Thanks for watching! thoughts if it were you,
and I'm your host, Neogentrics. Today, we're going
to cover a topic that should have been covered
a while back, something that's needed by everybody,
that for some reason or another, we haven't developed.
We're always saying we don't have enough time
for this, or we don't have enough time for that.
So today, I'm going to cover time management
skills. I mean, think about it. Have you ever
wondered how it is that some people seem to have
enough time to do everything that they want to
do, whereas others are always rushing from task
to task, never seeming to finish a dang thing?
I mean, it can't just be that people have less
to do. It's much more likely that they are using
their time more effectively. In other words,
showing good time management skills. And, you
know, time management is the ability to, in a
sense, use your time productively and efficiently.
You could also think of it as the art of having
time to do everything you need without stressing
about it. It sounds simple, but it's actually
much harder to practice. And today I'm going
to cover some of the principles behind good time
management for all of you lucky jets at home.
So let's go ahead and talk about the importance
of time management. Time management skills are
essential, but because of a few things, if any,
of things that we need as far as everyday tasks,
all of us, if any of us, have never had enough
time to do everything that is asked of us, or
we want to do, for that matter, or that we think
we do. Time management is essentially defined
as using your time productively and efficiently.
But what about when you're working as productively
as possible and you still can't get everything
done? Then I guess the best thing would be to
say it may be better to think about time management
as a combination of working productively and
then prioritizing your time. In this regard,
you know, in other words, or rather, how do I
want to put this? People who are good at time
management are good at getting on. and doing
things. They also, however, are better at prioritizing
and provisioning their time accordingly, working
out what really needs to be done and then, you
know, discarding the other tasks for another
day. They can do this because they understand
the difference between what is urgent and what
is actually important. Urgent tasks demand your
immediate attention, but whether you actually
give them that attention may or not matter. Important
tasks matter and, you know, Doing them may have
serious consequences for you or others. So the
major difference between the two of them is that
while urgent tasks demand your immediate attention,
important tasks are the ones that you need to
have finished regardless of everything else.
For example, answering the phone is urgent. If
you don't do it, the caller will ring off and
you won't know why they even called. And it might
have actually been important. It may also, however,
have been an automatic voice -teller telling
you that you're eligible for some compensation
or being mis -sold insurance, or your debit card
has fraud for some reason. That's not important
anyway. Or, how about this example? You're going
to the dentist regularly is important. Or, at
least, so we're told. But, anyway. And they say
that if you don't go, you may get gum disease
or some other problems. It's important, but see,
it's not urgent. If you leave it too long, though,
however, it may become an urgent issue because
you've got a toothache or you're not taking care
of your teeth. Other examples would vary, like
picking your children up from school is both
urgent and important. This is a priority thing.
If you're not there at the right time, they will
be waiting in the playground or in the classroom
worrying where the heck you are. It may also
inconvenience some of the teachers who are there
waiting with your child for you to actually get
there. But then on the opposite side, reading
funny emails or checking Facebook is neither
urgent or important, just to give that as an
example. So why is that the first thing you do
every day? Think about that. If it's not important
or urgent, then it should probably be cut out
of your day -to -day life. And I mean, think
about it. You need to recognize and avoid things
that may distract you from getting your urgent
and important tasks done. And being able to distinguish
between the two is definitely something that
a lot of people lack the ability to do. Alright,
so like I said before in the last piece, the
distinction between urgent and important is the
key to prioritizing your time and your workload.
Whether at home or at work or studying, it doesn't
matter. It enables you to work out what to do
first and can be either left until later or not
done at all. So, again, an example, if you leave
an urgent but important task, you may find that
it becomes unnecessary. How do I put this? There's
something called the priority matrix. It can
also help you organize your tasks into appropriate
categories. It's a four square box. Essentially,
there's four squares. Take a box, split it into
four. On the top left side, you have high important
things, your actions to do first. To the right
of that, you have your actions to do next or
schedule. On the bottom left of this box, you
have the low importance things actions to do
later or delegate but yet have high urgency on
the bottom right you have the no actions and
don't do which is a low urgency as you can see
here the way this grid is set up everything on
the top row from left to right is considered
high importance but they're also sorted accordingly
The actions you do first have a high importance
and high urgency, whereas the actions you do
next or schedule have a high importance but a
low urgency. At the same time, actions that you
can do later or delegate have low importance
but high urgency, and then the actions that you
just don't do are low importance and low urgency.
