Task Management by Sue Courtney, Executive Style Coach

Time Management is Impossible

You can’t manage time – but you can manage your tasks and use time more efficiently

It seems that today, most of us have far more tasks to complete in a day than hours to complete them. It is impossible to empty the ‘in’ tray and the ‘to-do’ list seems to grow not shrink with each task completed. As a coach I am often asked to work with clients on issues of time management, but the issue isn’t really time management, it is task management. We all have the same twenty four hours each and every day – the secret to remaining calm and stress free and efficient isn’t how we manage our time, it is how we manage the tasks.

Recently I was talking to someone who was bemoaning the fact that she had far too much to do and clearly needed help to manage her time more effectively. After a little coaching and careful questioning a possible solution emerged – to spend more time on a task she loved in order to make enough money to offload a task that she loathed. She is now investigating how this might be achieved. How could you apply this to your life?

I have noticed that on days when I get up with a general idea of what I want to do and what I want to have done by the end of the day, I tend to end up with a longer to do list than I started with. I get distracted by emails, phone calls, washing up, in fact anything to put off the tasks. Procrastination is, indeed, the thief of time because it prevents us completing tasks. But proper planning can make all the difference. In his wonderful book “Eat that Frog” Brian Tracy details ways to stop procrastination and get tasks done.

 The book is based on the old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is eat a live frog, you will know that it is probably the worst thing you will have to do all day and so the rest of the day will be wonderful and relatively stress free by comparison. Of course your ‘frog’ is your biggest or most important task of the day – the one you are most likely to put off doing for days or even weeks, until it absolutely has to be done. This is a huge drain on your energy and well being, inducing a lot of stress. If you have two ‘frogs’, then eat the biggest or ugliest one first! In other words, do the biggest, most difficult and most important task first, then the other one. Granted this isn’t going to be easy –you have to make the decision to do it and find the discipline and determination to see it through. But it is a great feeling when you know that by mid-morning you have got the worst of the day over and you can relax and enjoy the rest of the day. There is a wonderful sense of achievement in getting important jobs done quickly and well on a regular basis.

It is one of the habits that successful people master early on in their careers but it requires you to recognise which the biggest frog of the day is and plan for it to be eaten first. Yes, I am talking lists! But a list with a difference – it has a strategy which will enable you to prioritise your tasks. “No, no” I hear you cry, “Not a list – I don’t have time for that. You are giving me an extra task – I’m trying to get rid of tasks not take more on!”

Trust me, this is really a good use of your time and will enable you to be more effective and efficient – and actually it is more than one list! Oops - Sorry. The daily list is best made at the end of the previous day so that your subconscious mind can work on it while you relax and sleep. But first thing in the morning is better than not at all.

Begin by listing every task that you have to do. Yes, everything. Then apply the Pareto Principle to the list. Basically this says that 20% of your tasks will account for 80% of your success. So ask yourself, “Which of the tasks on my list are absolutely essential? Which one or two will have the greatest impact on my life, work and happiness?” These are tasks that will have serious consequences if they are not done. Give them an ‘A’ – if you have more than one then give the most important an’A*’ or ‘A**’. These are your frogs!

Something which I think should be in your A** list is going to www.freepersonalrebrandingbook.co.uk to claim your FREE copy of my book "The Ultimate Guide to Personal Rebranding for Professional Females Climbing the Corporate Ladder" - but then I suppose I could be accused of a certain bias! You'll just have to get your FREE copy to see if I am right!

Next consider which tasks are your ‘B’ items? These are tasks that should be done but the consequences of not doing them aren’t that serious. These are your tadpoles! The idea is that you never eat a tadpole until all the frogs are gone.

A ‘C’ task is a task that it would be nice to do – a bit of a treat. It won’t affect your working success at all but you would like to do it. Which of the tasks on your list fit into this category? Life is always better with regular treats , so the idea is to accomplish all the ‘A’ and ‘B’ tasks before the end of the day so you still have time for a few ‘C’ treats.

Which tasks could you delegate to someone else? These are the ‘D’ category items. The idea is that you delegate tasks that others can do in order to free time to do the ‘A’ tasks that only you can do.

Finally there are the ‘E’ tasks which can be eliminated. Often these are tasks that were important once upon a time, but were procrastinated on for so long that their time has passed. They may also be tasks that you do out of habit but which serve no real function in your life any more.

I am sure that by now many of you will be shouting that all these lists and categories are a complete waste of time and won’t make you more efficient and effective! Why not just try the idea for a week and see what happens? What have you got to lose, apart from a lot of stress? You may even gain time to do the things you love because you have managed your tasks efficiently.

 The six ‘P’ formula - “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance” makes a huge difference. We can all prioritise our tasks to make better use of the time we have, it just takes the courage to try a different approach.

So how could you make the tasks you love into ‘A’s and turn the tasks you hate into ‘D’s or ‘E’s? Remember, if you say “I can’t” you close your mind down. If you ask “How can I?” you open your mind up to new possibilities.

To find out how working with Sue can help you develop your professional life, email
sue@successandimagecoach.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you.