Too often, we trudge through life wasting our time doing things that don’t make any kind of sense in the overal scheme of things. Sure, we need to have fun and goof off every once in a while, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about not having a better understanding of time management in our lives.
Learning how to take the most precious resource you have (time!), and how to use it better, is just like when you first learned to walk as a child. If you never learned to take your first step, you’d never be able to walk, job, run, play, move easily, etc. So much hinges on your ability to use time wisely.
In this article, a gracious reader and champion for life-change was kind enough to do a little question and answer interview survey with me. I don’t claim to be the best interviewer in the world, but I do promise some good, raw, and honest answers from normal people like you and me. I do my best to NOT filter these answers, except for the bad words and hateful speech (which of course doesn’t happen often).
With that little blurb out of the way, let’s dive right into the content!
Today’s Topic: Time Management in General
‘R’ = Richard N. Stephenson (me!)
‘I’ = Interviewee (anonymous by request unless otherwise noted)
[This interview is inspired and fueled by research done for my book: Quick Content Formula.]
R: Describe what time management means to you.
I: Time management is very important to me. My job can be very busy and fast paced, so if I don’t have good time management I will not be able to finish everything I need to do in a day. If I don’t finish all my daily tasks, then I have to stay at work late or risk getting further behind the next day. I don’t have a lot of downtime at work, so if I don’t have good time management on one particular day, it can often take several days to get caught up.
R: Describe how time management would be useful to people looking to change their lives/careers.
I: A person who is looking to change a career must be able to focus on priorities, and the only way to make that transition is effective time management. This is particularly true for a person who is seeking to make a gradual transition rather than an abrupt break in roles. At least three aspects of time management are critical for a person in a career transition. First, the person must balance performance in both their old role or job, and their new one. The only way to achieve this balance is an effective to do list that allows ordering of tasks in each role. Second, time management will help the person in transition identify what are the critical tasks that must be performed, and which can be eliminated. These assessments may be very different for a person who wants to be in a new role next year, as compared with the priorities for a person who plans to be continuing in the same role until retirement. Finally, a person in transition may be able to use time management to effectively identify opporuntities to pursue a new role while carrying out their old role. For example, it the person has a trip to another city, using time management techiques they may be able to identify free time and opportunities to have a meeting or meal that will help them in their new role.
R: Give an example of time management being used that has inspired you (from either internet/mainstream media examples or personal examples).
I: My husband and I both have multiple projects we’re doing for work. He decided to work in a block schedule. He divided a white board into 2-hour blocks and filled in each block with the specific project he’d work on at that time. He included breaks, workouts, and meals. It inspired me to try a similar but less rigid approach. I built in time between each block, cutting each to 1 hour and 50 minutes.
R: How do you think a better understanding of time management would help other people in their personal or professional life?
I: Time management in the work place is essential. If your employer feels as though your managing your time poorly, you could find yourself out of a job and without pay. On the other side of the coin, if he feels you’re managing your time well and being productive, you could find yourself in a higher position with higher pay. The better you manage your time on the job, the more likely you’ll be finding yourself with more pay.
R: Give an example of how time management has helped you professionally or personally.
I: Learning how to manage my time has helped both in my personal life and professional- specifically their interactions with each other. If found, for me, that if I completely segment work and my personal life I can achieve greater satisfaction in both. When I am at work, I focus my whole attention on work and I try not to think of personal things. That sounds cold, but when I am home I am able to completely focus my attention on my home life and not think about work at all.
R: Describe at least one way you think time management could cause trouble or hurt someone in their personal or professional life.
I: I have experienced this first hand. With a full plate (work, school, other responsibilities), you truly only wind up with several hours that you can ‘designate’ as you like. This can sometimes cause a dilemma in your personal life because you may be torn between doing something for yourself during that free time (resting, playing video games etc.), doing something with your significant other (going on dates etc.), or spending time with family/friends (hanging out, visiting mom etc.). There are times when you can not possibly squeeze all three into your free time, leading you to pick and choose your battles per se. This may hurt your relationships with others if you do not choose to see them or hang out with them due to you picking another choice.
R: Give an example of how time management has hurt you or caused you trouble in the past.
I: During high school I had a large Spanish project that was going to equate to 60% of that quarter’s grade that I had been procrastinating on for weeks. If finally got down to two days before it was due when I started it, and because it was so rushed I didn’t put as much quality as I could have into it. My grade reflected the quality of my work, and ended up bumping me down to a C for the quarter instead of having straight A’s. I managed my time poorly and paid the price.
R: How do you think time management could help you in a professional setting? Why is that?