This is how you set up the priority matrix, or
as it's originally known, the Eisenhower matrix.
To use the priority matrix, though, It's best
to review your tasks on a daily basis. Every
day, ask yourself this question. Which of my
tasks need to be done within the next 48 hours?
Those are urgent tasks. Of the urgent tasks,
next question, which ones are important? Keep
in mind that it's a good idea to list your tasks
in order of importance, rather than giving them
an absolute important or not important distinction.
Next, the final question to ask. is of the non
-urgent tasks which ones are more important again
it's a good idea to list those in order rather
than giving them an absolute distinction now
using the answers that these questions have given
you to allocate the tasks in your priority matrix
boxes that you just set up follow these specific
rules okay each box should contain no more than
seven or eight tasks for that section always
start with the doom Sorry, always start with
the do now box. Crucially, and emphatically,
do not, do not put off urgent important tasks
just because they are unpleasant. It doesn't
matter whether you want to do them or not. Sort
them according to when they need to be completed.
They won't get any better if you procrastinate.
If anything, the longer they sit there, the worse
it's going to get. As Mark Twain once put it,
if it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to
do it first thing in the morning, and if your
job is to eat two frogs, then it's best to eat
the biggest one first and get it out of the way.
As disgusting as that sounds, unless you really
do like frogs, he makes a valid point. No one
really wants to eat a frog, but if you have to
eat it, eat it, but if you have to eat more than
one... you're better off eating the bigger one
as you'll suffer less with the smaller one. See
my point? I hope y 'all do because that was a
little disturbing for me to try to explain. Next,
let's look at the less urgent but still important
tasks. Decide what you're going to do about them,
and then schedule time into your diary to do
them. As you're already aware, you're a planner.
It's definitely something you want to keep in
mind so that it'll make it a lot easier to do
and delegate things when you need them. So, first
things first. You need to also delegate the urgent
but easier and less important tasks, things that
will divide up your attention unnecessarily.
Now, once you've done that, though, eliminate
the non -urgent and non -important tasks. They
can be done later at another time. They don't
have to be done now. And then finally, do the
actual work. I don't know how much I can stress
that one enough. Start your do -now list. When
you finish it, move on to the scheduled work
or tasks that you already have set aside for
when those are finished. If there are any more
tasks that you need to manage in any quadrant,
it's time to, one, do some of those, or delegate
some of those, or just eliminate some of them
because you probably have too many or you didn't
sort them accordingly. Regular pruning of your
matrix is a way to ensure that you can focus
on what really matters and keep your workflow
flowing, in a manner of speaking. Essentially,
it's this. An individual's judgment on the very
tasks that they have are important. Essentially,
it's the urgency and or importance of a task
that's not absolute. Unless you're one of those
people who don't believe in absolutes. Only you
can decide what you really think is important
or urgent. Now, you can ask other people. to
help you with this but they're probably gonna
ask you a bunch of questions to which you'll
probably feel uncomfortable answering but you
will be able to decipher eventually between the
urgent the non -urgent between the important
non -important and tasks that just don't matter
to start with some people for example prefer
to wait until they're asked a second time for
a piece of work before they actually start doing
it if they never are asked again then they never
start the work they simply decide that it's not
important enough to anybody for them to even
spend the time or effort this is actually this
is actually bad training because you really shouldn't
do that if someone asks you to do it just do
it it doesn't matter if it's important then it
may be important later as long as the task is
done you know it's one less thing for you to
worry about and on another note if it's already
done then the next time someone asks you for
it you can just hand it to them and move on with
your life you don't have to stop the care remember
Number two, that you and your health are also
important. And just because you have a lot to
do doesn't mean that doing some exercise, going
for a ten minute walk, or making time to eat
properly is not important. You should not ignore
your physical or mental health in favor of more
urgent activities. Now, granted, I say this,
but there are times where it can't be helped.
Okay? That said though, if you have to use the
bathroom, and you've already waited four or five
hours, Just go. Find a place. If you're out in
the middle of nowhere, like, say, a truck driver,
find a bowl, find a pot, pull your truck over
where nobody can see you, and just take a dump
in the nearest bush. Doesn't matter where. That
is not something you should be doing. And I'm
speaking from experience. I'm not a truck driver,
but I do drive for a transportation company in
my spare time. I sometimes find myself going
six or seven hours without using the bathroom,
and I have to pull over, okay? Or I have to go
home. Now, before I go any further, there is
a warning I have for you. Urgency and or importance
is not a fixed status. You should review your
task list regularly to make sure that nothing
should be moved up because it has become more
urgent or important, okay? Just because it's
changed in its urgency or importance does not
mean it gets bumped ahead of everything else.
