A Big Time Mistake

Do you have difficulty managing your time? Have you read books and articles on time management, seeking better ways to eliminate time wasters and better manage your time? Many experts on time management recommend writing a daily time plan including what you are going to do, when you are going to do it and how much time you will provide for it. What some experts fail to tell you is that your daily plan must begin by excluding a block of time for interruptions. If you fail to do that you'll be making a big time mistake.

Interruptions and unplanned or unforeseen activities are a fact of life. Virtually everyone has them. And if you don't set time aside for them your daily time plan will fail, and you will continue to be frustrated and unhappy that you couldn't accomplish all that you set out to do.

This technique is easy to do. First estimate how much time you spend each day on interruptions. Try to get as accurate an estimate as you can. Let's say that's two hours for you. Now assuming you work an eight hour day, that means your daily written time plan will only have room for six hours of planned time.

While being cognizant of morning deadlines, try to schedule the entire two hours for interruptions as early in the day as possible, ideally right at the beginning. As the day begins, start working the other items on your daily plan right away. Assuming no early morning deadlines, a start time for you of 8:00 and the first scheduled item to take 30 minutes, the first scheduled item would show on your plan as being due at 10:30 (two hours for interruptions and 30 minutes for the activity). If you actually experience 10 minutes of interruptions, the first scheduled activity will be done by 8:40; you'll be ahead of schedule and feeling good. Now start your next activity, let's say it was planned for 45 minutes and due at 1:15. With an actual 15 minutes of interruption you'll get it done by 9:40. Still looking good. Continue that process throughout the day.

One strong note of caution here. Don't get lulled into a sense of false security because you are ahead of schedule early in the day. That may cause you to slack off or depart from your daily plan which in turn will most likely result in failure of your plan as the day evolves and interruptions ultimately come in.

About me: Dan Pelley teaches time management as part of his "Managing for Results" program, one of five programs leading to a Certificate in Supervisory Management. 137 companies in Connecticut (CT), Rhode Island (RI), Massachusetts (MA) and New York have one or more people who earned this certificate.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.