Time allocation: the long and short of it

A fact is a fact: We can neither stop time nor create more of it. An effective manager is aware that time is a finite, non-renewable resource that must be carefully managed.

A panicky manager will try to squeeze time in his grasp to keep it from slipping away. The symptoms are familiar to us all: days jammed with schedules, meetings with rigid agendas, and scant, jealously guarded unscheduled time. The panicked manager’s constant anxiety comes from the problem of how to do too much work in not enough time.

The Sandler Systems manager sees time as a frame in which to accomplish activity. There is always too much to be done. But the secret is that there are two—and only two—ways of framing time: the short-term time frame and the long-term time frame.

Short-term time, on the whole, will always be felt more urgently. Long-term time will always be more important. Some things need to be done yesterday, while many important things require the unfolding of processes, which take time. You simply cannot rush a gourmet meal or a quality project.

Depending on the exact nature of your sales cycle and your ordering and shipment times, “short-term” and “long-term” will have different meanings. Decide for yourself what your windows are for each. Is your short-term from now until tomorrow or until two weeks from now? What are your long-term time frames? We all are directed by quarterly and annual goals. Does your planning extend beyond that time? Do you work, from time to time, on your five-year plan?

This is basically how you frame your time for work—doing the tasks that lead you toward achieving. Whether they are major or minor is closely related to the nature of the goals they are directed toward attaining. Reading routine mail is of minor importance. Gathering information to complete a bidding process is of major importance.

One way to simplify organizing and prioritizing your tasks and activities is to reduce “work clutter.” There are many activities that clutter our days, robbing us of time. Some are interruptions from outside—phone calls, drop-in visitors, pop-up crises. You probably have a few personal time-wasters—not saying “no,” refusing to delegate or having a messy work area. And then there are some time wasters that are just part of the job, such as work-related reading material, business travel and meetings.

In addition to the relative importance of the tasks you are performing, you must consider the relative urgency of each task. Some tasks are very urgent, and others can be deferred. There can be urgent tasks related to long-term efforts, like arranging a planning meeting, and there can be deferrable, short-term tasks, like responding to routine phone calls.

In general, there are no hard and fast, right or wrong answers here. What is important is the thinking going on that invites you, as a manager, to frame your activities over time. v

© 2006 Sandler Systems, Inc. The Sandler Sales Institute is an international sales & management training/consulting firm since 1967. For information on the next free public seminar, call Awareness Management Systems, @ 573-445-7694. Visit us at www.awarenessmanagement.com.