Chip Shots - Time Management Tips

Here at Lead Change Group, we know that problems are most effectively solved when individuals come together to meld ideas, energies, and approaches.

To use a golf analogy, not every shot is a long drive. Many times, golfers have to take a chip shot to move the ball along for a short distance, with incisive accuracy.

If you are new to the Chip Shots green, welcome. In our Chip Shots feature, our Leading Voices are invited to provide brief insights into a leadership-related topic. To learn more, spend some time browsing the entire Chip Shots Series.

Today's Question

One of our Lead Change Group members wrote about time management recently. His post got me thinking about time management in general, so I decided to ask our Leading Voices this question:

What is the one piece of time management advice that you believe is the most useful?

These Leading Voices are great time managers - they responded quickly with their thoughts...

Chip Bell - Prioritize ABC. Do A's before C's. Doing C's feels good but doing A's make you successful. You can get more done between 6:00-8:00am than between 4:00pm-6:00pm.

David Dye - At any given moment, there are limitless things you could be doing with your time. You can’t do them all...you can’t even do most of them. When you accept your own limitations and focus on the few meaningful things you can do each day, you create a solid foundation for your decisions - whatever tool you use to make them.

Susan Mazza - Ultimately time management is about the choices you make to ensure you invest your time wisely. Software can help us keep track of tasks but you must keep in mind that ultimately productivity is a function of the value you create not the number of tasks you cross of your list. As John Bell, author of Do Less Better, suggests the goal should be to Do Less Better rather than try to find ways to do more.

Mike Henry - My newest piece of time-management advice is to limit the number of things I'm working on (WIP). As my role as VP of IT expands, it's easy to over-commit. I'm learning to stop trying to maximize my capacity and rather maximize my throughput, or moving items from To Do to Done. Hat tip goes to Personal Kanban by Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Berry.

Karin Hurt - Build white space into your calendar. When you rush from meeting to meeting, you actually are less productive because you don’t have time to think. For additional thoughts from me on time management, read Effective Time Management.

Mitchell Levy - When in doubt farm it out. If there's something that you do that doesn't truly need you, is it worthwhile to pay someone else to do it? Think long and hard about this question and your initial Aha statement.

Will Lukang - There are many things in life that are only available to you depending on your accomplishments and social status. Time is a common denominator; everyone is given the same 24 hours. But it is worth noting that it waits for no one. One of my most effective time management pieces of advice is "understand your priorities." I'm a victim of this myself, sometimes I preoccupy myself with tasks that can we done easily and I will knock a few of them out. At the end of the day, as I reflect on my work, I realize that no matter how many of those tasks I completed, I did not make any progress, because they are not the correct priority. Understanding your priorities is key to your ability to manage your time.

Jon Mertz - Be intentional. Each week, block out the time to spend doing what matters most. This could be meeting one-on-one with team members or setting aside time to work on a project. By not blocking out the time, others will schedule their priorities. Intentionally setting aside our time to do what matters most will enable us to lead with greater purpose and feel better about what we do each day.

Thank you for using your time to read this post...