By Byron Kalies
Try this exercise. It‘s many years in the future.
You find yourself at your own funeral. One by one, people you know get
up and talk about you and your contribution to the world. What are they
going to say? What will your partner, your kids, your colleagues say?
I can bet all the money in my pocket they won’t be wishing you’d
spent just a few more hours in working at your desk.
Let’s look at the above scenario slightly differently.
How would you like to be remembered? What would you like those who care
about you, and you care about, to say? That’ll be your starter.
Once you’ve really got this big picture sorted, you can move on.
The next exercise comes from Stephen Covey. It’s linked
to the previous exercise and is known as “tephen Covey’s
Big Rocks.” Imagine a bucket. Put three or four big rocks in.
You’re asked, “Is the bucket full?”
“No,” you reply.
“Of course not,” I say, and put some smaller
rocks in it to fill in the gaps. “Full now?”
“No.” I put in some sand, then some water.
It“ full.
So, what’s the lesson here? It has to do with
the order. What would happen if you'd reversed the order? Put the water
in first, then the sand, then the small rocks. There would be no room
for the big rocks. Those big rocks are the important things in your
life. You need to schedule them first, not try to squeeze them in after
arranging the water (writing pointless reports), sand (unnecessary travel)
or small rocks (staff meetings where no one listens and everyone watches
the clock).
What are the big rocks in your life? For many it’s
things like family, time to watch the children grow up, time to write
that novel, time for themselves, time to make a difference. You decide.
Identify three or four things you believe are important—the things
that will make a difference at your funeral. Once you’ve decided
what they are, then schedule them. Schedule time for yourself, time
to take that French class, time to spend a week with the children at
half term. Once these times are scheduled fit the rest of your work
around them. Try it—it works.
It‘s not big and it‘s not clever to work
more than 40 hours a week. I repeat, it‘s not big and it‘s
not clever. So stop it. Stop that “poor me, look how many hours
I work” nonsense. Work as little as you can. Do as much as you
can in the time agreed, but once you’ve done—run away—go
home. The surprise will be how little people miss you. It may be hard
at first to realize the world of work can carry on without you but give
it time. This feeling will be replaced by one of immense joy. “I’m
dispensable!” This will give you enormous freedom.
There are ways of accelerating this process; get a
team of happy people to work for you. Build a group of people who appreciate
and trust you. One of the great ways of building up this trust and appreciation
turns old time management theory on its head. When you arrive at work
don’t get straight to your desk and start wading through e-mails.
First talk to each member of your team, properly. Ask about their family,
their son’s football match, the health of their car, their cat
or whatever is important to them. Invest the time in people—it
really pays dividends in the long run.
There are useful little tips about only opening e-mail
twice a day that you can totally ignore. Why? Because you’re a
human being and incredibly curious. Tips you can use in many ways—the
Pareto principle. This states that 20% of effort gives you 80% of the
result. This is excellent. Unless there is a dire need to complete everything
(carrying out a heart transplant would fit into this category), ask
yourself if you could live with getting 80%. If you can, perfect. You
can then do something else and get the 80% of that from 20% of the effort.
There are lots of hints and tips about time logs,
to-do lists, telephones, meetings, e-mails, mails, procrastination,
“time stealers” (a philosophically difficult concept for
me to get my head around), paperwork and working from home. Have a look
at each one. Then discount 80% of them. If you’ve heard of them but
still are not doing them, my guess is that you never will. If they are
new and sound interesting, try them.
But never forget the big picture. Why save 10 minutes
in handling paperwork if you“re only going to spend it trawling
through useless e-mails? Remember you can“t save time—you’ve
only got so much. You know that. So now, what do you want to be remembered
for?
To learn more, consider this AMA seminar:
Time Management
About Byron Kalies: Kalies is a management
consultant and freelance writer currently living in Liverpool, England.
He can be contacted through his Website at byronkalies.co.uk
or at byron@byronkalies.co.uk
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