Master Time Management - Tips For Efficiency & Productivity

My story: At a company townhall one year I was up on stage with other managers and we were fielding questions from the audience of 100+ employees. Being the CIO at the time the IT related questions came my way and soon the topic turned to the workflow system that badly needed replacing. Someone from the back asked a very direct question about when this would be sorted out and when I answered I effectively burned my boats.

I learned a valuable lesson during the tough months that followed as we single-mindedly focused on delivering what I had promised to preserve our credibility as a team. Delay was no longer an option; we hadn’t hidden behind a calculated date on a conservative plan which was subject to risks…, scope…, blah blah blah. Perhaps somewhat foolishly I had gone beyond the point of no return on something that deeply mattered to 100 people – and now it mattered to us

World champion surfer and motivational speaker Shaun Tomson inspires thousands of people every year to take their next wave by committing to 12 simple and personal statements of intent. School kids, students, corporate teams and CEOs have all experienced the power of his message – one that was developed in the highs and lows of his surfing career and personal life.

Throughout this course we will celebrate your progress at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. I really want you to succeed but you need to take action and keep going so look forward to these milestones of progress. I will see you there and cheer you on as you keep going from one milestone to the next >>

As an executive team we each wrote our 12 statements and read them back to the group, highlighting one that was most meaningful which went up on the board at the front. It was a list of remarkably simple intentions that might not always be associated with personal reflection at that level. “I will pitch up“, “I will dance life’s dance“, “I will seek simple ways“, “I will never take myself too seriously” and “I will be more present”

It can also help overcome enormous personal setbacks which he compares to his life or death choice on the famous Banzai Pipeline. After being pummeled into the reef under the water by a 15 foot high wave he literally had “17 seconds to live”. One of the most dangerous surfing pipelines in the world it has claimed more than a dozen lives, including professional and experienced surfers. Shaking the ground each time, the waves break every 17 seconds and he knew that was how much time he had before the next wave would kill him

Group cohesion is powerful for teams to drive organisational change at all levels; dropping a single stone causes a ripple which creates waves of transformation and positive momentum. Personal statements of intent at an individual level can unlock the power of shared accountability for the group

Everyone is busy these days so I won’t tell you about having 5 children under 6, writing a book and running a transformational IT programme at a bank all at the same time. What I can tell you about is how you can put short bursts of efficient activity to good use

Malcolm Gladwell says you need to spend 10,000 hours doing something to be an expert. Writing a book or a thesis can also take thousands of hours – the fact is unless it’s your day job most of those hours will be spent discontinuously.

Why not take some time out to sort your inbox, file the papers on your desk or start a notebook for your writing project. Getting organised also takes time but you’ll be investing in future batches of even more efficient 10 minutes. If you can literally pick up where you left off then the start up time for a task doesn’t erode the valuable work time you need to make actual progress

We are often told there are 2 kinds of people in this world; those that make things happen and those that watch things happen. I’ve always tried to be in the former category but my leadership journey is teaching me it’s not that simple. Leaders also need to watch, and then act, or watch, then think, then act, then think again, then act again.

Leadership means influence; the two concepts are mutually inclusive – each can only be present with the other. There are many ways of achieving influence and thereby demonstrating leadership – but one thing is constant; leaders influence people. Having a bias for action means you naturally lead from the front, setting the example of getting things done – but how much is it then actually your way (or the “high way”?)

I’ve used a simple method for most of my career; here it is. While I actively use the latest technology to make my life easier and actually do the work that is expected of me, I’m certainly not paperless when it comes to taking notes in meetings and managing my actions. Confession: In this modern age of innovation I still use a lined A4 hard-backed notebook and write in it with a pen.

Throughout this course we will celebrate your progress at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. I really want you to succeed but you need to take action and keep going so look forward to these milestones of progress. I will see you there and cheer you on as you keep going from one milestone to the next >>

If my note-taking is sufficient and I convert to actions accurately then I rarely miss something I need to do, it’s just how well I prioritise different actions that might vary. The art of getting things done is quite simple; know what you need to do and just do it – if you have a method of achieving this then use it and stick to it.

Don’t confuse product quality with execution excellence. Unless you are talking about Gordon Ramsay, most chefs perform a very different job from the person who actually runs the restaurant. There are good reasons for this and yet in business and even with personal projects we often let the pursuit of quality trump actual progress

It’s the same reason so many best seller manuscripts are still… manuscripts. The author is pursuing perfection, not completion. Of course there is a minimum threshold of quality – rushing something for the sake of completing it is just as bad (and a mistake I have made too often). Finding the balance between getting something done well enough but within an overall plan is difficult – it’s actually a skill all on its own.

In this lesson we talk about burning your boats principle that how public commitment and listing goals helps you to achieve your goals easily and faster.

Making a public commitment holds yourself accountable for your actions and then you  do your work because you commit it in front of someone.

To deal with serious time management issues, you should set your achievable goals in defined time.Dont set your goals too high that you cannot achieve just achieve right goals that you can think you can achieve in defined time.

Using Kanban board principle you can set your goals and achieve them in your defined time.

Repetition of your commitments publicly helps you to achieve your goals faster.

Making of a timetable is great but if you want to follow  this timetable then you have to do one more task which is "commit your work to someone else"

Throughout this course we will celebrate your progress at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. I really want you to succeed but you need to take action and keep going so look forward to these milestones of progress. I will see you there and cheer you on as you keep going from one milestone to the next >>

So Kanban board is a principle which says that first to identify all your " to-dos" work and then move ones you want to achieve in "in progress" bar and then when its done move them to "done" column.

To follow 10 hour  a day work timetable you have to break your 10 hour a day work into 1 hour achievable work. Breaking of goal actually helps you to achieve it faster.

Plan your work whether on weekends ,on days ,on months and when you plan it dont change it and try to stick to it.

Two key principles of Kanban Board is:

Cadence

Limit your work in progress

What change in your weekly routine is your ups and downs not your routine. So be consistent with your routine and get your work done timely.

Limit your work in "in progress" work,only add work in " in progress" that you can achieve in your defined time.