Once Upon a Time... Time Management Part 1

The task of making a mental inventory of all the things I need to get done in the days or weeks ahead can often cause me anxiety, something I expect many of you can relate to. Not just work stuff, but also all the other stuff that is as or more important in our lives and the lives of the family and friends we support and who support us. Over the years, I’ve put a fair bit of effort into thinking, reading and trying new things to better manage and spend my time, and have picked up many techniques that have positively impacted my life. Whenever I find myself the most anxious and on the edge of being overwhelmed, these strategies help get me through it. Hopefully reading about these strategies and how I've successfully used them to help with time management will be a good use of your time.

The power of having a system

I learned the power of having a time management system from a book by David Allen called Getting Things Done - the art of stress-free productivity. The big ‘A-HA’ for me from that book was the idea that we subconsciously spend a significant amount of brain power trying to remember all the things we need to do, which subconsciously distracts us from what we are actually trying to do. It’s like attempting to add numbers while someone is talking to you. Having a system—one that you consistently use and trust—you can free up your mental energy to get more stuff done, and even think more creatively.

One of the other key ideas from Allen's book focuses on how we deal with the ‘stuff’ we need to process. His approach basically involves asking: "what is the next action?"?Often, especially if we are dealing with complex projects or challenges, we can be thinking through the complexities of an issue ten steps down the road. This can prevent us from taking the first step on the journey towards getting anything done. Breaking big projects into smaller steps by asking “what is the next action?” can be a very helpful time management tool.

There are numerous personal time management systems available to work with. My own time management system is a bit of a hybrid—made up of some of Allen’s suggestions, some techniques from bullet journaling, and some other ideas I've picked up over the years, including ... the Theory of Constraints.

The Theory of Constraints

My introduction to the Theory of Constraints happened about 22 years ago, when I was in the manufacturing industry working on a process optimization project. I was putting my chemical engineering education to the test as we were trying to give our MDF (medium density fibreboard) line “all she's got" (to quote Scottie from Star Trek.) I was fortunate to be working with a team from Sweden whose leader—Johan Birve—quickly became a good friend of mine. One evening Johan introduced me to the book The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu Goldratt. This book introduced me to the Theory of Constraints, which—although definitely relevant to process optimization—is also relevant to most management processes, including time management.

The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is based on the idea that the rate of goal achievement by a goal-oriented system (i.e. the system's throughput) is limited by at least one constraint. Basically, a constraint is anything that prevents the system from achieving its goal.?Instead of seeing constraints as problems, Goldratt saw constraints as the keys to unlocking productivity if they are properly addressed. The idea is that when we identify and focus on one constraint at a time, we use fewer resources vs dealing with everything at once and we get more done.

?Personal time management

To translate this to the world of personal time management: our ability to achieve our goals, assuming we want to get stuff done, is limited by at least one constraint. In the simplest time management terms, the constraint is the time we spend on our most important activity at any given point in time. This ties back to my earlier message on the importance of having a system. We need to identify our most important tasks/activities to achieve our goals for the day, week, month or year. And to be clear, these goals are much more than just our work or career goals. In any discussion of personal time management, ‘value’ can only be defined by an individual—reading to your child before bed each night or watching their game/concert/recital, may produce significant value to you as an individual.??

Once these goals are clear, it is possible to identify the constraint to be addressed. The simplest way to look at this is to identify the activities that produce the most value. The time we spend on activities that produce the most value...is the constraint on all of our systems.?

Based on the TOC, once the goal is defined there are five focusing steps to manage the system (or manage our time in this example):

1.??????Identify the constraint?(identify your highest value activities that with more time and attention will create more value)

3.??????Subordinate everything else to the constraint?(reschedule, streamline, handoff or stop activities that take us away from our highest value activities)

4.??????Elevate the constraint?(align the time that you spend on these highest value activities with when you have the most energy)

5.??????Don't Stop Now, Find the Next Constraint (the activities that create value will evolve and change over time, so continuously repeat the process)

This is a topic and idea I could spend a lot of time writing or talking about, but I'll stop here for now. If you’re interested in time management, watch for an article I will be publishing next week on procrastination. Assuming I get around to it...

Sean Hanlon is CEO of?Dillon Consulting, a proudly Canadian, employee-owned professional consulting firm specializing in planning, engineering, environmental science and management.?Dillon Consulting?partners with clients to provide committed, collaborative and inventive solutions to complex, multi-faceted projects.

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