How many times have you gone to the office in the morning with a list of important actions to achieve, only to leave in the evening with the same list, or worse still a longer list?

Have you ever had a really creative task to perform at work, such as producing a business strategy, but you have left it till the end of the day when you are tired at your least innovative?

Research shows that a typical manager will devote only 30 – 40% of their time to things that are most important in their job. Also, few managers understand when they are at their most creative. They don’t know when they are functioning in Prime Time.

So how do you gain from the extra potential you have in your working day?

Firstly, you need to examine how you are presently managing yourself. Pick a week in your career and keep a daily log, in fifteen minute slots, of what tasks you are performing. Then at the end of the week analyse how much time you have spent on tasks that are truly important to your business and how much time you have devoted to urgent, but insignificant activities. Use this log to start thinking about how you can delegate, remove, or just plain ignore the trivial and unimportant tasks in your day. Freeing up 20% of your time from these time wasting activities will provide you with two months every year for important and creative focus!

Secondly, you need to establish some structure of self management. As managers we spend most of our time on people and functional management activities. We have planning systems, electronic calendars, and programme management tools to control our performance in these areas but we rarely apply these tools and techniques to the most important thing in our lives......namely ourselves. We happily fill our diaries with appointments with clients, suppliers and colleagues but we never make appointments with ourselves. If you have a list of truly important tasks to perform, work out how long they will take and schedule a slot in your diary to perform these functions. Guard those self-appointments with your life and don’t allow your own weakness to give up this time to other people or activities.

Finally, identify your Prime Time. When are you really at your best? When do you have your most creative thoughts? When is your head full of great ideas and innovation? For some people this is first thing in the morning. Others it maybe the lunchtime slot or the evening. Get to know yourself and understand the part of the day that is Prime Time for you. This is the golden time in your working day. Do not waste it on meaningless, unimportant or trivial activities. Look at your list of things to do and identify the ones that will require your best thought processes. Make absolutely sure that you use your Prime Time wisely. Not only will your performance be better, but you will also be more efficient.

There are few things more precious in a managers’ life than Time. Using it wisely and focusing on your Prime Time will result in a significant competitive advantage for you and your business.

By Mike Phillips - Ology Business Coach, Milton Keynes

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