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Learn to shelve unimportant, urgent tasks to save time
At work we are often caught between what is urgent and what is important. If we are not careful we end up spending most of our time dealing with matters that are urgent but not important to our success. Needless to say we neglect doing what is important but not urgent. This happens whenever our key goals are long-term and there is no need to meet them immediately.
Imagine this scenario. You are currently in charge of a critical project. Your key goal is to complete it on time and within budget. The project end date is four months away. You prepare a plan of action to achieve the goal and seriously intend to stick to it. As you start with your project activities, you get a call from your boss.
He asks you to urgently prepare the draft of a presentation he needs to give the following week. Your priorities shift from project work to the more urgent assignment given by the boss. The next day you promise to help your friend on some important task of his. It takes longer than you imagined and again your project priorities take a back seat. Similarly routine meetings, seminars, documentation work and phone calls that do not in any way contribute towards your project goals keep encroaching into your schedule.
Does this seem familiar? Do you often feel hard pressed for time to complete important tasks?
Several interruptions that demand your immediate attention prevent you from accomplishing what you had hoped to accomplish during the day. In spite of remaining busy the entire day, you find that many important tasks scheduled for the day remained unfinished. As each day passes you inch closer to the deadline but not any closer to the goals. Under the guise of urgency a number of time wasters insidiously rob your time and divert your focus from important goals.
Though you don’t have much choice about these urgent matters that pop up out of nowhere, with the help of effective time management techniques you can always prevent them from clogging your entire day. Here are clues to overcome the urgent-versus-important predicament to some extent:
Analyse problem: Reflect on how you spend a typical day at work. Analyse how much time you spend on an average on unscheduled tasks each day. Segregate what is important and urgent from what is merely urgent. Think over if it is possible to avoid any of the urgent tasks that are not so important.
Plan for commitments: In the spirit of helpfulness we all tend to make commitments to others. We may not realise but these commitments essentially draw on the time and resources that we need to allocate towards our own critical goals. Therefore, prior to making any commitments to others it is always better to ensure that your priorities get the attention they deserve.
Delegate: To complete some urgent tasks special skills are not required. You can conveniently delegate such tasks to someone who is relatively free. Rather than wasting your time doing it you can merely review it after he finishes.
No last minute: Mundane tasks when delayed till the last minute assume proportions of urgency. A time comes when you cannot delay these activities any further. You have no option but to finish these activities immediately even if it means setting aside something more important.
As an alternative, allocate some time in your daily schedule to routine tasks as well. Plan to complete them at a convenient pace instead of waiting till the last minute.
Learn to be firm about which unimportant but urgent tasks you choose to perform and which you will avoid. For instance not all meetings are important. You can check the agenda beforehand and avoid going to meetings in which you have nothing much to contribute or gain.
The urgent versus important dilemma will continue to vex you unless you take deliberate action to shield your priority jobs from getting side tracked.
N. PURNIMA SRIKRISHNA
faqs@cnkonline.com
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