Time management? What a joke! Who can manage time? Time ticks no matter what we do and it has been said that we're living a life and the clock is ticking backwards to death. With this is mind, does it make sense to manage time or manage what we do in regards to our roles, goals and aim in life? Wait! Purpose? Roles? Aim? You may be asking what all this is and where I'm coming from. Many years ago I would've asked the same questions. Roles can be thought of as what we do and who we are to others. For example, husband, father, trainer, coach, etc. We all know what goals are. I'm being brief with all these so I can keep the point of this article simple. Let's move on.....
I was asked to write an article on time management and to share my thoughts.
For the purpose of this article I will continue to use the term "time management" because this is what people know it best by. It's really role management.
The best way I know to explain time management is to show you how I do it. And if requested, I'll expand on these topics and others in future articles. I've used many systems over the years and I'm sure years from now I'll be doing things differently, but not because of new technology, new systems or new ideas. It will be because my roles have changed.
This is how I do it. Everything is based on my primary aim:
"The live, learn and pass on."
This has many levels of meaning to me, but a very condensed version would be to live life to its fullest, to know and understand I don't know everything, to continue to learn and grow every day and finally to pass on so others can learn from my short time on this earth. This aim is the same for every role I fill. It's also the primary aim of EliteFTS, as this company is an extension of me.
My roles are to be a father, husband, son, business owner and friend. My goals (I also don't like this term) are to build a stronger mind and body, to create and grow a positive and productive company and to connect to those I love. These many seem very simple, but I've found the more simple to be guiding forces. They help you become more productive and effective at fulfilling your primary aim. Yes, I do have tasks, objectives and basic responsibilities just like everyone else, but my perspective my be different and thus the reason to do this by pictures. These were taken over the course of one day in the month of May. I don't see tasks and to do's and items on a check list but things that are designed fulfill my primary aim and goals.
A basic breakdown of how I set my days up:
AM (Administrative) - This is usually between 7 - 10:30 AM. This is when I do all my administrative work for the day.
Mid-Day (Connection) - This is usually between 10:30 AM - 8 PM. This is what I call my connection time.
PM (Strategic) - Between 8 PM and 1 AM. This is when I do all my strategic work.
The text and pictures will explain this further.
Administrative work in my home office
Morning Work- This is a picture of one of my home offices. Yes, I have two. I have one designated only for strategic work and another for administrative and other stuff. After getting up, I'll begin my administrative work for the day. This includes e-mails, phone calls, reviewing basic reports and follow up on basic project management. Because I have a full staff to handle most of these things, this work can vary in length from 30 minutes to a few hours based on what I want to get done for the day. I also use this time for reading and education. I average around two books per week and read and follow several web sites and blogs.
Visiting the sandwich artists at Subway
Stocking up at the gas station
Errands - After my morning work, I head into the office. On my way, I pick up my lunch for the day and run any other errands that are on my way to work.
Doing my errands
This is a KEY point. I won't do these unless they're on my way. There are other times I can run errands. Keep in mind once I leave the house, my objective shifted from "administrative" items to "connection" items. I'm not saying this is the reason why I make these stops, but I spend a lot of my time in front of a computer and in the gym. It's good to get out some; if you want to call going to Subway and the Gas Station "getting out."
Time in the warehouse
Warehouse - The first thing I do when I get to the office is walk through the warehouse. Within a few minutes I can get an idea of how we're doing, if we're on time, if we have back orders, if we need to push or back off sales. I also take this time to speak and "connect" to the warehouse staff so they know first-off who I am...and second that I'm there for them. I can also see what new items hit the warehouse so I can check and see how long it will take for them to get loaded on the site. Nothing worse to an owner than having inventory in-house, but not for sale on the site. Although, it does take some time to inventory the products.
Checking out a new shirt logo
On this day we got in a couple new shirts designs we'll be testing out. By this I mean one of my main jobs is to help discover and remove any road blocks that may hold the company back. I do have access and review all the products reports, financial reports, phone reports, key stroke data and many other reports that tell me what everyone does on a daily and hourly basis. These reports however don't tell me how everyone is working together, if they're over-worked, under-worked, stressed, etc. These items are more important to me than all the finical data combined and are the number one reason why I come into the office. It's important to note I'm not the office manager and I know where my limits begin and end. If I do have any concerns or suggestions, I take them to the office or warehouse manager.
