How do you spend your time?
Understanding how we spend our time
Once we are clear on what we want to achieve the next step in managing our priorities is being honest with ourselves and examining how we currently spend our time. There are two types of tasks that we tend to deal with as follows:-
Active tasks - tasks that positively help you achieve your overall objectives, usually the important tasks that are planned in.
Reactive tasks - day to day tasks which you must do just to keep things running, can also be the unexpected things, a customer complaint, missing delivery, phone calls etc.
Exercise
On a piece of paper try jotting down how you currently spend your time during a typical working day. Remember to include any regular/routine tasks, any interruptions such as phone calls, requests from other people and any unexpected events you would have to deal with. Nothing is too big or too small to write down - include your lunch breaks/tea breaks/smoking breaks etc. Try and organise them in time order and how long each task takes.
Are you surprised how quickly your time is filled up?
Do you feel any of the time was wasted in any way?
Are the tasks more active or reactive?
Are there any tasks that you simply do out of habit?
We all develop habits in our working life and when we need more time we have to question all the things we do to see if they are absolutely necessary or could perhaps be managed.
Prioritising Time
With your goals in mind you have to choose to spend time on your priorities and establish ways to achieve them which may result in less time being spent on less important activities