Know Thy Time (2, The Effective Executive)

2: Know Thy Time

Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.

The effective executive therefore knows that to manage his time, he first has to know where it actually goes.

THE TIME DEMANDS ON THE EXECUTIVE

In every executive job, a large part of the time must therefore be wasted on things which, though they apparently have to be done, contribute nothing or little.

If one wants to get to the point of having an impact, one needs probably at least an hour and usually much more. And if one has to establish a human relationship, one needs infinitely more time.

But without exception, they make personnel decisions slowly and they make them several times before they really commit themselves.

People-decisions are time-consuming.

“What one does not h ave in one’s feet, one’s got to have in one’s head.”

TIME-DIAGNOSIS

The first step toward executive effectiveness is therefore to record actual time-use.

There are executives who keep such a time log themselves. Others, such as the company chairman just mentioned, have their secretaries do it for them. The important thing is that it gets done, and that the record is made in “real” time, that is at the time of the event itself, rather than later on from memory.

Systematic time management is therefore the next step.

1. First one tries to identify and eliminate the things that need not be done at all, the things that are purely waste of time without any results whatever.

2. The next question is: “Which of the activities on my time log could be done by somebody else just as well, if not better?”

If it means that somebody else ought to do part of “my work,” it is wrong. One is paid for doing one’s own work. And if it implies, as the usual sermon
does, that the laziest manager is the best manager, it is not only nonsense; it is immoral.

But getting rid of anything that can be done by somebody else so that one does not have to delegate but can really get to one’s own work—that is a major improvement in effectiveness.

3. That is the time of others he himself wastes.

Effective executives have learned to ask systematically and without coyness: “What do I do that wastes your time without contributing to your effectiveness?” To ask this question, and to ask it without being afraid of the truth, is a mark of the effective executive.

We usually tend to overrate rather than underrate our importance and to conclude that far too many things can only be done by ourselves.

PRUNING THE TIME-WASTERS

1. The first task here is to identify the time-wasters which follow from lack of system or foresight.

 The recurrent crisis is simply a symptom of slovenliness and laziness.

 A well-managed plant, I soon learned, is a quiet place. A factory that is “dramatic,” a factory in which the "epic of industry" is unfolded before the visitor’s eyes, is poorly managed. A well-managed factory is boring.

2. Time-wastes often result from overstaffing.

 One should only have on a team the knowledges and skills that are needed day in and day out for the bulk of the work.

3. Another common time-waster is malorganization. Its symptom is an excess of meetings.

 An organization in which everybody meets all the time is an organization in which no one gets anything done.

 As a rule, meetings should never be allowed to become the main demand on an executive’s time.

4. The last major time-waster is malfunction in information.

CONSOLIDATING “DISCRETIONARY TIME”

Senior executives rarely have as much as one quarter of their time truly at their disposal and available for the important matters, the matters that contribute, the matters they are being paid for.

But everyone can follow the injunction “Know Thy Time” if he wants to, and be well on the road toward contribution and effectiveness.

-- From "The Effective Executive"