Skip to main content

Respecting Time

Work is a marathon, and correctly pacing yourself has to be a part of any long distance race.

Effective time management has never been more important, and yet it is more difficult to achieve than ever before.   There has to be compromise.   Over the past two weeks, I have spent 1.5 days in my base office.  I had 4 days leave (and all my colleagues told me to relax and enjoy them), and 4 days in my 2 coastal offices, where we were either in conference or meeting with clients.

So, not a lot of time to answer eMails, except in the evenings.  And yet there is an expectation that there will not be a delay in response times.   While this might be OK in a large corporate where there are lots of people to delegate to(although I somehow doubt it), sometimes there just isn't anybody who can take over a particular task, especially in smaller companies.    There also appears to be a perception that, if the eMailer gives a deadline, that is the only deadline in the recipient's diary.

Not to mention the fact that there are the many day to day functions that need to be managed, in order to function effectively.

Interestingly, there is a lot of irritation from co-workers about people who respond to eMails at 11 pm or 3 am.   The perception is that they are creating unreasonable expectations for all of their colleagues.   No time to do it during the day, resented for doing it at night, is there an answer?

Not a single one, no.    There are a lot of great time management models, but my split structure is the one I find works best, and it fits into the South African vernacular where Just Now can mean in two minutes or two weeks.   It goes something like this:

Right Now   - has to be done, no compromise

  • Structured daily time, no interruptions, maximum one hour at a time
  • Include time to think every day
  • Work from a list (ticking it off is enormously satisfying)
Just Now - has to be kept under control
  • Things that need to be done daily, but are not deadline driven
  • Answering eMails
  • Routine tasks
  • Personal issues
Not Now - has to revitalise you
  • Genuine down time
  • Do something that is for you
A question I ask myself often is whether we all being driven by the work ethic of the burn outs of the future?   It is really very important to give all your attention to your family, friends and colleagues, when you are with them.   It can be very difficult when your mind is constantly on the move!

Respecting the time we have is a tough ask, sometimes we need to forget about stress and pressure and just be...   It builds energy for the next round.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Feeding the Right Wolf

Feeding the Right Wolf This Cherokee story resonated with me (see below).     Like many business people, I get caught up in managing details, instead of focusing on strategy and growth.   Measuring myself against the Good Wolf concept has become a way of thinking for me. Feeding the good wolf - focusing on the right stuff! In a previous article on this topic, I commented that the message is simple, the wolf you feed is the one that grows. The good wolf attributes in a business are where we ideally should spend our time, that good old 80 – 20 rule focusing on our   engaged employees, improving client experience and quality of product,   to name a few. Creating a Good Wolf Environment While we have many different tools – appraisals, customer and employee surveys – to try and understand the temperature and levels of entropy in our businesses – the truth is that it is really difficult to explain to people that they are not seen as feeding the good wolf.    Often the people

Sharing your last salary – re-enforcing the gender pay gap…

Sharing your last salary – re-enforcing the gender pay gap… The interview process is never easy.   Whether you are actively searching for a new position or being head hunted, selling yourself effectively can go against ingrained social habits. As a potential employer, there is significant risk in hiring the wrong people, too. So both sides have a lot to lose if the interview process is ineffective. While we frequently hear that people do not leave jobs because of money, very few candidates are looking to drop their salaries … Interviewers have a number of tools at their disposal enabling them to align the right candidate with the role on offer: ·        Psychometric testing ·        References ·        The face to face interview process ·        The CV / Resumé ·        Social media profiles However, the previous salary is a time tested way for the interviewer to measure against the skills and experience claimed in the CV. Why is there a risk that this re-en

It's all about the service... Gaining & Retaining Clients

Retaining and gaining customers has become increasingly challenging.  As customers we have abundant choice and it is so easy to comparative shop. We talk about great service We talk about the extra mile We talk about the attitude We talk about customer perception We talk about customer expectation We talk about meeting customer needs We talk about the tangible vs intangible We talk about the client experience So what makes a customer feel that they have received outstanding service?   What makes it a soft skill, rather than a science, is that we are all so different and people in services and sales need to read each situation and act accordingly. In a restaurant, if my chair is constantly bumped by the waitrons going past, no matter how great the food, my perception is negative.  My family don’t even notice the bumps.. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to visit Greece and Turkey. In Istanbul, we were wandering around one of the many fantastic street marke