Always complete your tasks in the order specified,
whether by you or someone else. Never change
the order. The only time this applies is if a
task is simple enough that it can be done in
less than five minutes, in which case you can
just mark it off. If an important task continually
gets bumped down the list by a more urgent, more
important task, well, first, consider whether
it's genuinely important and if it actually needs
to be done at all. Have you been telling yourself
that you ought to do it, though? Or do you really
need to do it? Consider that. I mean, if it's
really important, then delegate it. Make sure
that... you know, it gets done. But don't put
yourself in a situation where completing any
of those tasks or that task at all becomes nearly
impossible. Okay. In a case study on a win -win
situation from delegating, I'm going to read
something here. I can't. Let's see. Jenny was
the leader of a busy, highly reactive team with
constant urgent demands on her time. Okay. She
knew that she needed to think about the long
-term strategies for her team, but it was very
hard to set aside the time. In a development
discussion, though, Sarah, one of her teams,
expressed her desire to do some more strategic
work to build up her skills, and Jenny saw an
opportunity for both of them and offered Sarah
the opportunity to map out the strategy for the
team. Sarah jumped on the chance and produced
a carefully considered plan, which was a great
foundation for further work. Now, what happened
here? Ask yourself this, what just happened?
First off, Jenny is the leader of this entire
group, so she's the one who's in charge of almost
everything that they do, and coming up with long
-term strategies, plans, and analysis for the
team and everything that they have to do. But
she knows her time is limited, she knows she
can only do so much, so immediately her first
task was to assign one of her team members, someone
who had a high desire to do something and to
help, the task based off of her skills to come
up with a plan that they could use she delegated
her work but she had delegated it according to
the person's skills and to who she thought would
be better equipped to come up with a solution
keep this in mind when you go about delegating
whatever tasks that you have as you never know
when or where or if someone else may be able
to help you complete it Which brings me to the
next thing, personal versus professional. There
is a balance between personal and professional
priorities, and there are two ways to manage
this. One, include both in the matrix. You have
your advantages, your personal items do not get
lost. The disadvantages, though, will be that
you need to find a balance between work and personal
items, which seems to be the main issue here.
Second, you can separate them into two different
matrices and model separate time slots for dealing
with each. The advantages of this means that
you can deal with both with a realistic view
about their urgencies. However, the disadvantages
can get quite complicated. Actually, you know
what? Let's just not go into that. But it's really
up to you to choose. I mean, the key is to make
it work for you and to not run yourself into
the ground. I mean, you're a human being, not
a dung beetle. Let's go into further principles
of good time management. Now that we got that
out of the way. Okay, the priority matrix is
there. Therefore, it's a key to prioritizing
your workload. However, time management is more
than just prioritization. It's also the being
able to work more productively. And there are
a number of other ways in which you can improve
your efficiency and productivity. First things
first, keeping tidy. I don't think I really need
to explain this one, but I'll do it for those
who need it. For some of us, clutter can be a
real distraction and genuinely depressing. Tidying
up can improve both your self -esteem and motivation,
and you will also find it easier to stay on top
of things if your workspace is tidy and you keep
your systems up to date. With that being said,
here's your cleaning up tip for the day. Create
three piles of your stuff to keep the giveaway
in the throwaways. Keep if you need to keep it
for your records or do something with it. If
it needs an action, add it to your task list
that you have before. The second pile will be
the giveaway. If you don't want it anymore, give
it to someone who might be able to use it or
it is work that should be delegated to someone
else in general. And then last, your throwaway
recycle pile for things that have no value to
you or anyone else. Why is this important it
reduces the workload on you and it makes it easier
to move around in your own stuff and For one
it just makes you feel better as a person The
next thing you should do is use the aid to -do
list Okay Whether you're electronic or paperless
doesn't matter who you are if you want to save
the environment use an electronic one There are
good ways to you, you know Remember what you
gotta do, and see it at a glance what you've
forgotten. I have an electronic list and I have
a paper list. I have both just in case. I even
have a whiteboard to write down tasks that are
highly important to me that I forget. But consider
highlighting the most important things in some
way, and remember to take things off your list
when they're complete and no longer need doing.