My dog
My Dog - No real reason to have this in here, but I did stop off to see my dog on the way back to the office. It was on the way.
My office
Office Time - After the photo shoot, I went back to the office to spend time in the office for the same reason as I spend time in the warehouse. Any work I get done in the office is very minor and administrative as that's not why I'm there. I'm really there to once again be a fly on the wall and get a feel for what's going on, look for roadblocks, etc (connection). I'm also involved in marketing, sales and promotions and this has to be coordinated with purchasing, the warehouse manager, customer service and graphics. Over the past two years this has become a very challenging process with things changing all the time - many times at the last minute so communication is critical.
My training
My Training - The gym is located about 20 yards away from the office and right next to the warehouses for one reason - convenience. There was a time when we had to move the weightroom a few miles away from the office and it drove me insane. Just because I'm training doesn't mean I'm unavailable. Back when I was competing this wasn't the case, but today things are different. During work hours I need to make myself available to my staff as much as I can. If I'm not in the office, then I'll do my best to be in a location I can be found, e-mailed or called. There are times (not that often any more) where someone will need my approval to move forward with a project. This is something that only takes a few seconds to do - unless I'm not available. Then it may take hours or a day. Remember this is still my "connection" time of the day.
Picking the kids up from detention...ummm, I mean school
Picking The Kids Up From School - There is a reason I wanted to add this into the list. I don't have anything against busses and I'm sure as my kids get older it will be uncool for their parents to take them and pick them up from school, but for now this is one part of my day that's important to me. Many people may see this as a task, inconvenience, or a pain. School doesn't let out at after normal business hours and one needs to have a flexible schedule to even do this in the first place, or have someone else do it for them. I choose to pick them up for two reasons. First, being in the car with them is a great time to "connect" with them or just sit back and listen to what they talk about. Just sitting there I can tell how their day went, who their friends are, what subjects they like and don't like, who gets to play the Wii first - and other things they'll fight about. Then, there are those things that come out of every young child's mouth from time to time that will have you laughing for a week and a story that will last a lifetime. The second reason for this is when I look back on my own childhood many of the most meaningful conversations I ever had with my parents happened in the car going back and forth to school, practice or other events. Of course these didn't happen on every trip and may have been as rare as one trip every couple months, but they have lasted in my mind forever and helped to mold me to the person I am today. As I wrote earlier, it's not always about the task or the "to do" item, but the real outcome you want. These trips aren't about being a shuffler, they are about connecting with my children.
I pick them up three of the five days each week, while my wife gets them the other two. This allows her more time in the office. Since she is the office manager, owner, president, her time in the office is more important than mine. Most of my real work is done remotely, as you'll see from this article. All of her work is done in the office, so we plan our weeks and schedules around this fact as well. There may be times when I pick them up every day and I'm usually the one that will stay home if school closes, sick days, etc.
Grabbing a few things from the grocery store
Another quick stop - I'll be the first to admit I can't stand going to the grocery store. I also can't stand spending a lot of time in there. Since I drive right past it almost every day on my way home, I find it easier to run in during midday and grab what I need and get back out. This may take more time than one big trip on the weekend, but it's far easier to run in and out with no lines and in less than 10 minutes. Instead of making a special trip to the store, getting all I need, waiting in some insanely frustrating line and then driving all the way back home. Now that I think about it, I'm almost positive my way takes less time and effort.
Homework time
Homework - I can't lie, I hated homework as a kid and rarely ever did it. Now that I'm older, I wish I would've spent more time doing school work. It would've made so many things much easier, so my kids get to learn from my mistake. The first thing we do when we get home is their homework and then they can play their games, watch TV, etc.
Getting in my shake
Shake - They get their after school snack and I get meal number three, a shake and some almonds.
