Time Management

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Introduction

The subject of time management is very popular in business training and yet it is something of a misnomer as time itself cannot really be managed in the same way as the other resources that we have at our disposal.

Each one of us has the same time available to us. There are 7 days in a week, 24 hours in a day and 3600 seconds in an hour. What we can do is manage ourselves so that we can achieve the goals we have set within the required time. But most business people want to manage their time not so that they can have more free time but so that they can fit even more activity into their already busy day.

As Christians it’s important to remember that our time is in God’s hands (Psalm 31 v15), that all our days were written in his book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139 v 16) and that as we number our days aright we will gain wisdom (Psalm 90 v12).

We are filled with the Holy Spirit and its as we depend on Him that He can fulfil His purposes in our lives. 

Imagine a wick that is placed in oil, and then lit. If the oil runs out, the wick burns. As long as there is oil, the wick doesn’t burn. As long as we are living in dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be less likely to burn out. 

The question to ask is this: "What’s burning?"

Our first priority – time with God

Managing time then is about understanding God’s will for us and using our time in pursuit of His will. We need to get our priorities right.

A time management consultant was once giving a lecture to a group of students. He placed a glass bowl on the table and filled it with large stones. ‘Is the bowl full?’ he asked them? ‘Yes’ they replied. He then pulled out a bag of pebbles from under the table and fitted them in around the large stones. ‘Is the bowl full?’ he asked again. ‘Yes’ they replied. He then pulled out a bag of sand and poured it into the bowl. ‘Is the bowl full now?’ he asked them. ‘Probably’ they cried, getting wise to his tricks. ‘No’, he shouted and poured a jug of water into the bowl. ‘What lesson can you learn from this demonstration?’ he asked them. The students started to discuss what they had seen. ‘Its amazing how much you can fit in if you really try’, was their suggested conclusion. ‘No’, said the time management consultant’ ‘the lesson is this: get your big stones in first or you won’t get them in at all’.

So the lesson is simple: what are your big stones?

For us, surely they are time for God; time for your family and friends; time for the things that make you the person God has made you to be; time for rest and creativity and time for worship, bible study and prayer.

But this can be really hard to achieve. And what is one of the best ways of avoiding the painful discernment that is required? Well, being busy of course. But often busy with the wrong things, and often regretting the important things that are left undone. We are so busy climbing the ladder that we fail to see that it is leaning against the wrong wall. It is only by daring to stop, by discerning priorities, that we will get our big stones in place.

(Adapted from A place of work or a space to reflect? Stephen Cottrel, Bishop of Reading on http://www.oxford.anglican.org)

Times with God are the big stones that should be first in our schedules: annually, monthly, weekly and daily.

Time stealers

In our daily and weekly working time there are many things that keep us busy but stop us from achieving our goals – time stealers!

What are your times stealers?
Take some time to make a list of some of those that affect your working week.

Some typical time stealers

• Interruptions - telephone
• Too many meetings
• Tasks I should have delegated
• Procrastination and indecision
• Acting with incomplete information
• Unclear objectives
• Poor communication
• Lack of planning
• Stress
• Tiredness

Be purposeful in avoiding your time stealers!

Urgent and important time management matrix and MoSCoW

The judgement as to whether activities are urgent, important, both or neither, is crucial for good time management. Most inexperienced people, and people who are not good at time management, or in managing their environment, tend to spend most of their time in boxes 1 and 3. Poor time managers tend to prioritise tasks (and thereby their time), according to who shouted last and loudest (interestingly, loudness normally correlates to seniority, which discourages most people from questioning and probing the real importance and urgency of tasks received from bosses and senior managers). Any spare time is typically spent in box 4, which comprises only aimless and non-productive activities. Most people spend the least time of all in box 2, which is the most critical area for success.

Example urgent and important time management matrix

	urgent	not urgent
important	1 – Must do ·        Time with God ·        Assignments ·        demands from line-managers ·        planned tasks or project work now due ·        meetings and appointments	2 – Should do ·        planning, preparation, scheduling ·        research, investigation ·        networking and relationship building ·        thinking, creating, designing ·        anticipation and prevention
not important	3 – Could do! ·        trivial requests from others ·        apparent emergencies ·        ad-hoc interruptions and distractions ·        pointless routines or activities ·        accumulated unresolved trivia	4 – Won’t do ·        'comfort' activities, computer games, net surfing ·        daydreaming, doodling, over-long breaks ·        reading nonsense or irrelevant material ·        embellishment and over-production

Must do – Should do – Could do – Won’t do

Box 1 – Must do

Subject to confirming the importance and the urgency of these tasks, these tasks need doing now. Prioritise tasks that fall into this category according to their relative urgency. These tasks should include activities that you'll previously have planned in box 2, which move into box 1 when the time-slot arrives.

Look for ways to break a task into two stages if it's an unplanned demand - often a suitable initial 'holding' response or acknowledgment, with a commitment to resolve or complete at a later date, will enable you to resume other planned tasks.

Box 2 – Should do

These tasks are most critical to success, and yet commonly are the most neglected. These activities include planning, strategic thinking, deciding direction and aims, etc., all crucial for success and development. You must plan time-slots for doing these tasks, and if necessary plan where you will do them free from interruptions, or 'urgent' matters from quadrant 1 and 3 will take precedence.

Having a visible schedule is the key to being able to protect these vital time-slots.

Box 3 – Could do!

You could do these tasks if you have time left but most likely it will be better to scrutinise these demands and re-assess the real importance of them.

Look for causes of repeating demands in this area and seek to prevent re-occurrence. Educate and train others, including colleagues and managers, to identify long-term remedies, not just quick fixes. For significant repeating demands in this area, create a project to resolve the cause, which will be a quadrant 2 task. Help others to manage their own time and priorities, so they don't bounce their pressures onto you.

Box 4 – Won’t do

These activities are not tasks, they are habitual comforters which provide a refuge from the effort of discipline and proactivity. Some of them may sometimes be useful for relaxation but often they can be demotivating because they have no positive outcomes.

Age to age He stands
And time is in His hands
Beginning and the end


How great is our God