Then pick a moment. All of us have times of the
day when we work better. It's best to schedule
the different tasks for those times. However...
you also need to schedule things that need doing
at particular times like meetings or a trip you
know to the post office or to the store another
useful option is to have in a list of important
but non -urgent tasks that can be done in that
odd 10 minute meeting time or might be ideal
time to send the email confirming your holiday
date something of that nature like Utilize your
time to the fullest. But at the same time, don't
make yourself so busy you're not able to pay
attention to what's going on around you. If you're
sitting in a meeting listening to someone attentively,
but you're allowed to be on your tablet, if you
can complete some of the side tasks while you're
listening and completing the task at the same
time, then do it. If you can't do it, I'd recommend
against this as all it's going to do is create
more problems for you. Okay? Next, next, next.
Don't procrastinate. But do ask why you're tempted.
These are the questions that people need to ask.
If a task is genuinely important or urgent, get
it on with it. Don't just sit there staring at
it. If you're procrastinating, there's probably
a motivation issue here. Or something else is
getting in the way. That's why you should ask
why are you tempted to procrastinate in the first
place. Think about it. If, however, you find
yourself making excuses about not doing something,
ask yourself, why? Why am I not doing this? You
know, you may be doubtful about whether you should
be doing the task at all. Perhaps you're concerned
about the ethics or you don't think it's even
the best option. If so, you may need to find
others to help you. And if others agree with
you on the same topic, then talk it over with
your colleagues or your manager, family, or if
you're at work, you know. Your co -workers. Somebody.
See if there's an alternate way that might be
better to help you get that task done. And then,
don't try to multitask if you can't. Okay, people
generally aren't good at multitasking because
it takes our brains time to refocus on something
that you need to do. Some people can multitask,
but there's a limit to the amount of tasks that
they can do. In my case, the most I can do is
three things. That's my limit at the moment.
Okay? it's much better to finish off one job
though before moving on to another and if you
do have a lot of stuff or a lot of different
tasks to do again try to group them together
do similar tasks consecutively or just delegate
okay an example of multitasking where it's okay
though just for those who who probably want to
know when is it okay to do this an example of
this would be like cooking when you're cooking
you have to focus on a single task but you have
to multitask at the same time as a lot of ingredients
either have to be done or prepped all at once
but or put into a pot all at once you gotta remember
in which order while stirring or mixing just
to give a few right everybody we're going to
go ahead and close this out um it's been a long
podcast i do apologize for that but i just wanted
you to understand the importance of time management
and how it can affect your everyday life there
is so much that goes into it and a lot of things
that people don't consider you know it's food
for thought fun that people should probably stop
to look at whether you're at home whether you're
at work it doesn't matter The important thing
is to stay calm and keep things into perspective.
Okay, perhaps the most important thing to remember
is staying calm. And feeling overwhelmed by too
many tasks can be very stressful. And if you
live in a high stress environment, like I do,
then you have to remember to find that balance
and give yourself a time to relax. Remember that
the world will probably not end if you fail to
achieve your task or your last task of that day.
Leave it until tomorrow, especially if you have
priorities. or prioritize sensibilities that
are set up accordingly, okay? Going home or getting
an early night so that you can feel fit for tomorrow
may be way better an option than meeting a self
-imposed external deadline that may not even
matter or run you to the ground or make you fall
out or have a seizure or nearly die in a car
accident because you're exhausted. I know that
was a bit overly dramatic, but I mean, it drives
the point home. I live in Texas, preferably in...
most oftenly Houston, and a lot of people here
drive a little crazy. So, knowing this, and having
lived this already, driving through the city
exhausted and barely able to focus is a bad thing.
I often have to remind myself, you know, you
are not God, you're not invincible, you have
to take a break. So, if I have to take a break,
then so do you. Everybody does. Even the president
has to sleep. You know, take a moment to pause.
Get your life and priorities into perspective.
And you may find that the view changes quite
substantially for you. And that everything just
kind of falls into place. With that being said,
a topic for a future discussion in my podcast
I'm really looking forward to doing is the work
-life balance. So there's something for you guys
to look forward to. We've got more coming soon.
Hope you all have a great rest of your day. I
thank you guys for listening. This has been food
for thought. Thoughts if it were you. And I'm
your host, Neo Gentrics. Have a great day.