Leaders need time to think, time for people, and time to grow the business. Therefore they should be skilled managers of their own time. If you cannot organize yourself, how can you organize anyone or anything else? ⠀
Administering that scarce resource, your own time, is the priority for any leader. An effective exercise is to record how you spend your time over two weeks – charting every hour while working. As you log your activity, tag a ‘T’ for ‘Task’, ‘TM’ for ‘Team Maintenance’, and ‘I’ for ‘Individual Needs’ beside each item. You can assign more than one of these tags beside each item. This exercise, when correctly done, will provide clarity of how much of your crucial resource – time – is not being spent in your core role as a leader. ⠀
Now ask yourself, “Does the majority of how I spend my time contribute to my main objectives?” Time management is comprised of knowing your purpose, aims, and objectives. Another idea to consider is to protect your time. Learning to say no, which sounds simple, can save you a bundle of time meant for more important things.
Ken Goodfellow
Coach Ken International