time management Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

24
May 21
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Time Data Anchor, Has It Impacted You?

Tags : career quality skills time time management

Have you come to realize the time data anchor? Time has value and your expectations for its use might be impacting everything you do.

How much time do you spend doing laundry, cutting the lawn, or shopping for groceries?

What about professional growth, studying a topical area, or how many years until you retire?

When you take your car for repair, there is an estimate on time. Sign up for the workshop and you’ll know a start time and end time.

In the workplace, there may be a time parameter for processing an order, talking with a customer, or a staff meeting.

In life and in business we cling to data anchors. That data or parameter sets the stage for how much, how long, or how often.

The expectation of time can be both a blessing and a curse. While it may provide some meaningful measurement is it limiting expectations or setting too lofty of a goal?

Time Data Anchor

Time is often measured with averages. The average time it takes for the car repair, your average wait for customer representative, or the average length of time to attain an advanced certificate or degree.

When the average becomes the anchor, everyone has a similar expectation and a similar result.

Why should the meeting last an hour? Would 47 minutes be better, or should it be 16? If you decided to meet for two and a half hours, do you get a more impactful result?

In some cases, the measurement of quality is calculated by the investment in time. If you whip up a chocolate cake in thirty minutes, is it as delightful as one that was created in two hours?

It is similar for craftsman, artists, and book authors. In some cases longer is perceived as better.

The opposite side of course is shorter. The drive-through restaurant, the boot-up of your computer, or the load time of the website.

How you spend your time may have a significant impact on your professional skills, your career goals, and what you will accomplish in the next decade.

When you spend more time on something that provides value with more use, it creates a better end result. You’ll have something better than average. Consider your job skills, the artist’s painting, and perhaps your fitness program.

The time spent in the drive-through line likely isn’t going to improve your meal, your earning potential, or your waistline.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

22
Jan 21
-

Procrastination Is Something You Own

Tags : procrastination productivity skill time management too busy

Do you struggle with procrastination? Does it haunt you, sabotage your productivity, and leave yourself or others disappointed?

Many people are busy. Just being busy doesn’t mean that you are productive.

Ask someone in your workplace, or ask a small business owner, “What’s up, how’s it going?” They may often reply with, “Busy.”

When you knock on the door jamb of a colleague’s office, you may ask, “Are you busy?” Commonly followed by, “I just have a quick question.”

Likely the most confusing part about busy is that no one is really inquiring about productivity. You can make yourself busy if you want to.

I’m too busy…

for exercise.

to get involved with a Zoom meeting.

to connect for lunch next week.

Busy is a state of being occupied but certainly does not confirm productivity or efficiency.

Everyone has the same amount of time each day. Seconds, minutes, and hours, it’s all the same. How are you spending your time? What will you do in the next five minutes?

Procrastination Ruins Productivity

Procrastination, in-part, may be a state of making yourself busy.

Nearly all professions and all workplaces have choices about what they’ll do next. What are the priorities? Who will do what, and when?

Busy never addresses the question of productivity.

Procrastination is the act of delaying something or putting it off until a later time.

You can learn to be busy. You can learn to look busy. Another different choice is to be productive.

Being productive is a skill you master. It comes with a few hooks though. It means you’re willing to measure the value of the work you are creating each day.

Everyone works from the position of 24 hours in a day.

What will you accomplish, or are you too busy?

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

18
Nov 19
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The Productive Way is the Only Way

Tags : OK boomer productivity resources strategy time management

Are you doing things the productive way or do you find yourself stuck? Are your workload demands overwhelming?

You are not alone.

Becoming more productive is an interesting challenge. Productivity may depend a lot on exactly what and how you measure it.

Productivity or Strategy?

For the person who rushes to work with a bagel in one hand and a coffee in the other, are you productive? Does rushing illustrate productivity?

For the person who applies makeup while driving in your car on the way to work, are you productive? Are you distracted or focused?

And for the person listening to a sports podcast while working on the next marketing campaign for your company’s latest technology product, are you productive?

The measurement of productivity is often very subjective.

Workforce generations may also add to the mix of subjectivity. OK boomer, you grab a book and I’ll watch a video.

It is likely that all productivity, regardless of generation, comes down to the ability to get out of your own way.

Productive Way

Everyone can feel busy, be distracted, and lack focus. Everyone can be running late, facing adversity, and blindsided by an unexpected problem.

Trying to do two things at once is a sure sign you’ll feel busy.

When you step back and recognize that being busy is not the same as being productive, you’ll likely view your opportunities differently.

Tactics will matter, but tactics aren’t strategy. Resources, learning, and risk have a lot to do with productivity.

Sometimes the most productive way, is to get out of your own way.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

29
Mar 19
-

Schedule Conflicts May Be An Excuse

Tags : coaching Excuses schedule conflicts time management

“I don’t have time,” is not always the real reason. The real reason may be that you haven’t made it a priority. The suggestion is that we have schedule conflicts and sometimes that legitimately happens, in other cases it is an excuse.

The truth is that people understand priorities. They may not always agree with them, but they understand the struggle. Suggesting, “I don’t know how I will fit that in,” is much softer than, “No, I’m not interested.”

People accept the passive response. It seems easier for everyone.

Acceptance of the excuse is often not ignorance. Nearly everyone recognizes that they have a few things that they would like to do, but they must limit it to only one at a time.

Workplace Excuses

In the workplace, in our job roles, it may become a crutch. A way, a method, or a reason, to avoid doing something that you really don’t want to do.

Our jobs are more than our technical skills. Our jobs require emotional labor. Stepping up and doing the things that are hard and that challenge us takes energy. In order to lead, we must sometimes face doing the painful, the unattractive, and the unglamorous work.

