There are probably very good reasons why the time management system that contrasts the important/unimportant and urgent/not urgent is the most popular.
For one thing, it can be simple and easily understood. Like so many management models, it can be explained in a simple two-by-two fashion.
Another reason the model is popular is that managers have found that it helps them to establish their priorities and, as a result, to get more done. Even when things are ticking over as they should, there never seems to be enough time to do what’s important, never mind anything else.
A third reason may be that it helps organizations to eliminate those activities that just don’t matter. No doubt you have wondered why you’ve been dragged into something, and have come out of it feeling the same way.
Does the popularity of the model mean that it’s also the best way to manage your time? Does ubiquity mean that this is as good as it gets? When you ask questions, it enables you to move away from what everyone else is doing, and to find something that no one else has.
What occurs in your day that prevents you from doing what’s most important? Is it simply because you failed to plan far enough in advance, that you were suddenly overtaken by events? This seems unlikely, and yet that is the implication of the two-by-two model. The truth is that the model doesn’t work.
It’s one of those things that, in the sterile environment of a university or at a productivity seminar, look great on paper, but it overlooks one critical piece in the puzzle. And if you don’t get this right, the rest won’t matter. That piece exists in the form of DISTRACTIONS.
Distractions are some combination of the urgent and unimportant, and proper planning would prevent them; but planning won’t solve the problem. Distractions are more costly than you think and the fundamental to limiting distractions is knowing how to manage them so they won’t limit your productivity
There’s a reason why distractions waste so much time, money and mind sanity and it’s not something that normally comes up in discussions about time management.
The day started well – you were in the midst of a project, working on a budget plan and making progress. You got an email ,a phone call, or unexpected meeting. You took a break to deal with it.
Sounds familiar?
Every time you’re distracted, it takes you 23 minutes to get back to where you were, says Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California.
Whatever was in your mind before you took that call, whatever mental preparation was there, is now gone. It will take you a full twenty minutes to get back into the frame of mind; to get the information back into the right order so that you can start working on what you intended to do when you first came into your office.
In fact, employees are being interrupted 11 times an hour, according to Basex Research, and these interruptions are taking an hour and a half out of the workday.
Is this the way your day looks? Is this what happens as soon as you walk in the door?
This has nothing to do with avoiding the urgent. Managing the distractions could be the key to Time Management. You know that they will occur, and so you must know in advance how to prevent them to accomplish your goals much faster.
If those distractions are not managed, they will lead to poor performance . Here are three strategies:
1- Come in earlier :
This is one reason why successful performers start their days earlier before anyone else to make better use of their time. They are disciplined goal-setters who make time to get all their list of tasks done with no excuse. But unless this is part and parcel of your job, you shouldn’t have to do that.
2- Delegation:
You have to change the ground rules. You have to empower your people to make decisions without you. You may be surprised at just how capable they are.
3- Avoid interrupting others:
There’s another side to this, one that you probably haven’t thought of. Every time that you interrupt someone, the same thing happens. You break your own concentration. You put yourself into a situation where the 23 minutes recovery time takes effect, and you also create the same problem for other people.
Is it any wonder that no one in your team accomplishes anything? It’s not enough to avoid the urgent. You have to eliminate the distractions that both you and your employees face every day, and when you do that, your productivity will soar.
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