One Page About… Time Management

Time management is one of the fundamental things about business. It is also fundamental to manage time in life, also… but this gets a little philosophical and we don’t want to go that way.

Like all fundamentals, we can describe it in millions of words or just keep it simple.

Long version: there is a time matrix, resulted from the crossing of the Importance degree of a task with the Urgency degree of the same task.

We get 4 situations (and 4 kinds of tasks):

1. Important, Urgent

2. Not Important, Urgent

3. Not Important, Not Urgent

4. Important, Not Urgent.

1. Every now and then we get an Important-Urgent task; these are the most unpleasant. This happens and it is the result of some unplanned event that creates an unprecedented opportunity for people or business.  In these cases, you should jump right in taking the opportunity and postpone all the other tasks.

It is also possible that this is the effect of an Important-Not Urgent task that was neglected for too long. Please don’t do that… it will complicate your life and make you miserable.  Just don’t wait until is almost too late…

If all the tasks that you handle are Important-Urgent you need a change: change yourself or change your job. This is not going to work on the long run. More than that, when dealing with important tasks with the pressure of the time, it is not unusual to make mistakes… a lot of them.

2. Every day we have to deal with some Not Important-Urgent tasks. It is about being polite, answering the phone, helping a colleague with the copy machine, etc. My way of dealing with it: solve it at once and move forward. Not Important makes it very clear for me: it is not worth spending too much time with it.

3. What should I say about Not Important-Not Urgent tasks? They are easy to spot and easier to deal with (if you really want to use your time in the best way for business). These tasks are all those little things that are part of normal life, but should not get into the office: chatting, coffee drinking, order in the papers, etc. Do it when all the other things are solved.

4. Some people never work on Important tasks unless they get Urgent. And that’s wrong. The best time to deal with Important tasks is when there is no time pressure.  If you will allocate more than half of your time to work on the Important-Not Urgent tasks, you will get a lot of time for your work. That even means that you can afford some breaks from time to time. Isn’t that nice?

One minute of planning saves about ten minutes of execution. The point is to think first, prioritize and only after that to act. And of course it helps if you take your work seriously and not lose time with worthless tasks.

Short version: Focus on the tasks that take you faster to your goals.

This might mean anything, but it sure working. Focus and goals are 2 things you should always have in mind; when you do that, almost all problems get their solution.