8 Thoughts on Time Management: Working More
Written by Anthony Demangone
Last week, I shared the results of a few surveys. In one survey, credit union leaders shared their personal challenges in 2015. Â As you can see from this graphical representation of the results, time management is a huge problem.Â
And the problem runs a bit deeper than the chart indicates. You'll see other challeges, such as lack of resources, priorities, burn out, and staffing. All of those "challenges" seem to be intertwined.Â
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the problem. Most people feel they don't have enough time in their day to get everything done.Â
Let's not kid ourselves. This isn't complicated. You have four choices. You can work longer hours. You can work more efficiently. You can work on fewer things. Or you can do a combination of the three.Â
Today, I'll disuss some thoughts about working more.
- Think like Alabama's Nick Saban  The football coach has a button at his desk that automatically closes his door. It saves him two or three seconds each time he uses it. Now, you might think that makes him a bit manic. But if you shave off three seconds twenty times, you just gained a minute of work. You can't argue with the math. Are there places you can shave off wasted time in your day and replace it with productive time?
- Meetings. Take an hour-long, re-occurring meeting, and shave it down to 45 minutes. Or 30. (Or cancel it, according to Jason Fried!) If your meeting is just as effective, you just saved a few minutes. Also, some meetings are mandatory. Others are not. Learn the difference. If you aren't clear on the difference, try this: Tina, do you have to have me there? Often, Tina will say...no, but I thought I should invite you. I didn't want to leave you out of the meeting and possibly ruffle your feathers.Â
- Shift things. One of my favorite baseball coaches had a saying that stuck with me. "Nothing good ever happened after midnight." He had a good point. If you were a high school athlete, usually, only bad things happen when you are out and about in the wee hours of the morning.  For Coach Scranton, he wanted you home in bed by 11. If not 10 p.m. Certain hours of the day were productive for Coach, and others were dangerous. Now, the older I get, the more I think he was right. Days that start earlier for me are far more productive. If I had to graph my ability to get things done, I think the line of productivity would fall off a cliff at 9 p.m. Coach would say...Demangone, then just go to bed!  But how often do I linger awake until 10:30 or later? Almost always a mistake on a school day.
- Clarity. Write better emails. Hold better meetings. Bad meetings and emails are like cockroaches. If you don't kill them, they multiply. And those cockroaches suck your time.Â
- Do it once, and never do it again. That saying was part of an ad campaign for a bar prepraration course following law school. In other words, take the bar once - don't fail and have to do it all over again. With that in mind, read each email once, and then act. Glancing at an email, only to glance at it again, and then glance at it again...you get my point.  I tend to get more done when I turn off my email notification and address emails periodically.
- Block and Tackle.  Re-organize your time into useful blocks. (Refresher.com) True productivity arises when you create blocks of un-interrupted time to tackle projects.  Starting and stopping, only to start and stop again is very inefficient.
- Actually, work a bit longer. Above, I've discussed a few "tricks" to squeeze some extra productive time into your day. But sometimes, you simply have to come in early and/or leave a bit later than normal. You won't be the first, nor the last to do it.
- Springboards. Never underestimate the power of life's springboards - getting enough sleep, eating right and getting exercise. Everything else works better when you do those three things. All things being equal, you'll just be a better version of yourself.Â
So, have I missed anything? How do you squeeze a bit more work out in the day?