Insight: Time Management – Who manages whom?
As a manager in a manufacturing environment, any time the subject of multi-tasking/project management/time management came up; I looked like a flirtatious Peacock’s tail. I mean, if you wanted to know whether I had it together, all you had to do was ask me. (Make a coughing noise while saying BS at this point.)
But the whole “age and wisdom” thing has taught me differently and a couple of months ago I came across a MasterControl article that really hit home. You see wisdom has taught me (too often the hard way) that time management is one of the hardest things we are required to do in ANY business.
Many years ago, I learned a technique called ‘Working on the MIN”, the latter being an acronym for Most Important Now. The instructor talked a lot about how much time we waste picking up a piece of paper, reading it and then laying it down in a pile titled “To take action on”. 2 weeks later that piece of paper has floated to the bottom of the pile, we’ve done nothing about it and no one has complained about our lack of action; so what do we do? Throw it away. Why didn’t we throw it away in the first place? His reality was; if it was important and needed immediate attention, that’s what we’d give it.
Yes, today’s equivalent is a “stack” of emails or unrequited texts but the idea’s the same. Why did you “pick” it up? When I first read this article, I looked at my desk, both the tangible and the electronic one and thought, “How much of my time am I wasting dealing with 2 or 3 different electronic calendars?” “How many people in your communications circle seem hell-bent on wasting your time?“ “How many cats will you try to herd before learning you can’t herd cats?!”
Whether you’re in Quality, or Manufacturing, or Sales this is a quick and worthwhile read so the link’s below. If you do read it, have a real impact on your life by getting up the next morning, looking in the mirror and asking yourself, “What am I going to do to get better and how will I measure it to see that it’s working?”