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Brick No11: Parkinson's Law
By Matt Weston, Friday 24 October 2003 How to be someone who gets things done When it comes to time-management, entrepreneurs face a much sterner challenge to 9-5ers. Parkinson's Law, 'that work expands to fill the time available for its completion', holds true. And the snag is, as an entrepreneur, your 9-5 can easily stretch to suffocate every waking hour, and with it your social life. Over a third of small business owners work over 60 hours a week. And don't think that the longer you work, the more you get things done. Some home truths - (1) As a small business owner, it's up to you to crack your own whip, set yourself deadlines and get things done (2) Like me, you're probably much better at starting new tasks than completing them - most entrepreneurs I've met are. Before I learnt the simple trick that I'm going to show you today, I typically spent about 80% of my time on the last 20% of a project (3) Entrepreneurs have to learn to be brilliant multi-taskers - the cost of poor multi-tasking is procrastination and failure I swear by this simple trick Today, I'm going to show you a simple trick that has transformed my time management skills. It takes 10 minutes to learn. First, consider this. Say you have three tasks, exactly the same, but due to be completed by next Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It's easy to prioritise them by urgency, isn't it? But what if the task due on the Friday is 10 times as important as the one due on Monday? A to-do list doesn't cut it - you need a way of prioritising tasks of different urgency and importance. So - Urgent? Important? - First, you'll need a to-do list of all your different tasks, big and small. - Take a blank sheet of paper and draw a big + (a plus sign), to divide the paper into four quadrants. - Label the left end of the horizontal axis 'Low Urgency' and the right end 'High Urgency'. - Label the bottom of the vertical axis 'Low Importance' and the top 'High Importance'. - Now, one at a time, transfer your to-do list to the grid you've just drawn. So 'Deliver job to Smith & Sons Ltd by next Wednesday' might be Low Importance, High Urgency, whilst 'Renew Business Plan' might be High Importance, Low Urgency. If you can, use differing degrees of urgency and importance - very high, high, medium, neutral etc. - Optional: I find it helps to draw different sized circles around the tasks, to represent the amount of time the task is likely to take. This isn't an essential step, but it works for me. How to apply the Urgency/ Importance Grid This is my approach - (1) High Urgency, Low Importance Why have I put this category first? I've written before about the importance of getting your first three tasks of the day done quickly. Choose quick and easy tasks, that are urgent but not that important. I try to get three tasks under my belt in the first hour of the day, to get into the habit of getting things done. Once you've got them done, move onto more important tasks - don't spend the whole day firefighting. (2) High Urgency, High Importance The success of your week or day depends on your progress with these 'business critical' High Urgency, High Importance tasks. They need to be your overwhelming priority. They usually have a clear deadline (hence the high urgency), so make sure you don't get distracted and keep to the deadline. I drag myself away to a local coffee shop or even the library, where I'm free from distractions, in order to get these tasks done. It also works for me to impose an earlier deadline and try to deliver before the main deadline. (3) Low Urgency, High Importance These are the big, often strategic tasks that bad time-managers either never get round to doing, or let get in the way of the more pressing day-to-day tasks. The secret is in the urgency. The most common reason these tasks are described as 'Low Urgency' is not because they have a distant deadline, but because they have NO deadline. Without a deadline, things never get done. Low Urgency, High Importance tasks like 'Get quotes for new IT system', 'Develop new spin-off product', 'Arrange networking lunch' or 'Call all customers who haven't ordered for 12 months to get feedback', have a habit of getting permanently left on the backburner. The only solution is to impose deadlines and a timetable on the task - put the timetable on your wall, tell your business partner or employees (if you have any). Get the first few steps of the timetable done as quickly as possible - the first step is the one most people get stuck on. It's also a good idea to set aside a regular time or day to get stuck into these low urgency, high importance tasks. (4) Low Urgency, Low Importance These are the tasks that any middle-manager in a large organisation is told to delegate or bin. As a small business owner with employees it's just as easy - delegate or bin. But if you're on your own it's more difficult. Whatever you do don't dwell on these tasks - deal with them as quickly as is humanly possible. They are the lowest priority. Ask yourself if the task even needs to be done. If it does, can it be outsourced cost-effectively? Can a family member help you with the task to save time? Let's end on a positive As a small business owner, your time is in your own hands - you choose what is important, what is urgent and what is priority. Millions of 9-5 workers, all over the country, are flooded with work and often contradicting priorities - 'the department head wants this done by 1130', 'the MD's just dropped this on my desk and wants it back this morning' and 'I've still got a mountain of invoicing that needs to go out'. Be thankful you're your own boss. If you have staff, or plan to take on staff, share the Urgency/ Importance Grid with them. Appreciate their concerns and workload, and work with them to help them get things done. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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