Most owner/managers have a false impression of how they use their time and how it affects their performance. There is a strong body of research that suggests a typical MD could improve his or her output by at least 105 per cent and save time by as much as 20 to 30 hours in a typical working week. A prize such as having an eight- or nine-day fortnight at your disposal is surely worth a modest investment of time and energy. There are many time management systems on the market, but you can realise many of the benefits yourself immediately without any expense.
Step 1
Have a daily and weekly 'to do' list. Most senior people in business have a diary scheduling meetings and the like, but do not have lists of key tasks to be completed each day and each week. It follows that, without a set of daily objectives, key priorities cannot be established, nor can you commit to driving hard to achieve these objectives.
Step 2
Establish the key priorities:
- 'A' priorities are highly essential activities that must be completed or progressed substantially.
- 'B' priorities are less essential activities that can be deferred because the time element is less critical and the impact on job performance is lower.
- 'C' priorities are non-essential activities that can be scrapped, screened out, handled by other people or handled at low-priority times.
- 'X' priorities are activities that require immediate attention. There may be queries, requests for information, crises and emergencies, boss demands or interruptions. You can have 'AX', 'BX' or 'CX' priorities.
One of the golden rules of time management is based on the Pareto or 80/20 rule. This suggests that 80 per cent of your performance will come from 20 per cent of your activities.
When you assess your time usage and your own performance in the day, you will find that the majority of your time has been spent on lower priority work.
After logging how long you spend on all of your various activities, you may find you are not spending enough time on your top priority work in order to achieve, and the majority of time (which could be as high as 60 per cent or 70 per cent) will be spent on low priority work, of which you could have saved at least 20 per cent by better control and discipline.
Essential Nursery Management by Susan Hay is part of the Essential Guides for Early Years Practitioners series by Nursery World and Routledge. See www.routledge.com/education.
