Really effective Time Management

Mark Forster is a writer and life coach, specialising in personal organisation.  He recently gave a lecture on Time Management for the ICAEW's Faculty of Finance & Management.  And I was lucky enough to attend; my very first visit (21 years into membership) to the hallowed rooms of the Chartered Accountants' Hall in Moorgate Place.  It's a great place to meet in London and now I've finally discovered its history-steeped charm, I can see it becoming a regular haunt. Read on for a summary of Mark's guide to Really Effective Time Management.

Mark kicks off with his definition of Time Management.  Let's face it, we can't really 'manage' time; there's only ever going to be 24 hours in a day.  What we are actually trying to do is perfect 'the art of workflow management'.  Mark uses an interesting analogy: Time Management is really about managing a queue.  He goes on to explore examples of queues to illustrate our different practical methods of managing our time and workflow.  Typically we adopt the 'Saturday night at the bar' approach; chaotic, anarchic, open to any old random interruption, he who shouts the loudest gets the most attention (ring any bells work flow wise?).  He contrasts this with the order of the post office queuing system; a single queue, adequate cashiers, customer flow moving at an efficient, even pace. 

There's a nice echo here to my Time Management Top Tips from last month.  If you remember Top Tip number 3 was about 'Saying No' to........random interruptions, emails, telephone calls and any other queue jumping tasks.  If you missed it catch up here.

Mark's solutions centre round two principles.  Firstly, you must review the length of your queue; figure out your realistic workload, keep your focus on core goals and stop saying yes to further commitments (unless something else goes).  Secondly, improve the management of your queue. You can do this by using scheduling for almost all tasks, just leaving some slots for the truly unexpected and unavoidable (actually likely to be much less than you think).  Really, virtually everything can be planned.

Other techniques include: batching similar tasks (eg grouping emails into time slots 2 or 3 times a day), keeping jobs moving (do a little and often, with small slots every day to banish the curse of procrastination), keeping tasks at the appropriate urgency level (by doing them when they should be done) to avoid overload at the last minute.

You can read Mark's full article on the ICAEW's website in the Facutly of Finance & Management section here.

Or buy Mark's book 'Do it tomorrow and other secrets of time management' at Amazon

In the meantime, if you would like some more input on Time Management and Work Life Balance consider booking a free taster session (group or individual) by emailing me at info@theaccountantscoach.com.  In addition I am presenting a lecture on 'Work Life Balance for Accountants' for CIMA NW.  Click here for details.  Want more? Then try some coaching (time management, work life balance are specialisms of mine). Email me on info@theaccountantscoach.com.