Where does all the time go? Long hours. Late nights. Snatched lunches. Some employees boast about their excessive work schedule as if it is a badge of honor: "I start work at 7:00 a.m. and work right though until 8:00 p.m." Some of their Herculean claims border on the absurd. "Last night I went to bed at three a.m. and had to get up two hours earlier to finish a report." Or, "I used to eat lunch at my desk. But I need to save more time, so I’m giving up eating…"
The problem is NOT that there is not enough time. Time does not expand. The problem is that people burden themselves with too many activities. The key to success is how you allocate your time to the important ones. In research we have conducted for clients, average employees spend about 50% of their time on A and B priorities. But among the top performers, A and B priorities will approach 60%. That is an increase of 5 hours per week that can make all the difference.
Here is how to think about setting priorities. "A" activities are those that influence long term results. If you had nothing else to do tomorrow, what would affect your results one month from now? For sales people this means selling, which in fact only amounts to 23% of their time. For managers this means supervising people, which is only 18% of their time, and planning which is only 6%.
"B" priorities are the aspects of your job description that must get done today. This could be responding to customers, attending monthly meetings, preparing reports, inputting data or shipping products. For example, store supervisors oversee maintenance, a "B" priority that takes up 7% of their time.
"C" priorities are those unplanned or unwritten aspects of your job that need to be done. They include filling out expense reports, opening the mail, filing and answering requests from other departments. These are also known as administrative activities. Our research indicates that administrative tasks amount to 20% of the time. Within this, paperwork alone can take 5 hours per week. If you are spending more than that, the system is bogging you down.
Finally "D" activities are those things that could be put off for a couple of days. Perhaps some of them are things you should not be doing at all. They include reading trade magazines, handling tasks that should be delegated, and conducting superfluous internet research. Miscellaneous time can be as much as 5% of the week.
So make sure to focus your most productive time on the high priority items that will make a difference.
