As published in “Southwest Florida Business Today” February 2022
There are countless excellent articles, videos, and seminars available about time and meeting management. This is probably the largest single source of waste in businesses today. Despite a strong lean/six sigma trend across the economy, somehow, this subject never quite gets the attention or commitment it deserves. Why not?
Elon Musk reportedly breaks his day into five-minute segments. He even eats his lunch in five minutes, usually during a meeting. He doesn’t allow himself to get bogged down with telephone calls and e-mail. His best piece of advice, according to an interview with Mashable, “Constantly think about how you could be doing things better and question yourself.” Good advice.
If you want an eye-opening learning experience, take a small pad of paper (or a tablet) with you to work for one or two days. Log your day in 15-minute increments, briefly jotting down what you did or accomplished in each time segment. At the end of the day, review your notes. You’ll be amazed at the waste!
So…how do you improve your own productivity (and therefore your effectiveness)? We could write a book or two on this subject, but here are a few simple suggestions to get started:
Have a personal agenda – know what you want to accomplish each day. Write it down first thing and cross off items as you complete them. Be driven by results, but be flexible – things often change during the day, so you may need to adjust your agenda. This disciplined approach doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take time to interact with employees and co-workers. On the contrary, that is critical, so make it part of your agenda every day! I used to enter “walk around time” on my calendar every day, so I had time set aside to interact with employees and see for myself what was happening on the floor. Employees appreciate this, and you’ll find out a lot more about what’s going on this way. Be wary, though – if you’re interrupting something, withdraw gracefully, and say you’ll be back.
E-mail/text – this is one of the biggest time wasters there is, hands down. The relentless call of the e-mail “ding” is like the mythical Greek Sirens, enchantingly drawing sailors to shipwreck on their rocky island. Probably 90 percent of emails are unimportant, yet we are drawn to reading each one as if it could be the most important message in the universe (admit it, you do this). What an enormous waste of time! Email should be your last priority in communicating. Face to face is best, followed by phone/video, with e-mail dead last. Email is great for transmitting data and facts, period. It is the worst choice for any emotional or nuanced message, as it is so prone to misinterpretation. Make yourself get up and walk down the hall when you need to communicate with someone, or pick up the phone. Turn off visual and sound notification for incoming e-mails. Set aside a few minutes each day to scan your inbox. Separate the important ones from the trivial, and deal with the trivial ones later.
Meetings – the answers here are also easy, unfortunately few people adhere to good practices. Some simple rules – have an agenda with an objective, have a time slot and don’t go over it, invite the minimal number of people to complete the objective, keep the group on task, and summarize the results and actions. It’s really that simple. I used to ban cell phones from my meetings, unless an important call was expected, but that had to be disclosed before the meeting started. If a cell phone went off during the meeting, it was a $5 fine. It worked.
Water cooler wasters – don’t get bogged down in “water cooler talk.” As noted, plan time and commit to interact and communicate that is important. But when it degrades to non-productive discussions and rumors, politely disengage and get back to your agenda.
Customer visits –if you ask for and get an hour appointment with a customer, plan a one-hour agenda with time for discussion. At the end of the hour, regardless of where you are in the agenda, politely stand up and say, “We asked for an hour, and I see our time is up, so we’ll be on our way so you can get back to your busy day.” If the customer is interested and has the time, you’ll be invited to extend your visit, so go ahead. If you’re not, pack up and depart with an offer to follow up. The customer will appreciate it and you’ll almost always get a follow up appointment.
These are just a few techniques you can use to better manage your time and increase your productivity. Time does really translate to money, so manage yours aggressively and you’ll see impressive results.
Copyright 2022 Sea Breeze Associates, LLC
Mind Your Own Business. No One Else Will. 