It may feel easy to throw out an excuse and skip the meeting. We can sometimes make a decision about what work we will complete and what work we will suggest we don’t have time to accomplish.

Schedule Conflicts

Excuses are useless, except to dodge the real work to be done. In some cases, it is to avoid the requirement of emotional labor.

Many people, will rise to the minimum level of requirements. They’ll do just enough to escape the imposing threat of competition, the fear of the iron handed boss, or slip by for the moment only to dodge the assignment for another day.

Schedule conflicts are always about priorities. Some of them important, some of them an excuse.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

12
Feb 19
-

How Are You Managing Time?

Tags : focus productivity time management

Time management sounds like a boring topic. It seems like everyone should just get it. We often think, “Do it right, do the right stuff, be effective and efficient.” Are you managing time properly?

What’s Your Focus?

The golden rule that we’ve all heard is that we all have the same amount of time. Certainly, it’s true. Twenty-four hours in a day, seven days a week, and we’re all counting.

Consistent with that thinking, time, it seems, isn’t really our problem. It is how we decide, or feel forced to decide, how we will spend it. What space will we occupy or what activity will we do during our time.

Here lies the real challenge. Do you have the dedication, the devotion, and the focus to really be productive? Are you committed to making the most of your time?

It may require emotional labor. Emotional labor feels hard, exhausting, and makes us question the return on investment. However, it may be necessary to make the best use of your time.

Managing Time

The first step to understanding how we manage our time comes from self-assessment. How are you utilizing your breaks? Are you taking a short brisk walk? That may be productive if you need better fitness.

What are your distractions? Are you creating them or are the result of others? Walking to the coffee pot or the break room may be a distraction. How many trips are you making?

Asking your co-worker across the cube if they watched the Grammy awards the night before, or the latest episode of the Walking Dead, or the Presidential Rally is likely inviting a delay of the real work to be done.

Assess the next three or four hours of your work. What are the time wasters? What activities are you substituting into the mix to procrastinate about the real work to be done? If you’re honest, you may be surprised.

Managing time, we all have the same amount.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

31
Aug 18
-

More Time, Is That What Everyone Needs?

Tags : focus habits productivity time management

Time crunch, needed it yesterday, or we missed the deadline. Have you ever felt like you needed more time? What about productivity or efficiency, do you have those boxes checked?

More Time

Many people believe that they need more time. It is a reason that many executives cite as causing a gap between what is, and what could be. Is time really the problem or is it more about managing behaviors?

It is important to immediately address one common fallacy. Multi-tasking is not a time saver, it can in fact, be a time-waster. Sure, we may walk and chew gum at the same time, but when it comes to brain power or concentration forget it.

Many workplace professionals waste so much time with distraction, they could easily take an extra vacation or two each year. What are some of the biggest time wasters?

Distractions
Interruptions
Poor planning
Perfectionism
Procrastination

You may have been expecting to see things like phone calls, email, or meetings. These items can be a distraction, an interruption, or fall under several other categories. Why aren’t they at the top of the list?

Imagine the importance of your job if you received no calls, no email, and never had a meeting? It is hard to imagine much value in your job if there is no cause for action. The bigger catalyst then becomes about your planning and management habits.

Leadership Efficiency

What about the executive? The President or CEO, that is hyper-engaged in the business? Are they productive?

Some of the biggest time wasters for the executive (supervisor, manager, director, et al) are poor delegation skills, a lack of trust in employees, and perfectionism. The root causes? It all falls back to established habits.

Many workplace professionals feel that there just isn’t enough time.

Maybe, there just isn’t enough focus.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

09
Jan 18
-

How to Balance Productivity and Worry

Tags : coaching productivity stress time management worry

Getting organized, understanding what needs accomplished, and making the best use of our time is important for every professional. Do you worry about obstacles, roadblocks, and asteroids? How do you balance productivity and worry?

Worth Worry?

We can worry about many things. Worry if our car can make the trip, if it will start in sub-zero temperatures, or if the air conditioning system will still function properly next season.

We may worry about paying for taxes, the age of the windows in our home or the roof over our head.

Career driven people may worry if they are on track, how the Company is doing, and will they get the promotion or do they need to find a new job.

People can worry chronically, about their life, their health, or how they’ll cover their MasterCard bill.

Worry can be disabling. Worry is stress, discomfort, anxiety, and more. It can turn to physical problems including illness or even death.

Does worry have any value? Worrying about tire pressure or wearing a seat belt has value. It makes us safer. So does wearing a helmet on a bicycle or motorcycle. Being conscious of debt to income ratio and the cost of food and housing also has some value.

Does thinking about risk and labeling it worry have any value? Will it make you more productive? Can it make you less productive?

Balance Productivity and Worry

What you accomplish in one hour today is worth a lot to you. How much you worry during an hour probably not so much.

Worrying and risk assessment has value when it causes us to alter our behaviors or habits into more productive outcomes. Consider a safer commute to work, with a seat belt, appropriate speed, and no texting. Mindful management of debt and paying the mortgage instead of taking a luxurious trip also has some value.

When you want to be both productive and successful you’ll have to decide how you want to spend your time and energy. Will you balance productivity and worry? Worry will destroy your energy, but productivity expands it.

Avoid the distractions that keep you from your best work.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: time management

May 21

-

Time Data Anchor

Jan 21

-

Procrastination Ruins Productivity

Nov 19

-

Productivity or Strategy?

Productive Way

Mar 19

-

Workplace Excuses

Schedule Conflicts

Feb 19

-

What’s Your Focus?

Managing Time

Aug 18

-

More Time

Leadership Efficiency

Jan 18

-

Worth Worry?

Balance Productivity and Worry

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