I: Time management helps in a professional setting because no one wants to set and wait for a speaker to arrive at a meeting when they have other activities on their agenda. One who sat and wait for someone who is not respectful or does not know about time management gets irate and once the speaker arrives is likely not to focus on the content. Time management provides respect to those who arrived at the meeting on time and to the speaker if applicable without an outlay of wasted time.
R: Give an example of how time management could be useful at work. Why do you think this?
I: One of the most important aspects of time management is to effectively move forward smaller, but important tasks. Almost every job has both larger, more time-consumping projects, and small, seemingly less demanding projects. Time managment helps a busy person make sure the smaller projects move forward, and are taken care of in a timely manner. For example, a busy executive may have seven or eight scheduled calls or meetings on a given day. These are typically scheduled to begin on the hour or half hour. By maintaining a list of small projects, the executive can use the 5 or 10 minutes when these scheduled events end early productively, rather than killing time in chit-chat or web surfing. At the end of the day, this executive will have been more productive than his counterpart who is less organized.
R: How do you think time management could help you at home? Why is that?
I: Time management could help loads at home! If you manage your time well, you can have most or all of your household chores done, as well as have time for your hobbies, every single day. Sounds like a win-win to me. I actually do this, to be honest. 20 minutes of work a day, then I get to spend the rest doing what I want.
R: Give an example of how time management could be useful at home or in family life. Why do you think this?
I: Managing one’s time means that more tasks get accomplished instead of oversleeping or skirting what has to get done. Managing one’s time is not all about getting to work on time but can allow the homeowner to get more accomplished instead of loafing or procrastinating. Time management in regards to family life means that there are less irate feeling if family events are are arrived in a timely manner instead of being late or tardy.
R: How do you think time management could help you in a personal relationship? Why is that?
I: I find that in my personal relationship with my husband we lack quality time together. We work opposite shifts and have a son and it is difficult to find time to spend together as a couple. I think if I was better with time management, I could work on getting some quality time together with my husband for us to be able to communicate and keep our strong bond going. I find that when my husband and I are in the house together, we are doing chores, doing our own thing, or I am doing work on my computer. If I can get better with the managing of my time, then I could do my work and chores while he is at work and then we can spend the time when he is home together.
R: Give an example of how time management could be useful in a personal relationship. Why do you think this?
I: As a busy executive, I keep a detailed to-do list of any task that I need to do at a future time if I can’t do it immediately. In the last few years, I have kpeta to-do list that reflects the priorities in my life without distinguishing between business and personal interests. When I scan the list, I knock off items without focusing too much on what is business vs. personal, but rather what is the most important at the time and whether I have the time to complete it. In this way, I am more effective at my personal relationships. For example, about three weeks before my wife’s birthday, I will put on my to-do list tasks such as buying a birthday card and making a restaurant reservation. If I’m walking to a business meeting and pass an empty card shop in the next two weeks, I can buy a card without standing in line, which I might have to do if I waited to get a card at the mall at the weekend. Similarly, I might make a reservation on-line during a conference call where I was listening in but not an active participant. I deepen my personal relationships with people by effective time management. I find that people particularly are appreciative that someone who they see as busy can find time to focus on deeping their personal relationship.
R: Describe at least one thing you would like to learn more about time management.
I: I want to learn more about how CEOs and those who are responsible for many areas manage their time. I also am curious about some of the literature on multi-tasking. This is because typically there are multiple stimuli going on at any given time with all the technology/data at your hands I wonder what is the best way for efficiency and time management to deal with all the stimuli. I also enjoy working out during the day as I feel like it makes me more efficient; however, with meetings, etc at work I am unable to do so. I wonder if there are other “energy/focus” boosts that don’t involve a lot of sweating to help improve time management/efficiency at work.
R: Give your number one piece of advice for someone looking to learn more about time management.
I: It is necessary to create a rough plan for the day. It is easiest to write out a quick timeline starting with when you wake up and ending when you go to sleep. Divide the day into one hour (or other appropriate divisions of time) increments. Within each increment, write down an activity. It is best to create this plan the evening before, so that when you wake up, you do not need to waste time planning your day. Try to follow your plan the best that you can. Be sure you have enough time planned for each activity and do not over schedule. It is easy to over schedule and thus become too overwhelmed. Start slow, and be consistent.
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That’s it for now! I hope you enjoyed this interview conversation and found at least one useful bit of information you can immediately begin to apply in your life.
Also, if you’d like to figure out how to make a lot of great content for your own blog, website, school work, or email newsletters, then you might enjoy the Quick Content Formula. This is my own personal (and favorite!) method of creating highly engaging, fun, and useful information at a very quick pace. It’s a great way to beat that blinking cursor and write more awesome stuff. Click here to check it out.
Please share your thoughts, experiences, or your own interview answers and let’s share some real life wisdom, okay?