CHAPTER 3: PLANNING YOUR TIME

Having set and/or clarified your objectives and key priorities, you can now plan your time. In this chapter, we will look at typical problems that arise when planning activities and how to overcome them.

Are you a procrastinator?

Some people like to plan and be organised; others tend to let things happen as they come along, and are unplanned and unstructured. In order to be an effective time manager, you need to create a plan and stick to it.

Do you focus only on today?

A common problem when planning is the temptation to look more widely at what needs to be achieved in the week, or the month, or the year, rather than only to consider the tasks for the day ahead.

The monthly, weekly and daily planner (see below) will help you overcome this.

Do you underestimate the time you lose each day and overestimate the time you have to complete tasks?

Given that most people’s working day is eight hours, when you take off time for lunch and breaks and this amounts to roughly six and a half hours (assuming that you do take lunch and breaks – more of this later!). It is estimated that at least a third of the working day is taken up with interruptions and unexpected events, so, in reality, the time you have in the day to complete your tasks is approximately four hours. This presupposes you have nothing else in your diary.

The OATS process is a useful system for clarifying exactly what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and how much time you actually have in which to do it.

The OATS process

One way in which you can plan your time effectively is to adopt the OATS process at the beginning of each month, each week and each day. This involves:

O = Objectives. As described in the previous chapter, make a list of what you need to accomplish this month/week/day.

A = Activities. Create a list of what you have to do in order to achieve your objectives.

T = Time. Consider realistically how much time it will take to perform these activities. Then consider how much time you actually have.

S = Schedule. Use a planner or a calendar to place each of the activities in a priority sequence. Focus on achieving the important tasks rather than just on the things you enjoy doing.

The act of writing down your objectives and activities for the month allows you to put them into a sequence, taking into consideration the other events that you have in your calendar.

Rather than having long lists of things to do, it is important to focus each month, week and day on your key priorities. I recommend that you restrict your work plan to up to five key activities you need to achieve each day, week or month.

People tend to underestimate how long it will take to carry out an activity. Be realistic about how long each task is likely to take. Set yourself a starting time for each activity, as well as a target finishing time to complete the tasks associated with each objective.

I recommend that you use a planning schedule. Here is one that I find helpful. There are three versions of this schedule that you can adapt for your own use: monthly, weekly and daily. This can be linked to your e-mail application’s calendar, so that you can diarise tasks.

Monthly schedule

List your key objectives for the month:

1. ______________________________________

2. ______________________________________

3. ______________________________________

4. ______________________________________

5. ______________________________________

List the key tasks you need to carry out in order to achieve your objectives. Then, taking into consideration your other commitments over the month, plan when you will start and finish these activities.

Weekly schedule

Create a weekly schedule with reference to the objectives you need to achieve over the month.

List your key objectives for the week:

1. ______________________________________

2. ______________________________________

3. ______________________________________

4. ______________________________________

5. ______________________________________

List the key tasks you need to carry out in order to achieve your objectives. Next, taking your other commitments into consideration, plan when during the week you will start and finish these activities.

Remember to schedule the most important tasks, so that you do these at the beginning of the week, rather than leaving them to the end.

Daily schedule

When creating a daily ‘to do’ list, group together related work. So, for example, it is quicker and more efficient to reply to your e-mails in batches at specific times during the day than to interrupt other tasks to read e-mails and reply sporadically.

It is tempting to focus on the tasks we like most, rather than on those we enjoy less but which need to be done. So remember to schedule in the tasks that are most important or difficult at your peak energy time. (See Chapter 4 to find out when this is, if you are not sure.)

Schedule yesterday’s uncompleted tasks into today’s programme, and do them first.

If you have major tasks to achieve, break these down into manageable chunks. You will feel more satisfaction in achieving these smaller activities and the overall task will be less daunting.

List your key objectives for the day:

1. ______________________________________

2. ______________________________________

3. ______________________________________

4. ______________________________________

5. ______________________________________

Then plan your day:

and so on.

To summarise, in order to plan your time effectively:

1. Be clear about your goals for each month, each week and each day.
2. Plan ahead – put planning time as a task in your diary.
3. Set time aside at the end of each month to plan for the following month, at the end of each week to plan for the following week and at the end of each day for the following day.
4. As soon as you know you have a project, a meeting or a presentation coming up, plan time in your diary to prepare for this. Block out ‘preparation time’ and arrange for your colleagues to cover for you.
5. Allocate yourself deadlines to begin tasks, as well as deadlines to complete them.