Time Management in Real Life
Rudy George S.
Performance Improvement Coach, Business leader | Husband, Father | Accidental Cook
There was a recent post where someone was asking for a practical advice on time management. It immediately caught my attention and I started browsing through the comments. There were plenty of good ideas, books to read, insights, thoughts, and one of them was the "urgent- important" matrix.
The Matrix is a great tool, I have been using and teaching it for decades, and, I know for a fact that, once it is clear, a bit of practice would lead to mastering the categorization.
However, in real life, a challenge presents itself, and that is disruption. Whether at work ( colleagues, surprise meetings, customer complaints etc...) or at home ( especially with COVID and no school), disruptions are bound to happen.
You might have planned your day with the urgent and important tasks first and then the non-urgent and important tasks. You set a time, a goal, and on you go. Then something else pops out, something urgent and important. Would you replace the original task or would you add it to the list? What happens to the non-urgent and important task?
If you have the same scenario every day, when will the non-urgent and important tasks be done? Will you work longer hours? Will you keep postponing it?
What happens to your work-life balance? And, consequently, what happens to your energy, motivation, and the quality of the work done?
Having met and engaged with many throughout the years, I have a pretty good idea about what most people desire:
"Plan an effective, efficient, and flexible day".
Just to be crystal clear, "effective" is reaching the set goal, "efficient" is doing it with the least possible resources ( time is a resource), and "flexible" is to accommodate new priorities without losing the life-work balance.
Things can easily go wrong, but do they?
So, LinkedIn community, how did you implement a successful real-life time management technique????
Service Manager at Land Rover & McLaren
4 年Thank you very much for the insight Mr. Rudy. The area where I always feel left behind especially while going in detail.
Freelance editor and proofreader
4 年I was just telling someone yesterday about my poor time management. Thanks for this. Sorry I missed you on your fleeting visit. Hopefully next time...
Rudy George Shukri Thank you for the good read.
Global Director of Learning Experience Design at Nazaré, part of Inizio Engage
4 年Thanks for the insight, Rudy George S. I love Covey's Urgent/Important grid. The starting point is you have to understand what is important. That might come from a boss if you're more junior, but also from strategic objectives and culture if you're more senior. Without that it is impossible to manage your time. If you're really clear on what is important you can focus on it and start to cut out non-important activities It also means you don't mistake urgent activities for important one - everything seems important if it's right in front of you! So, it's not that we don't have enough time, it's that we don't have enough direction.
Marketing-Driven Learning & Coaching | Certified Coach | Brand Manager
4 年Wow! The simplest yet straight to the point article I've read on time management. Based on my experience as a remote worker, I always spare some time for urgent things that might pop up during the day - expect the unexpected. Also, sometimes if we kept on pushing non-urgent and less important things down the list, they will aggregate and end up becoming urgent and important. From another perspective, I usually take into consideration the "difficulty level" of a task. Knowing whether it is an easy or more complicated task will help me locate its place on my daily to-do list.