Have you ever wondered how top performers manage their time effectively? They don’t start with tasks, but rather with their time. They analyze how they spend their time, manage it, and eliminate unproductive demands that consume it. Time is a scarce and limiting resource that affects all forms of achievement. Getting an A in a class, communicating with clients, finding great employees, or writing an excellent paper requires time. Time is a universal condition, and its demand is inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not increase. Time is perishable, and it cannot be stored or replaced. Yesterday is gone forever, and time wasted today is lost forever[1, 2].
Here are five factors that hinder effective time management:
- Poor planning. Without a plan of action for the day, people tend to direct their attention to the most urgent task that comes up, which may not be the best use of their time. This leads to “wheel spinning and busy-ness rather than business.” It also leads us to be preoccupation with the wrong things instead of the task at hand. Most of us can be preoccupied, wrapped up in our thoughts and feelings and sensations, and not aware or instrumental in the task at hand. When someone is preoccupied, nothing else matters.
- Procrastination. While taking the time for planning is great, it’s essential to execute those plans. People tend to put off doing what they know they should be doing when there is little or no pain for not doing it and little or no pleasure to do it. It’s crucial not to procrastinate on important items, or they tend to pile up and become harder to work on.
- Interruptions. Interruptions rob people of their productivity and can come from people dropping by in person or electronically. While there are A (crucial) and B (important) interruptions that you receive without reservation, it’s the C (little value) and D (no value) ones that are the major problems.
- Failure to Delegate. No one has the time to do everything these days, so people need to learn to delegate. It gives others the chance for accomplishment, and the one who delegates can leverage their time through other people and get the benefit of additional expertise and time.
- Long meetings without an agenda. Meetings that lack a clear agenda are frequently unproductive, resulting in wasted time. If meetings are deemed necessary, it’s vital to have a well-defined agenda. Whenever possible, distribute relevant information a day before the meeting, allowing participants to review it beforehand and concentrate solely on the meeting’s objectives during the session. Participants should leave irrelevant chatter and negative attitudes outside the meeting room. Ideally, meetings should not exceed an hour, and efficiency should be prioritized. Lastly, it’s crucial to establish a follow-up agenda for the subsequent meeting [3, 4].
To be able to do anything great, you must be able to consolidate big junks of time like 3-7 hours to focus on a task. This way, you will be able to get results and progress. If something is important, then it is worth blocking time for it. Trying to take 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there while doing many other things will not be productive.
1. Drucker, P., The effective executive. 2018: Routledge.
2. Buckingham, M. and C. Coffman, First, break all the rules: What the world’s greatest managers do differently. 2014: Simon and Schuster.
3. Darden, D.C.J.A.a.S., Time Wasting Activities within the Workplace (Don’t Be Apart of Them). 2015.
4. Barlas, S., et al., TIME WASTERS. 2005. 86(10): p. 19.