Time management is a booming business—everyone wants to get more done and control time wasters. But for Christian business leaders the need to manage time is even more urgent.  We are Stewards of the Business God has given us.  Poor time management in our business is a waste of God’s resources.  Be sure your annual business plan gives significant focus to TIME as a critical investment asset.  Consider Time KPI’s on your management dashboard.

It has been stated—“No CEO/Owner can let the business run out of Cash”—Likewise, no CEO/Owner should let the business run out of Time”

“Walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

I cannot get it all done!

We have all heard it: “I NEED more time!”, or “I cannot get it ALL done!”. And many of us have said it, too.

Here are some relatively short perspectives on those statements: perhaps you may find a nugget or two that will be useful. 

1. The real issue is most often NOT TIME! After all, we all have the same amount (except for those of you who sleep too much! And as I understand the universe God gave us, there will not be created any more time for any of us.

2. I have discovered that the more likely real culprit is TASKS (that we feel need doing AND need doing by us).

3. So change your viewpoint from Time Management to Task Management. What does that look like?

4. Begin by making a list of the TASKS that you need to do. Prioritize them with two parameters: a. Important versus Urgent; b. Long/hard versus Easy/short.

5. Next, chunk your time(s) for a day or a week into significant chunks (where you can tell people to NOT interrupt you).

6. Then begin!

7. Do ONLY the Important because that is your job as a leader: delegate the urgent to others.

8. Do the Long/Hard ones FIRST, and until they are done. (If you leave them til late afternoon you will rationalize why to leave them until tomorrow!).

9. Then do the Easy/Short ones.

10. While some of you will find this useful others will find it frustrating because some tasks will not get done.

11. Here is the exercise to help that situation:

    1. First, list those tasks that ONLY YOU can do, or you can do so much better than anyone else. These become priorities.

    2. Next list those tasks that you feel you ought to do: if they fit your time chunks, schedule them in. If not, see c below.

    3. All other tasks NEED to be dealt with by deciding that they really no longer need to be done; or, they can be delegated to others.

    4. Lastly, be certain that you really understand how you spend your time. See 11.

12. One of the least known and understood aspects of time/task management is that we have incorrect or incomplete knowledge of how we currently spend our time. So figure out a mechanism to track for two weeks how you spend your time (in 15 minute blocks). Use a recording tool/application, ask your assistant to track it, etc.

13. In most cases you will be surprised that how you thought you spent your time – and on what you thought your were doing – is grossly incorrect.

14. So now re-visit the exercise of how to chunk your time, and then fit in the TASKS (that only you can do or are responsible for!)..

Time Leadership

Avoid these common time management mistakes

Fall is upon us! With summer having come to a close, your schedule is back in full swing. Now is the time to reevaluate your time management approach to make sure you end 2015 achieving your goals. Make the most of your time, work efficiently and smart, and avoid these all too common time management mistakes.

1. Skipping prioritization - Sure, that expense report is easier to complete than the comprehensive sales strategy you promised to create, but the expense report won’t move you as far towards your goals. During your most productive times of the day, focus on your most important tasks.

1. Failing to set daily goals - Be realistic and formulate your daily goals based on your weekly and monthly goals. Always leave room for flexibility, you never know when that elusive client will call with a special request.

1. Succumbing to distraction - Ever spent the day checking email, reading the news, or surfing the internet instead of working? We all have. No doubt you will get distracted throughout the day, however, it is essential to set aside times when you shut off your email, close your internet browser and tuck away your phone. After your work is complete, reward yourself with a 10 minute internet session.

1. Neglecting to take breaks - Far too often, I have tried to work through the day without stopping. I end up being less productive, and more stressed. Take time to recharge, grab a coffee or go for a short walk. I think you’ll find these breaks help make your day more enjoyable, and more productive.

1. Multi-tasking - On paper it sounds like a good idea, but in reality it produces less than stellar results. Check out this article on why you should start single tasking.

