Leadership Training

Time Management

February 26, 2009

Krista TripodiCollege Communications Director

Leadership & Time Management

• Characteristics of a good leader• Good leaders also need skills

• When your life is disorganized:– Insecurity or uncertainty

among followers– Miss opportunities for yourself

and organization

Leadership

• What are your observations of a good leader’s time management skills?– Seem to get more out of their 24 hours/day– Don’t keep people waiting or miss deadlines– Keep promises and follow through– Lives seem full, but not chaotic– Have busy schedules, yet still make time for you– Have goals and plans

Activity Priorities

Most things we do ‘fit’ into one of four quadrants:

Important and urgent (I)Important but not urgent (II)Urgent but not important (III)Not urgent and not important (IV)

• I • II

• III

• IV

• Urgent

• Important

• Not Importa

nt

• Not Urgent

All true leaders have learned to say no to the good in order to say yes to the best.

Plan your life the way you plan

your vacation• Why do you work so hard to plan a

vacation?

• Why can’t you approach your professional and personal life with the same enthusiasm you would devote to vacation planning?

What stops us from managing our time well?

PROCRASTINATION

You might be a procrastinator if…

• You tell yourself that you do your “best work under pressure”

• You can’t start a project without immediate deadline pressure

• You fill your day with low priority tasks from your “To Do” list

• You’re a perfectionist• You regularly (and readily) say “yes” to unimportant

tasks others ask you to do• You sit down to start a high-priority task and almost

immediately take a break/check email

You might be a procrastinator if…

• You go through 50 font options before settling on Arial

• You have looked up Apollo Creed’s birthday on Wikipedia (Feb. 22, 1943—I just saved you 10 minutes)

• You actually start reading the email forwards your grandma sends you

• You update your Facebook status every five minutes• You spend time brainstorming ways to

procrastinate…and then make them into a PowerPoint slide

Why Procrastinate?• Activity does not mean you are not procrastinating

– Procrastinators work as many hours in the day as other people (and often more) but often invest their time in the wrong tasks. They often don't appreciated the difference between urgent tasks and important tasks, and work on tasks that aren't important.

– Some feel that they're doing the right thing by reacting fast or by listening to the person whose demands are the loudest

– This can leave little time left for the important tasks• Feeling overwhelmed is a common cause of procrastination

– You may not know where to begin– You may doubt that you have the skills or resources you think you need– So you seek comfort in doing tasks you know you're capable of completing– Unfortunately, the big task isn't going to go away - truly important tasks rarely do

• Other causes of procrastination include:– Waiting for the “right” mood or the “right” time to tackle the important task at hand– A fear of failure or success– Hard to make a decision – Poor organizational skills– Perfectionism (“I don't have the right skills or resources to do this perfectly now, so I

won't do it at all.”)

So how do we get over it?

Just do something

• Find ways of motivating yourself to get moving. – Make up your own rewards– Ask someone else to check up on you (use positive peer pressure) – Identify the unpleasant consequences of NOT doing the task– Think of the cost of your time

• If you're feeling overwhelmed, try:– Break the project into a set of smaller, more manageable tasks (develop an

Action Plan)– Start with some quick, small tasks. Even if these aren't the logical first

actions, you will feel that you are making progress. This will reduce the pressure and help convince you that the whole project is not so overwhelming after all. You CAN do it.

Baby steps…

Manage Time, Get Things Done

• Activity Log: Finding out how you really spend your time

• First things first: Tackle the right tasks first– Prioritized “to do” list– Have a “not to do” list

• Effective Scheduling: Planning to make the best use of your time

• Action Plan: Small scale planning• More resources available at

www.et.byu.edu/21stcentury/leadership

Activity LogsFinding out how you spend

your time• For several days, write down everything you do

• Review for significance and relevance– You may be surprised– Learn from log

• Note: Everyone works more effectively at different times of day (include in your plans)

Activity Log Learning• Log analysis should help you to free up extra time in your day • Eliminate jobs that you should not be doing

– Tasks that someone else should be doing– Non-productive activities

• Schedule your most challenging tasks for the times of day when your energy is highest. That way your work will be better and it should take you less time.

• Minimize the number of times you task switch• Reduce the amount of time spent on legitimate activities that

you can split with others on your team• Plan on some “down-time” and relaxation

First things first

The 6 Most Important Things to Do list– Helps you know where to start

– Keep it short and sweet (just six)

– Write it down every night (makes it real)

**Start with #1 and do in order—no cherry picking

Effective Scheduling• Identify the time you have available• Block in essential tasks you must carry out to succeed in

your job• Schedule in high priority urgent tasks and vital “house-

keeping” activities• Block in appropriate contingency time to handle

unpredictable interruptions• In the time that remains, schedule the activities that

address your priorities and personal goals• Include planning and introspection time• Stick to plans!

Suggestions

• Delegation– Don’t spend dollar time on

penny jobs!

– “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”

• Not true• Invest time in people

– Have proper attitude of respect, humility

Thoughts on Discipline

• The pain of regret is greater than the pain of discipline. Discipline yourself today so you won’t have regrets tomorrow.

• Success depends not merely on how well you do the things you enjoy, but how conscientiously you perform those duties you don’t enjoy.

Discipline

“How can any of us hope to play a great role in time or eternity if we have no power of self-control?”

—James E. Faust, April 2007