I was delivering a seminar this morning. In my opening exercise, I had everyone share a management challenge they struggled with. One man stated that he struggles with managing his time effectively. I couldn’t address that in the seminar, but I will address it here.
Remember those Russian Nesting Dolls? (You see them in the photo accompanying this column). They are usually made of wood and are intricately painted. You open up the doll by separating the top half from the bottom half, only to reveal a somewhat smaller nesting doll. You then open that doll which – surprise – reveals a slightly smaller doll. This may go on for several more iterations, until, after four or five dolls have been opened, you end with a very small nesting doll that doesn’t open. This process is a metaphor for effective time management. I will explain.
The large nesting doll is symbolic of a large swathe of time – perhaps five years, ten years, perhaps an even longer time horizon. Accomplished people often think far into the future and map out some of the great achievements they intend to accomplish during the course of their lifetime. These involve attainments of almost cosmic proportion – bucket list items that are deeply singular and may consist of one-of-a-kind events – speaking before the United Nations or addressing a joint-session of Congress; reaching the summit of Mount Everest and returning safely to Base Camp; setting foot on the moon or on Mars; memorizing the entire New Testament; visiting 100 countries; or anything you consider daunting, profound, and out of the ordinary.
It then gets slightly more granular. A goal is set that spans perhaps a one-year time horizon. Perhaps 9 months. Perhaps 15 months. But something close to a year.
From there, it gets even more granular – a one-week time horizon. Here is where we find champions of time management mapping out their week very carefully and consistently – a weekly planning ritual that is never missed unless one is on vacation. In this realm, one is considering their key roles in life and making commitments for the week on what they will accomplish to maintain relevance and sharpness in that role. The roles may involve their professional life, their family life, and many other types of roles they play (example: friend, parent, spouse, vice president of the Rotary Club, choir director at church, life-long learner, whatever). But in addition to thinking in terms of roles, they think in terms of their key goal mentioned above – the goal that spans roughly one year. They make commitments to accomplish specific things that will move the dial towards the accomplish of that goal.
Finally, we come to one of the smaller “dolls” – perhaps the smallest. Managing one’s daily schedule. This can be thought of in two ways: tasks to accomplish that have no set timeframe during the day, and scheduled appointments (with others or with self) that dedicate a specific start and stop time during the day. And here is where smart, accomplished managers of time use their appointment book, calendar, or daily schedule to carve out specific blocks of time to give attention to things that really matter for them, as well as supplement that appointment book, calendar, or daily schedule with a To-Do List of tasks that they must accomplish that day, but not necessarily at a specific time. Both are important, but the daily schedule is paramount.
True, there can be unexpected events that blind-side you and throw you off your game. Great managers of time, however, are adept at doing their best to put those unexpected things off whenever possible, and put them on hold in an effort to stick with their plan. This can’t always be done, but great managers of time are adept at dealing with the unexpected as quickly as possible, delegating when appropriate, and then getting back on track with their original plan. If necessary, they carry over to the next hour, or day, or week anything that simply could not get completed as intended. They do not let things fall through the cracks. Delays do not equate to defeat, but merely momentary postponements.
Now you know.
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