Cardio
Cardio - While they're playing their games, I get a chance to get my cardio in. I've tried early morning cardio and don't like it for two reasons. When I wake up the last thing I want to do is move around much and it really messes up my administrative work time. I try to get up before the rest of the house to get this work done and when I do cardio first it puts me an hour behind and the kids are up and tearing the house apart. This isn't an issue if I have the most important stuff done before they get up.
Outside time
Outside Time - Once the cardio is done...the game time is over. This is kind of my gauge on how much time I'll let them play. When this is over, I'll head outside with them and do whatever. On this day I was on lifeguard duty but it can be anything just as long as we're outside.
Baseball practice
Baseball Practice - Summer is here and that means so is baseball practice, BMX and any other activities my kids are involved in.
Making dinner
Dinner - Even though I eat the same thing just about every night (meaning many days we're cooking two different meals) we do sit down and eat as a family. I also feel this is important to do and will become more important as the kids get older. Usually this will be followed with more reading with the kids, maybe they play their games more, or we watch a movie. This is pretty much a go-with-the-flow thing. If you go back to the beginning of this article the middle of the day for me is my "connection" time. This is with my staff, family and close friends. Once the kids go to bed that role changes to what I call strategic time. I'm fortunate that I can do this. It hasn't always been this way and for most people, they have a very easy separation between work and home. At 5 PM they're done and their work is behind them. This is one of those things were the grass is always greener on the other side. There are days I wish I could do that. How nice it would be to go to work at 9 AM and leave at 5 PM and never think about work the rest of the day. The reality for me is this won't ever happen because I know I wouldn't be able to meet my aim or goals in a satisfying way by doing that. The way I manage these roles works for me, my business and everyone I love. What more can I ask for other than that?
Strategic Work
Strategic Work - This works after the kids are in bed. Usually by 9 PM the house is quite and I can focus without distraction. If I had to define the real work I do for the business it's done during this time. These hours will usually last 4-5 hours depending on what I'm working on. This work ranges from reviewing reports to planning forecasts, sales, budgets, etc. Also included is new system development, project management, competitive analysis, comparative summaries, creating and reviewing a marketing plan. I'll also look forward and try to determine what I think future trends will be and how we're positioned for them, how we're positioned for growth, stagnation and down turns and if that position isn't good, what do we need to do to fix it. Most all of these things are interrelated and many have connections between them that you can't see at first or second glance until you get digging deeper and focus hard on what every possible outcome could be. While it's very important to have a positive mind set, you also need an auto-ready in case things don't work out. In business things flop and fail far more than they succeed. I don't care what anybody tells you - for me this is a fact I've learned to manage and except. You have to keep trying different things and embrace the mistakes you do make and try to learn from them. If you do enough things wrong, you're bound to stumble across something that works - for a while that is. Not everything works forever and another point that needs to be driven home. Just because something is working now doesn't mean you back off your strategic planning because you better be ready for when it stops working.
I should also note that I also have remote staff who work from their homes and work very late hours. I do keep my e-mail open while I do this work, but will only answer and read e-mails that come from them. I also use a variety of e-mail filters but that can wait for another time.
Final Point - Some final thoughts on all this. This is my baseline and of course there will be some crossing over. For example, I'm writing this during my strategic time because I couldn't get it done earlier today and I can't stand to have things left half completed. This is also a very broad overview of many aspects of what some define as time management. There are many other tips and tricks I use to help me to focus on roles rather than tasks. These include delegation (most people misunderstand what this means. This means to give to some else to do that will not require follow up. If it requires follow-up, then you assign a task but still have ownership to it), organization, technology, communication means and methods, task batching, never touching something twice, outsourcing and many others. Each of these would require more explanation to fully explain how I personally make each one work, what I embrace and what I avoid like the plague. All of this has changed tremendously since my time working as a full-time trainer and doing this out of a spare bedroom to what I do now.
I have no problem sharing these ideas and what has worked for me over the years but this is hard to do because there have been four main stages and role management and it's planning has been vastly different for each one. I decided to go with my current process instead of going back in time because this is what I was asked to write. If you'd like more information on the broad overview for each stage (start up, home business, small business and mid size business) or just more insight on any of these methods or ideas let me know and I'll see what I can do.
You can let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or if you have any great time management tactics you'd like to share with others please feel free to post these as well.