Sorry folks for the slight delay in blogging, but my time has been taken up with other more important things. Does that sound rude to you? IF SO, you definitely need to read this blog!!!
Recently I have been pondering the question of whether I am time effective or defective a great deal: a) because I have been uber busy and (b) several of my coaching clients have wanted coaching on “time management”. So I decided that it would be a great idea to do a 2 part series on this thing fascinating thing we all call time management!
Have you ever had a day where you got to the end and was very, very busy, but felt like you had achieved nothing much! Everyone has these days, if you have them more than a couple of times a year, I’d suggest you need to review your time effectiveness strategy.
What is a time effectiveness strategy you may well ask? Well let’s review the whole time management concept. How exactly do you manage time, given that you, nor I, nor any human can technically control it, let alone manage it! And what exactly are we managing? Do people who manage time have more hours in the day, less, what? The FACT IS time marches on whether we do anything or nothing!
So who came up with that ridiculous concept? Anyway, it is more correct to ask “are you time effective and time efficient rather than do you manage your time well?” What makes me say that? Well here’s the bottom line – as we've established, you cannot manage time per se, but you can manage yourself to be time effective and time efficient.
This took me many years to figure out!! As someone who used to be highly time defective and having managed at least 20 other time defectives, I learnt that you CANNOT learn TIME management if you are a time defective! I, like all other brainwashed managers on the planet, used to send myself and my time defective staff on ‘Time Management’ courses at great cost and with great enthusiasm. Only to have one after the other fail and the disappointment mount!
This prompted me to consider the concept in more detail. When I really observed what was going on for myself and others who worked for me, I discovered something very interesting! You cannot become more effective or efficient simply by using someone else’s quick tips or processes! If that were true then everyone on the planet would be super efficient and effective time machines! But alas, look around, who is? You? Your employees? Your boss? How many of these people have been on courses or read in detail about 'time management'???
Well if a course or other people's tips isn't the answer, WHAT IS?? The answer is simple! We can all CHOOSE to become ‘Time Effective’ and ‘Time Efficient’. What I mean by Time Effectiveness is working on things of high importance that move you towards your outcomes and goals. Time Efficiency is about how well you manage those tasks (i.e. completing them in the most productive/economical way).
TIME EFFECTIVENESS is about your belief systems and how you manage the stuff that big thing that sits in between your ears (your mind/brain)! As you will discover in this process, being effective is all about how you think and perceive the world and your underlying belief systems!
As anyone who knows me will tell you, I do NOT advocate training courses for behavioural change unless it is combined with Coaching using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques and/or NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). The reason for that is that what really works to make you more Time Efficient and Time Effective is to identify YOUR personal patterns, behaviours, actions, thoughts and beliefs and take full ownership of them.
It is as simple as you can’t change that which you do not acknowledge! Continual and sustained behavioural change is best achieved through a structured change process like coaching! Our minds and patterns are very strong willed and it takes a great deal of awareness to spot the subconscious/unconscious cleverness of our strategies and to make appropriate adaptations.
So here’s your first exercise....
All I want you to do in the next 5 - 10 working days is observe yourself at work and ask yourself three questions regularly throughout the day (and record as much data as possible). I have developed a simple TIME EFFECTIVENESS Template to assist you: -
• How do I spend my time at work?
• How effective am I being (see above)?
• How have I created this situation?
The more you observe and record the more insight and useful this exercise will be to you!
Good Luck UNTIL next blog :)
Vanessa
My Performace Coach