1. Failing to reevaluate your schedule - When you start your day, take time to look at your schedule and run through your goals. If you no longer need a meeting, cancel it. This will help you prioritize, schedule breaks, set daily goals and avoid having to multitask. If you are flexible, you’ll be better equipped to handle the unexpected client call at 4:45pm on Friday.

Hopefully, being aware of these common time management blunders will increase your productivity and help you close out those 2015 goals!

Why Time Management Doesn’t Matter Until You Get One Thing Straight

Imagine you are a kid again and your parents tell you on Monday to clean the garage this Saturday, with the help of your siblings. But during the course of the week, you forget what they asked of you, and instead, you decide to set up a lemonade stand at the corner of your block to make some extra money. On Friday night, you’re determined to make a big profit, so you start planning out the day…

What is the optimal time to open for business?

How many batches of lemonade should I make in advance?

How can I make the process as efficient as possible?

What should the price be?

Who should I get to help?

How can I attract the whole neighborhood to the lemonade stand?

As you fall asleep that night, these questions swim through your mind.

Saturday morning comes, and you get right out of bed at 7:00 a.m. to start making lemonade. It’s going to get hot early, so you want to get a head start.

Everything goes as planned! You sell a lot of lemonade, the neighborhood seems like it has a skip in its step, and you go home fifty dollars richer. But when you come back to your house, your smile fades as you see your parents in the driveway and realize…

you forgot to clean the garage.

As punishment, your parents take away half of your earnings and tell you that you have to spend the rest of the night cleaning the garage. To top it off, while you’re working, the rest of your siblings get to go off and see a movie.

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Everyone talks a lot about how to manage your time. There are countless books and resources about the subject from gurus who can really help you get a grasp on using your time well. But before we talk about good time management, you need to make sure that you’re actually doing the right things in the first place. The kid in the story made fifty bucks selling lemonade, but that’s not what his parents asked him to do. He can make all the money he wants, but he would still miss his original responsibility: cleaning the garage.

Time management is useless until you get your priorities straight. Efficiency in the wrong things is foolish. Just like the kid in the story, you can be extremely efficient in an endeavor, and even make a lot of money and experience happiness…but it doesn’t matter if you’re doing the wrong thing. What we need is not to be more efficient, but more effective. Efficiency is doing things right, effectiveness is doing the right things.

The Path to Effectiveness

1. Take an inventory of your life. What are you involved in? Make a list of everything you’re committed to…work, family, relationships, church, boards, volunteer work, personal projects. Write it all down and see what’s there.

1. Take an inventory of your heart. What are you passionate about? Are you in the right job? Are you making the highest contribution with your gifting? Do you feel like your schedule doesn’t accurately reflect your desired life? See if your life inventory matches up with your heart inventory.

1. Make any necessary changes. After examining your life inventory and your heart inventory, what changes do you need to make? Start aligning the two and investing in the things that you’re called to instead of the things that the world is requesting of you. Get rid of the good so you can take up the best.

1. Pursue that which you love. After you have gotten rid of the things that are crowding your life, you’ll have the time to invest in the things that really matter. What are those few things for you? What is essential? Where can you make the highest contribution? Start taking steps toward those few things and apply all your energy to driving them forward.

1. Reject the stuffers. As you move forward with your new priorities, there will be people that want to stuff their own agenda back into your life, or make you doubt the decision you made to pare things down. Don’t listen to them! Don’t get clogged up again, involved in things for the sake of pleasing others. Reject requests that will distract you from the priorities you’ve set ahead of time. Once you start intentionally spending your time, it will be tempting to slip into the old way of doing things: submitting to the priorities of other people. Stay strong, hold the course, and pursue what you know to be the most important work.

Only now that you have the right priorities in place can you begin thinking about time management. Now, the books and resources on time management will actually help you instead of assisting you in doing the wrong things faster.

One question as you leave: Are you currently running a lemonade stand that should’ve been taken down a long time ago?