6 Powerful questions for your time management review

There is a big difference between being busy and being effective. Any fool can be busy but that does not mean that they are doing anything important. When you look back upon your career or your life, you will not focus on the quantity of work that you completed; you will focus on the important achievements and the value you added. That is why the most effective people focus on the most important tasks. If it doesn’t make a difference, it doesn’t get done. They know their priorities and they regularly conduct a time management review to ensure that they stick to them. Knowing your priorities is critical to effective time management. Once you have a clear vision for the life you desire, your priorities are the key areas of focus which will allow you to make that vision real. When life gets hectic, and there are number of people making requests of you, it is easy to fall into the trap of completing the most urgent tasks i.e. he who shouts loudest wins. This is no way to run your schedule. Urgent tasks are rarely important and rarely aligned with your priorities. It is important to hold a regular time management review where you question the importance of each activity, to help keep you aligned with your priorities. The following questions offer simple but effective ways to remind yourself of your priorities.

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6 Powerful questions for your time management review

It is important that you conduct a regular time management review of your schedule, and the work you have completed, to determine whether you are sticking to your priorities. The following questions will help to keep you focused on your priorities:

1. If your workday was halved, what work would you complete?

This will help you to identify your priorities. The first priority of a time management review is to know your priorities. These are the most important tasks for you and the tasks which should be first on your schedule.

 2. If your workday was halved, which tasks would you eliminate from your schedule?

There are always tasks which you complete which do not add a lot of value to your day. Once you have identified them, you need to identify ways in which you can remove them from your schedule e.g.

• Just do not do them
• Automate them
• Delegate them
• Outsource them

These tasks are offering little value to you and even worse than that, they are stealing time which you could be using to focus on your priorities.

3. Who are the 20% of people who make 80% of the positive contribution?

Pareto’s principle tells us that that 20% of the people we interact make 80% of the positive contribution we derive from relationships. These are your most important relationships. You may think that all relationships are equal but they are not. You need to identify the relationships which add most value to your life and assign to them a level of priority. If you manage and maintain these relationships effectively, they will propel you towards your goals at a much faster speed.

 4. Who are the 20% of people who cause 80% of the problems?

Just like the positive contribution, 80% of the relationship problems will come from just 20% of the people whom you interact with. Once you identify these relationships, you can identify ways to manage these relationships better thus reducing the stress and eliminating time waste. In some cases, you will find that it is not necessary to interact with these people, so you are better off distancing them.

Do not overlook relationships when conducting a time management review.

 5. Ask ‘What is the one task I could complete to make tomorrow an effective day?’

I like to ask this question every evening, before I sign off for the day. This allows me to identify the most important task for the following day. I generally try to complete the task first thing in the morning, before I even open my email. Once the task has been completed, it doesn’t matter what the world throws at me; I have taken a big stride towards achieving my objectives.

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 6. Start squeezing time to focus priorities

Parkinson’s Law tells us that a task will expand or contract to fit the time allowed.  When you are deciding how long to schedule for a task, you may find that you are allowing a little contingency on top. This is allowing extra time for people to lose focus and go off track. The best example is meetings.

Most people do not have a clue how to run effective meetings. If a meeting requires 45 minutes to cover all the relevant material,  they oftne schedule an hour to allow for unforeseen events. With this approach, people will be less focused and stray off topic. The meeting ends up taking much longer than required and becomes a burden for most of the attendees. However, if you allow 40 minutes and strictly adhere to it; people will be prepared in advanced, focused on the priorities, and stick to the agenda. The same is true for all tasks. Set a strict time allowance and you will find yourself, and others, to be more focused and more effective.

For more great advice to improve your focus and organisation, check out The Modern Professional's Guide to Organisation and Focus. The key to an effective day does not lie in the quantity of work completed. It is the quality of the work which determines whether you have been effective or not.  You do not need to do everything; you only need to do the right things. You can ensure that you get the right tasks done by focusing on your priorities. The 6 questions, above, will help you to maintain a clear focus on your priorities. Conduct a personal time management review each week, and ask these questions of yourself. You will improve your focus and you will see far better results. Start using a time management review today. Image credit: Phil Date