Entries Tagged 'Time Management' ↓

Tim Berry over at Planning Startup Stories reminded me of one of my (many) golden rules that focuses on employees maximizing their quality work time and avoiding the pitfalls associated with pure quantity of work time.

Remember the debate about quality time vs. quantity time? It was a popular topic a few years ago, but back then it was about parenting. I think we should consider applying that same concept to the workplace in business. As an employer, do you want people staying late working? Is that productivity? I don’t think so. In fact I’m thinking we should be talking more about “quality time” in the workplace, and make sure we don’t substitute quantity time instead.

Over the last few years I’ve gone so far as to quantify quality work time as somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5 hours out of an 8 hour day. That translates into 5 hours of focused, concentrated work with the other 3 hours being taken up by distractions like email, meetings, socializing, and the general realities of any work place.

Once you get outside of the 5 hour sweet spot I’ve found that you tend to have diminishing returns on the work output. For example, a developer who tries to code for 8, 10, 12 hours straight is much more likely to make mistakes and get sloppy over that time. I’m sure they don’t do it intentionally, but the human mind and body just can’t sustain that much hyper focus for that long. On the flip side, there are lots of people who may spend vast amounts of time “working” on a task but waste a lot of that time procrastinating and never really getting anything done. With that in mind, quality work time is really just another spin on the mantra of “work smart… not hard”.

If you can make the 5 hour work day part of your corporate culture, you’ll start to see the benefits pretty quickly. You should hopefully see fewer errors and “silly mistakes”. Your resources should feel less stressed which should allow them to focus on the tasks at hand more easily. Deadlines and deliverables that take the 5 hour rule into account should also be much more attainable. In the rare occasion that your team might need to push beyond the 5 hour sweet spot (eg. work some overtime or come in on a weekend) they’ll be much more motivated and willing to put in the extra effort since it’s an exception to the norm. From what I’ve seen in real life, the 5 hour rule tends to be a great morale sustainer over the long term.

To date, the 5 hour work day has served me and my teams very well and I’d encourage anyone out there to give it a try.

Making the shift from “do-er” to manager is usually a little tricky. You tend to shift from a clearly defined schedule to a much more free flowing and open schedule. In many cases you’ll feel as if you are being pulled in too many directions as employees, meetings, emergencies, and day to day activity eat up your work day. Many new managers struggle with time management. Luckily, there are a number of easy time management techniques that can be put into place to make life much easier.

1. Suck it up and make friends with your calendar.

Many new managers just don’t realize how important their calendars are. If you commit to something, book yourself some time to complete the task. Make sure you move your to-do list items into scheduled appointments. The most important part about scheduling your time is that you are committing to execution. If something unexpected comes up (and it will) you’ll be much more strategic and organized when you shift around your scheduled tasks and appointments. Thinking of your day in adjustable time blocks makes everything seem much more achievable, especially once the pressure to constantly remember action items fades.

2. Process your In-box

You may or may not be a fan of GTD, but there is something to be said for processing your in-box on a regular basis. Many new managers feel swamped by email as soon as they update their job title in their email signature. Using the calendar tip above, block out dedicated time in the day to process email and get your in-box down to 0 unread emails. As you review email you should be delegating tasks as necessary, scheduling time for action items, and be focused on organizing yourself. Processing time is meant for organization, not action so make sure you don’t get pulled off on a tangent when reading email. Timothy Ferriss of “4-Hour Work Week” fame suggests blocking dedicated email processing time in the morning and afternoon, and not even reading it in between.

3. Use the phrases “Send me an email” or “Schedule a meeting”

You may think it sounds a little harsh, but as a manager it is critical that you protect your time so you can spend it wisely on managing your business. Without a doubt, you will have all sorts of distractions pulling for your time. Once you’ve nailed the above 2 tricks of managing your calendar and in-box, make others help you. By asking people to email or book a meeting you accomplish a few things. You know that once the activity is in email or your calendar you no longer need to worry about it since you know it will be addressed in a timely fashion. The other (more interesting) side effect is that by asking people to be proactive about their requests you will also see a decrease in time-waster requests. The extra steps of emailing or booking a meeting usual force the people with time waster type requests to find their answers in different ways.

The 3 tips above have served many managers well for a long time. There is nothing new or revolutionary about the approach, but as a new manager, simple tricks like this can make a big difference. At the end of the day, effectively organizing your calendar and email flow will allow you to have much more productive time with much less stress.

(PS - These tips also work well for seasoned managers.)