It's Your Time: Executive Time Management
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At this stage in your life, you have certainly learned something about how to be productive. You don't get tapped for a top job, or lead an organization, unless you can get things done. Still, even seasoned leaders tell me they sometimes have a nagging feeling that they spend too much time on the wrong things, and too little time on the right ones. In the heat of the day, the consequences may seem insignificant. In the long run, those choices are the difference between failure and success.

Ann Latham, a management consultant, (www.uncommonclarity.com) recently taught me a few things I didn't know about my executive time management skills. I feel compelled to pass these along. Ann knows productivity. The first thing she reminded me was you cannot manage your time. You can't strong arm the clock. It keeps ticking. You can only manage yourself.

Once you accept this, there are three steps to time management as an executive:

1. Set priorities

2. Take action

3. Be self-aware

If you have too much to do, (who doesn't?) you can:

1. Accomplish more

2. Delegate

3. Cut corners

4. Postpone

5. Abandon

All these tactics work. The only approach that doesn't work is #6. That is, not deciding.

So far, so good?

So choose, and take action. Start now, focus like a laser for a period of time (she suggests 20 minutes, you may want longer) without email, phone or disruptions, and then, finish. The idea is to be intentional. Clear the desk and do nothing else.

You may be thinking right now, "Got it. Tell me something I don't know."

Here is where Ann's advice gets really interesting.

We all have tasks that for us are either draining or energizing. Ann said the stuff we LOVE to do is actually the greatest hazard to our productivity. Think for a second about something in your work that you really enjoy. You not only don't mind doing it, you get great satisfaction not only from the results, but from the activity itself. Why would that be a problem?

Because even if that activity is important, you can get lost in it, go off on tangents, be unrealistic about its value, cut short the things that are equally important, but not as fun or interesting. The consequences of spending too much time on important, enjoyable activities are significant. We kid ourselves, and ultimately that undermines our plans, slows our projects, and makes our companies less successful and profitable.

I realize this advice contradicts what we all heard from our parents, Do what you love, and success will follow." I am not suggesting that you make life drudgery, slogging through days filled with things you don't want to do. But if you take Ann's advice and schedule focused, 20 to 30 minute intervals of work that is not fun, but is a priority, you will get results.

You know what those tasks are. It wouldn't hurt to list them. Put them on paper, and take action.

It's your time. It's your career. It's your business. You decide.