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Get Real!
Time management critical to balancing your life

Back again with some more tips for better balancing your career and life activities! In this issue we focus on some interesting research findings that may help us better manage our time.

In a Training and Development article, “A Get-Real Guide to Time Management,” Abernathy (1999) reported that the primary challenges to managing time effectively in the workplace are: lack of delegation, interruptions, lack of organization, procrastination, insufficient meeting planning and execution, inappropriate goal-setting and poor e-mail management. If we are aware of these typical time management traps we can work to address them. In upcoming issues, I’ll try to address these factors.

Delegation is important. Too many people in the workplace are probably doing clerical tasks that others can do. Everybody in the organization should be in the right seat (as Jim Collins would say) and doing the appropriate kind of work. We need to reflect on our primary role, prioritize our work on the more value-adding tasks and delegate secretarial and clerical tasks appropriately.

If those in clerical jobs are not proficient at their work, try to provide training and frequent, honest, and specific feedback for skill improvement.

Also, ask yourself, how can the organization best benefit from your assigned role? For example, are there any strategic elements to the job that haven’t been tackled in the past, leaving your area directionless? Determine what the focus of your role should be, what you can bring to the table, and then set compatible priorities to direct your use of time.

If you work in a resource-poor environment and have absolutely no person to delegate certain tasks, then determine whether the task is worthy of your time and/or use technology to execute the task. If you didn’t file the report in question, would anybody know or care? If you still need to file the report, perhaps it can be condensed, modified, or submitted on a less frequent basis. Then create an established electronic framework so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel the next time around.

Dr. Lisa A. Burke is an LSUS associate professor of management and interim chair of the Department of Management and Marketing. She is available to conduct workshops and seminars on a variety of management and marketing topics, including customer service and stress reduction. She may be contacted at 797-5185 or LBurke@lsus.edu.