Time management is a skill that most of us have yet to master. No matter how many things we do during the day, there always seems to be a long list of unchecked ‘to do’ items. This is something that I’ve struggled with as of late. Starting a business on your own can become overwhelming very fast. The volume of things to do sometimes reaches a point where all you feel like doing is stashing them in a big bag and hiding it somewhere for a few days. But that only compounds the problem.
I decided to go through the titles in my bookshelf and take a look at what the experts had to say on the matter. The two that were most useful were “The 7 habits of highly effective people” by Stephen Covey and “The 4 hour workweek” by Tim Ferris. In part 1 of 2 of this blog posting, I will go over what Stephen Covey has to say on time management and in part 2, I will do the same for Tim Ferris.
In his book, “The 7 habits”, Stephen Covey sums up his view on time management in a single sentence: “Organize and execute around priorities”. We should strive to prioritize and clarify our values and then “compare the relative worth of activities based on their relationship to those values.” Put another way, in order to really move forward in life, we have to identify the things that are really important to us and focus our activities in those areas every day.
A concept I found absolutely amazing in the book is Stephen’s ‘time management matrix’. Essentially, every single activity we do can be placed inside the matrix, which consists of 4 quadrants. In Quadrant 1, we find all of the activities that are urgent and important (e.g. a crisis, a deadline; any problem requiring our immediate attention). For instance, completing an urgent report can be classified as a Quadrant 1 activity. Quadrant 3 activities are urgent but not important (e.g. interruptions, an urgent but unimportant email, etc.) Quadrant 4 activities are unimportant and not urgent (e.g. time wasters such as watching TV, talking on the phone for hours, etc.).
Activities that are directly responsible for our growth can be found in Quadrant 2: the important but not urgent. It involves things like nurturing relationships, exercising, long term planning, preparation, prevention, etc. For the small business owner, it can include things like maintaining a strong relationship with clients, attending networking events to make new contacts, reviewing and updating the business plan, additional training / education to further our knowledge, etc. Deep down, we know that these things will make our business stronger but we don’t do them because they are not urgent. However, in order to be effective in the long run, we must absolutely focus our attention on these Q2 activities. And in order to make time for them, we have to learn how to say ‘no’ to activities in Q3 and Q4 (Q1 activities are urgent and important and thus hard to ignore).
The last time management tool at our disposal in the book is the ‘Weekly Planner’. This is where you plan all your Q2 activities for the week. Before you do so, spend a few minutes identifying the various roles you have in your life (e.g. parent, husband/wife, business owner, volunteer at a local organization, etc.). This will help you establish your priorities. Once this is done, think of a few activities you would like to accomplish during the course of the week. The final step is to actually schedule the activities in your planner / calendar. This will ensure that your goals for the week are more than just wishful thinking. It ensures that you plan ahead and set a specific time during the week when you expect to accomplish each task.
I was never a fan of writing down goals, schedules, etc. However, I recently realized that I have a tendency to want to do many things over the course of a single day or week and end up feeling that I haven’t accomplished enough with my time. Identifying my roles and planning Q2 activities on a weekly basis forces me to be realistic in what I expect to accomplish. In my next post, I will go over Tim Ferris’ view on time management, an interesting twist to what I covered today, but very much based on the same principles.
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