Important and Urgent

I’m on both of these missions right now as I’m on new puppy watch and working. When I go into different AOs the thing I most often see is individuals working only on the urgent stuff. Things like dealing with customer needs, issues and generally the day job. And sometimes the day job without a plan. Most roles have some development or project work - and this can/does - get neglected, its usually important stuff like new IT initiatives, longer term staff planning and training, making a start on the self-assessment, etc. I get that sometimes things are crazily busy with the day job and that must be a priority as its urgent and important to keep the ship running. 

What I do and encourage is to spend a bit of time each week, at the beginning of each month looking forward and sorting out what’s to be achieved. Sound reasonable? I’ve recently discovered bullet journals (see bulletjournal.com) as a technique and really like it. I put some dates in the diary and allocate time when its day job time and project time; and really try and stick to it.

I’m also an advocate of parcelling up time during the day. This means only looking at email at certain points in the day, rather than be constantly distracted by email and find whilst answering every email (some of which is non-essential, or you are only cc’d on) I’ve avoided doing something I really should have done. 

Regular, timed communication with colleagues is also a good way to help with planning. 

From an earlier LinkedIn post of mine, here’s my tips on how to make more of your time.

Recognise your time thieves and cut them out: Is that meeting necessary? Is all that time on social media productive? Is your easy-going approach to being interrupted/open door encouraging the team to ask you, rather than find answers and solutions for themselves? How many times are you checking for email and texts and interrupting the stuff you need to get on with? 

Stop procrastinating and putting off the inevitable: use a decision making model; or bring some discipline into how you work that doesn’t allow you to wallow and allow time to slip away on things by allocating a specific time to work on things; or delegate the work and then add your take on it afterwards. 

Chunk it up: eat the elephant bit by bit. It’s well know that breaking things into smaller chunks makes it more digestible.

Use your diary as a planner and portion your day up for specific tasks: it helps control time wasting or avoidance activities like dealing with email all the time instead of tackling your projects or big tasks; allocate time in advance for those big projects rather than wait until the deadline is looming.

Delegate: invest time in your staff, talk through the task/s and expectations, the challenges or what the team member needs to learn to deliver; agree timescales and allocate time for feedback. Don’t fall into the traps you make for yourself of being the only one that can do it, or that you can do it easier or faster. Be aware – is it more about losing control or not trusting others? 

Heather Venis

Principal, Awarding First

E: Heather@awardingfirst.co.uk

T: 01588 650 152