A common affliction in our busy lives is lack of time management. There is much to do each day—each hour—and it often seems as though there is never enough time to do it all. When this happens over time, items on the to-do list begin to carry over from day to day. Then from week to week. After a while, the deferred list builds while new items pile on too. The list becomes a punishing reminder of everything that isn’t done. Work quality decreases, stress levels go up, and it becomes a self-defeating circle.

Consider Kim (name changed), a newly promoted director in a fast-paced industry. She’d been promoted for her expertise and excellent problem-solving skills. Almost a year into her new role, her confidence about what she knew was beginning to wane because her focus was her seemingly insurmountable list of tasks not yet done. At our initial leadership coaching session, she shared that she’d become so “rushed” for time that one day she even forgot to bring her laptop to work with her.

Kim needed a change. Her success was at risk, and her physical and mental health too. But she didn’t know where to start. Time management seemed too simple (and too tedious). Yet she didn’t have the spare time to reflect and consider what else might help more. Have you been there? In that place where you know you need to do something different but you’re not sure where to start to make progress right away?

Your Time Log Snapshot

Start with where you are. Seek first to understand. For time management, this means taking inventory of how you’re spending your time now. It’s not unlike tracking spending. Know first what your current situation is. Your memory isn’t enough. Neither is a “general sense” of what you do each day. Track your time. In small increments (e.g. every 15 minutes) for several days. Only when you truly know how time is spent can you accurately evaluate what to adjust first.

Once you have a time log, you then have data to evaluate. Where do you see redundant effort? Are you spending the most time on the most important tasks? Do you see things you could stop doing, or do at different times or frequencies? What patterns do you see in your days? If you take the step to track your time, you can learn a lot about your day.

Start with the End in Mind and Identify What is Most Important

Evaluation requires knowing about your priorities and goals. Start with the end in mind…what are the outcomes you desire…and what must you do to achieve that? Consider the primary types of tasks that require most of your time and effort.  These are the things you must complete to achieve your priority goals.

Clarity is key here. If you’re not sure about your priorities for the year, then you cannot be sure about your goals for the quarter…or the week…or today.  Consult with your supervisor or leadership team. Review your organization’s mission, strategic initiatives and annual goals. Examine your individual and team function, processes and job responsibilities. Add your own personal and professional growth goals (especially those that will help you be more effective in your current role).

Compare and Contrast Your Time Log with Your Important Tasks

What do you notice about how you’re spending your time?  What should you keep doing, or spend more time doing? Are you spending time on tasks that, though they may be urgent, are not important to your role and goals? What could you be delegating or scheduling for later? How about tasks that you don’t need to be doing at all, and should rather be assigned to someone else’s responsibilities?

There are many helpful questions you can explore to analyze how effectively you are investing your time. Notice the word, “investing.” If you’re overwhelmed, over scheduled, or otherwise feeling devoid of enough time to do what matters – you’re in danger of depleting time rather than investing time. The more you understand the reality of how you’re spending your time, the more effective you’ll become at time management.

Bring Order to Your Day and Make Time Work for You

The pay-off comes in bringing more order to your day. If you discovered misdirected or ineffective time blocks in your log, start with those. However, if you’re convinced that you’re already spending time on the right things, you still have possibilities for progress. Perhaps you’re spending time on the right things, but you aren’t getting things done quickly enough, you can look for resources to improve efficiency. Another possibility is to look for the times of day when you have higher energy, or fewer distractions. What types of tasks belong in those time periods? It’s also possible that you’re not spending enough time for thinking about strategy or planning how you want your days to evolve.

Try starting with how you want to prioritize your day, and you week. There are two simple but helpful tips to offer to easily prioritize your day. Before I share those, however, let’s pause on the word “how.” How do you want your day to evolve. Better yet, how do you want to be each day? How are you at your best; and how will you be most effective in your role? Are you fast-paced and moving quickly from task to task or person to person? Would you be more effective with a balanced or thoughtful pace? Is it somewhere in between? Consider what will help you operate at your best and what changes you can make within and for yourself.

Simple Strategies to Focus on Priorities

Then consider these two ways you can focus on priorities for better time management. One way is to identify and name the one, two or three most valuable accomplishments for the day. No more than three. This is what prioritization is all about. Not everything has the same level of importance. Take the time you need to understand what’s most important for you; and to build skill in naming a priority regularly. These priority items must be done. You will do more than that. But your focus is on your priority accomplishment(s) for the day. Order your day around that and make time work for you.

A second strategy is time blocking. Here’s where you can list more of those tasks. For time blocking, you’ll look at your whole week. List the tasks you need to get done that week (hint, this may reveal some of your daily priorities). This isn’t a contradiction your daily priority…it’s a larger picture of the week. Once you’ve made your list of weekly tasks, block times for on your calendar to focus on your priority tasks. Block time in your calendar for your priorities, and pay attention to the times of day that are best suited for each priority. Then you can fill in other tasks during other time blocks. For example, a priority task might be time blocked from 9 am until 11 am. Then you might block a half hour before that to review emails. Plan ahead for focused time on priorities and condensed time for other tasks.