Doing the math…. Depressing

Time Management is not about what you can fit in, it's about what you can take out. Thoughtfully questioning every activity from meetings to administration, coupled with clear goals, help align activity with results. And maybe give you some time to breathe.

It is my biggest fear to be slammed with meetings and emails. I am just a data scientist now and try to avoid to get any attention. But, corporate cultures love meetings and try to fill the time up meetings. I prefer to have one on one meetings to understand the problem and summarize it then share with the world. I think I was building that efficient meeting network at Verizon. I simply did analysis and showed on the graphs.

Hi Sven ... I think we know the answers but sometimes struggle to make the call. Meetings need to have clear objective and the time associated with the meeting needs to reflect the value. Agenda. Objectives. In and out. With all the health statements I am a big supporter too of the stand up meeting. Have folks come prepared. This takes some adjustment for some folks, but in an inclusive and diverse environment those who come prepared ... are the people we should be listening to anyway. With regards to emails a simple message needs to be sent ... email is not an excuse, not a CYA tool and has zero priority/immediacy. Critical business is conducted in real time using real time tools and communications. Status reports should have a home where you can go to get them WHEN you want them, not filling up your email. Immediate issues that require your attention demand at least an IM and/or a phone call to you, your admin. And in return the number of emails you send will drop dramatically. It shows trust ... you empower folks to reach you directly with CRITICAL issues or in response to your specific directions .. you TRUST them(your direct reports) to update you with the important tidbits that might be gleaned from reading every single email everyone would send. Reduce that to a weekly meeting and an agenda item in it ... the 5 minute "what should I know about the buzz going around in email?" Approach this too knowing that you will have a lot of support for reducing email and meetings. People are ready. We have driven and embraced the scrum meetings, agile development processes (new names and some new thinking from our old days of RAD and other methodologies we created to support the demands of a more dynamic business world) and are already guarding our time!

Hi Sven! I was instantly hooked and read through each response comment. Cutting down the time waste of weeding through emails or trudging to meetings that do not yield results at a value equal to the time spent conducting it, seems to be a universal pain point. There are some great points that others made, although a few gave me a minor panic attack. In a time management seminar I took a long time ago, one point was to check emails in the morning and then log out and check again mid day and then at the end of the day. Although intriguing, it inspires the same guttural reaction in me as base jumping off a bridge. One thing that i did not see taken into consideration is the time to redirect your attention back to your activity after being pulled into checking that email that just flashed on the screen. We actually lose a great deal more time just getting back to the previous level of productivity after being distracted by that email then we lose by reading the email. I am a huge fan of the one email with all non-urgent items bulleted with concise details and requests. It makes it easy to bang out a number of items very quickly and all at one time. I also prefer using IM to address more urgent issues. It most often negates the time for pleasantries and off subject chatting that happens on a call, and allows you to address and move on due to the high speed of back and forth conversation without the 12 foot long email chain. Please let me know when you have discovered the magic equation to this issue! Regards Sherri,

Thanks for sharing and thank you Lisa for reflecting on the organization that you use to work for that respected the pressures on employees' time. Sign me up. I want to work for them. Seriously. Organizations need to understand that a culture and practice shift can be good for productivity.