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Time Management at Work

An Interview with Productivity Expert Peggy Duncan

This feature is an interview with Peggy Duncan, a time management counselor and professional organizer who has written the book Put Time Management to Work and Live the Life You Want. I asked her to share some time management tips for those experiencing job stress. For more information on Peggy Duncan and her work, see the biography at the end of this article.

What is, in your opinion, the biggest time management mistake people make at work?

Not realizing how much time they waste. We can’t manage time: we manage self. We can manage what we do with the time we have. Disorganization, unclear goals, too many personal phone calls, disjointed processes, no routines, poor planning, procrastination, lack of focus, lack of training, junk e-mail, surfing, and it goes on.

These are all time bandits that steal our time and people often don’t make the connection that it’s why they never have enough. Working in this state is an absolute breeding ground for stress.

Let me give you a couple of examples. One of my clients would let his mail pile up for days. Every day his assistant would add to the piles. The higher the piles got, the more frustrated he got, and the more he procrastinated. His assistant was just as frustrated because she wasn’t able to stay on top of things. Her self-esteem was plummeting. They were always in a reactive mode because work had sat in piles instead of being done.

We changed the process of how they do the mail. We created mail folders so the assistant could prioritize the mail before he got it. Red folders for ACTION, blue for READ, and so on. Then, instead of putting the mail on his desk, she now sits with him 20-30 minutes every morning to help him process it. It’s working beautifully. Note that we changed the PROCESS so he wouldn’t PROCRASTINATE by establishing a ROUTINE. We arrested the time bandits.

Another client had a big problem getting to work on time. It had kept her from getting an otherwise glowing performance appraisal. After stepping back to find out why she was constantly late, I discovered that she never planned the night before, and her closet was disorganized. Her mornings ended up being her worst nightmare. So you get the idea. If people pay attention to what they’re spending their time doing, they’ll see how they’re wasting it. If they make some simple adjustments, they’ll be able to manage themselves better. It’s really simple, but it’ll take some work to make it happen.

How can you improve time management skills if your time isn’t “your own” – i.e., your boss is always changing schedules and plans at the last minute and giving you unplanned tasks?

This is definitely a tough situation. The first thing to do is to make sure you have your systems in order. The more organized and efficient you are, the better you’ll be able to deal with someone who’s not.

Now as far as the boss is concerned, you’ll have to find the reason that he or she doesn’t plan. It’s probably due to disorganization. The boss is suffering as much as you are. You must find some pain. The next time you’re together, find out what your boss would really like to do if he or she had extra time. It might be the pain they feel when they disappoint their son by showing up late (or not at all) to his softball games. Once you find some pain, help them see how changing some aspects of how they work will give them the extra time they need. Try to get them to make small changes—changes that you know will have an immediate effect. Continue doing this with the focus on how the changes will help them, and the situation will change for the better.

Do you advocate making a rigid schedule and adhering to it?

I believe you’ll get more done if you establish routines and stick with them as much as you can, but you have to stay flexible and adaptable to the unexpected. Otherwise, when unplanned things happen, it’ll cause you just as much stress as trying to work without a plan.

How can one avoid wasting so much time at meetings?

Meetings are definitely a necessary business function that few people look forward to. They can be made better if they’re better planned. First, you should make sure the meeting is really necessary. A conference call or a well-crafted e-mail message might suffice. Also make sure everyone invited to the meeting really has a need to know, and is clear on the objective—they know what the purpose of the meeting is and the desired outcome. Developing a well thought-out agenda and distributing it prior to the meeting will help keep the meeting on point. Everyone’s time should be respected by starting on time, staying on schedule, keeping to the point, and ending on time. Hanging clocks all over the office and in the meeting rooms will help too because it’s easier to stay on schedule when the time is staring you in the face.

What about those jobs that “never end” –when there’s always so much to do that you’re never caught up? Should one work overtime and take work home constantly?

Definitely not.

You want to keep your life in balance, and you can’t do that if your work time takes up too much of your off time. You can be in a position of never getting caught up but not have to work overtime and take work home constantly. But if you do, my advice is that you step back from the work. Just as I mentioned earlier about the boss and his assistant, a lot of times, it’s the way you do the work and not the work itself that keeps you stressed and frustrated.

You’ll have to stop long enough to examine every aspect of what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Figure out a better way to do the job. I promise you there is one. Getting organized and developing a system so you can find what you need when you need it will save you an hour a day. If you’re trained to do your job, you’ll finish it six times quicker and make fewer mistakes. Learning how to use technology the right way will also speed up your work. It’ll take some effort to make these improvements, but it’ll make a phenomenal difference. Isn’t spending time improving how you work better than wasting time because you continue to do it the way you always have?

Now some people may have done all this, but they’re still working like a maniac. It might be that you’ve been assigned too much work. Can you outsource or delegate some of it? Or perhaps you’re in a situation that your company just wants the work done, and is saving money by not hiring enough people. Instead, they choose to work you into the ground. If that’s the case, I’d say that it’s time to dust off the resume.

OK. We’ve heard what you’ve said, and you’ve convinced us to make some changes. What should we do first?

It depends on where you are right now. When I work with my clients, the first thing we do is eliminate clutter. I’m talking about everything from the clothes closet to the computer, eliminate unnecessary stuff, and set up systems that are easy to maintain so you won’t let it come back.

Once you get organized, you’ll be able to think more clearly, so now you can sit back, kick your feet up, and wonder what you really, really want to do with the rest of your life. Now it’s time to set some long- and short-term goals and work on your priorities. Then you’ll be able to focus on the right things. Once you do that, it’ll be time to examine your processes so you can eliminate work that doesn’t need to be done or you’ll figure out a better way to do it. After that, look at how you incorporate technology if you need it to do your work. Take some classes, read books, or whatever you need to do to become more proficient. Doing all these things will make your life so much easier and will reduce a lot your stress. You have your work cut out for you, but with every improvement you make, unlike dieting or exercising, the results will be immediate.

Peggy Duncan conducts lively productivity seminars covering organization, time management, and technology. She’s authored two books: Put Time Management to Work and Live the Life You Want; and Just Show Me Which Button to Click!: Computer Training for Busy People (PSC Press). Visit her on the Web at www.peggyduncan.com for more timesaving tips, and subscribe to her free Webzine, COPE.