Recently I was asked for my comments on time management whilst working with an Operations Management team.
I thought it would be worthwhile sharing my notes on this blog.
- Time expands and contracts to fill the time available – schedule the important tasks early into your day.
- Time management is not just about where and when, but what and why. Deciding what tasks will give you the biggest payback in terms of results needs to be considered when planning your day / routines.
- Hence, know what is important and what is trivial.
- Planning – what needs to be done in what sequence.
- Scheduling – when the planned items needs to be done.
- Routines yield consistency and help you to be proactive in your role.
- Important and difficult tasks should be tackled first.*
- Effectiveness first, then efficiency. Once you have the right tasks you can then find a better way to do the tasks to free up time.
- Once the routines are complete you can move onto (mini) projects, whether this is managing a handful of ‘problem’ production jobs or continuous improvement activities.
- Use your team, that’s what they are there for. Support goes two ways; support them to be better at supporting you in achieving the business’ objectives.
- If in doubt – ‘does this task help me to achieve the results I am tasked with?’
If you are struggling with your time management then I hope it helps.
Giles Johnston
Author, Consultant and Chartered Engineer
* Thanks to the Brian Tracy book - Eat that Frog for this one.