Time Management: A Behaviorally Intelligent Approach

Throughout my tenure as a professional coach, time management has always been one of the highest priorities for nearly every client. We all wish for an extra hour or two, but we know there are only 24 hours in a day. A behaviorally intelligent approach to time management may help you use the time you have more effectively:

1.      Prioritization – Imagine being asked to join friends for dinner, but you have other obligations. You respond with, “I’m sorry; I just don’t have the time.” Now imagine that right after you decline, you receive a phone call from a local dealership saying that you just won a Mustang convertible. All you need to do is show up in the next hour to claim your prize. Would this change your priority? Would you forgo your obligations to collect your winnings? Most people would say yes. Through this lens, we see that time can be “created”. It depends on prioritization. Rethinking our time in this way can help us to limit our excuses for not getting projects completed. Behavioral Intelligence can help to explain how people react to success and failure. For example, I might set a goal to make it to the gym 4 times a week, and when I inevitably fall short, my face-saving mechanism will give me a pass for "not having time." Resist this urge and speak to yourself honestly, "I did not make this a priority." This can have the effect of bolstering the motivation to make it more of a priority, rather than allowing the goal to be the first element cut when the schedule becomes busy. If you don't think this will work, try telling your boss that his or her assignment was not a priority, rather than saying that you did not have time...

2.       Tracking Time – Behavioral Intelligence is about awareness. Do you know where you spend your time? Without fail, whenever I ask a client to track their time, the response is, “I cannot believe I spend so much time on _______.” The blank can be filled with a number of different activities, but most common include: social media, email, phone calls, Netflix, and driving. When we make a concerted effort to track time we notice trends. This is similar to tracking food while dieting. If you want to manage time, we need to be more data-centric in our approach. The first thing that people often say is that they do not have time to track it. While ironic, again this goes back to prioritization. It is akin to saying you want to be a millionaire, but have no investment or accumulation strategy. Hoping will not get us there. With that said, once they begin the process of punching in on an hourly basis throughout the day, they find that there are patterns where we lose significant portions of time that can be recouped and repurposed. Without tracking, that time is just like the calories that we consume without thought.

3.      “Spending Time” – People use this phrase, but may not consider its meaning. The phrase implies that time is a resource, just like money. However, we never hear people say “Time doesn’t grow on trees you know.” Time is not something you can hold in your hand, nor is it something that you can earn more of; therefore, we do not treat it the same way we treat money. We spend money to buy things we need or want and try not to waste money on things that are not necessary or not enjoyable. Looking at time in a similar way can help us not to “spend time” on tasks or activities that do not provide value.

Knowing your priorities, tracking your time, and viewing time as a precious resource may help you to spend your time more effectively. So, how will you manage time moving forward? If you are looking for some help, please feel to reach out and explore professional coaching options!

Jay Johnson, Partner @ Coeus Creative Group