“Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.”
– Peter Drucker
Time is the scarcest resource out there – we cannot buy it, and we certainly cannot turn back the clock to relive it. One thing we can do, though, is to effectively “manufacture” more of it… How is this possible, you may ask? Well, we can make more of it by optimising our time in various ways. I would like to share with you some tips to make this possible. Why am I the person sharing this with you? Well, I am an entrepreneur, and in my line of business as a consultant, I am effectively selling time. Therefore, if I am not optimising time, I am essentially compromising my income potential.
Tip #1 – Delegating effectively
“Only do what only you can do.”
– Andy Stanley
What kind of message do we send to people reporting to us or who are around us, if we don’t delegate to them, especially when they see we are battling to cope? Well, I think we specifically convey the following messages – that we don’t (1) trust them, and (2) want to develop them… We all have proverbial balls to juggle, at work, at home, wherever. My view is that these balls fall into 2 different categories, though – glass balls and rubber balls. The glass balls are typically the things that we have to do ourselves. To use a “left field” example, I cannot get someone else to maintain the relationship with my wife. This can only be my responsibility.
However, the rubber ball items should be delegated to other people, because if they drop that “ball”, it will bounce back and someone will catch it again, without incurring major harm or damage. If we don’t successfully delegate, it is not sustainable, which will negatively impact the people around us, the organisations where we serve, and specifically ourselves. In delegating to someone else, we temporarily assign responsibility to a person that we trust, even though we are still accountable for that task. Do we just leave that person to get the job done? No, depending on their performance readiness and experience, we follow up and guide them to success, knowing that their success is our success. This does not imply in any way that we micromanage them, because then we should not have delegated the task to them in the first place.
You might say to me: “But hang on, I don’t have any people reporting to me, and how can I then delegate to anyone?” Well, Keith Ferrazzi wrote a book called “Leading without Authority”, where he promotes the idea that “You can delegate, without having someone reporting to you, also by relying on your networks.” Therefore, we should reframe how we think about delegating in the traditional sense and use our networks to, even if it’s temporary, assist us with experts in their structures to assist us to get the job done.
“The best way you can find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
– Ernest Hemingway
Tip #2 – Saying “No”
“It’s only by saying NO that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”
– Steve Jobs
The “perfect storm” is when we cannot delegate successfully ánd say “No” to someone. Think about it – if we are guilty on both these fronts, then we’ll simply accumulate more and more work until we buckle and break. The first thing we need to do is to get over the mental barrier that saying “No” is wrong. Of course, it’s not wrong – if you have other things to do that are more of a priority, then you need to say “No”. The trouble is, a lot of people find this very challenging, even though saying “No” is often the right answer.
The keys to saying “No” are to be very positive when you do it and to give yourself some time to think about it. For example, by saying: “I would like to help you, but I need some time to think about it. I’ll come back to you.” You then think about it, after factoring in your other priorities. If you have time to assist the other person, it’s great. If you don’t have the time and go back to the person to tell them this, you will probably find that they found someone else to do it, or they did it themselves. It’s actually as simple as that. If it’s your line manager, then tell them that you can do it, but that you then cannot do a number of other things on time that they require from you. Based upon this, they can then decide if they still want you to do it.
The bottom line is that your time is yóúr time. No one else’s time…
Tip #3 – Practising “Parallelism”
“To do two things at once is to do neither.”
– Publilius Syrus
Research tells us that multitasking does not work… To touch a task and then leave it, before you complete it, to start focusing on the next one, is counter-productive. The net result is that we get home, tired, and we cannot really say what we have successfully done or completed today. Instead of multitasking, I use a concept that I call “Parallelism” in the sense that I get someone else or “a system” to start and complete a task that I am accountable for, while I am starting and completing the “glass ball tasks” that I mentioned in “Time Optimiser #1 – Delegation”.
For example, I hate traffic, because I believe that sitting in traffic is the ultimate form of wasting time. So, when I have to visit clients in Midrand or Centurion, bearing in mind that I live on the West Rand of Johannesburg, I get up at 04:30. Marilé normally only gets up at 05:30, so I quietly sneak out of our room and take my electric shaver downstairs, before I go for a run and, thereafter, take my dog for her morning walk. Upon my return, I then get the microwave to cook my oats, the coffee machine to make me coffee, while I shave – 3 actions completed at the same time, which I believe is ultimate productivity. This also helps me to then leave home at 05:45 to be early at my clients to get a proper stint of work completed, before I assist in the development of their leaders.
“Focus on being productive instead of busy.”
– Tim Ferriss
Tip #4 – Prioritising our tasks
“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
In his famous book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Covey dedicates a whole chapter to the Eisenhower Matrix, which is simply a prioritisation tool where tasks are classified according to Urgency and Importance. Based on this classification, tasks can then be allocated into 4 quadrants. In essence, we should only be focusing on the Important tasks, whether Urgent or Not Urgent, especially if we have people reporting to us who could deal with the Not Urgent quadrant items.
Covey calls the Important and Urgent quadrant the “crises mode” quadrant, where very little of our tasks should reside. Most of our tasks should reside, though, in the Important and Not Urgent quadrant, where we can plan properly to address important tasks. He calls this quadrant “the heart of effective personal management.” You don’t have to use the Eisenhower Matrix, but I would suggest that you at least use some prioritisation tool. Otherwise, you will find that you are wasting your precious time on the wrong things…
“If it’s a priority, you’ll find a way. If it isn’t, you’ll find an excuse.”
– Jim Rohn
Tip #5 – Using Time Blocks
“Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.”
– Franz Kafka
Most of us find it challenging to work through a specific priority task from start to finish. We typically get distracted by people or the requirement to complete other tasks, which negatively impacts our personal productivity. A couple of years ago, I read a book called “The Time Management Solution” by the productivity expert, Damon Zahariades. In his book, he describes the use of time blocks, which, at its simplest, is reserving time slots during which you work on specific tasks. Everything else on your to-do list is set aside during these periods or, ideally, given its own dedicated time blocks.
Time blocks are very useful in maximising our personal productivity, assuming that we are able to really focus on the priority task that needs to be completed, whatever it takes. This implies that we might need to switch off our phone, close Outlook to not notice incoming e-mails, and tell everyone in the office that we are not to be disturbed for the next hour or two.
I firmly believe that the ultimate time-waster is a lack of discipline. If we can apply the required amount of discipline, we should be able to apply all these tips that I have shared with you. I wish you all the best of success in doing this more consistently to improve your personal productivity.
“I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.”
– Neil Armstrong
Author Dr. Hekkie van der Westhuizen shares practical self-leadership tips, tools and interventions in the form of stepping stones that will assist you along the journey to becoming the best possible version of yourself.
R230.00
