Management Matters

Each edition Jackie Astbury, our Training Manager, will look at the ‘managerial side of life’ and focus on management development, providing guidance, tips, techniques and practical advice on an assortment of topics including performance management, conflict management, time management and many more.

All good TV series spawn spin off series’.  French and Saunders brought Absolutely Fabulous, from Cheers came Fraiser, CSI Miami then New York (coming soon CSI Cradley Heath) and so I introduce The Time Management spin off ‘Stop doing start doing’ where we look at what stops you from achieving things.

One of my least favourite things to hear after “We’ve run out of biscuits” is “I’ve always done it this way” in response to change.

Big deal…with a cherry on top.

Just because you’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean it’s the best way or that you should continue. The problem with habits is that they are entrenched in “always done it that way” and I would say that often procrastination is a habit. This follows, that if procrastination is a habit, you can break it.

Now I’m not saying that this will be a walk in the park with the sun shining, the birds tweeting, eating an ice cream… sorry got a bit carried away there. It is not easy to break a habit, but like all walks in the park on a sunny day (okay I’ll stop that now) it starts with small steps in the right direction.

Ask yourself honestly, what do you need to do in order to manage your time more effectively? If you are feeling brave go one step further and ask yourself “What’s stopping me?” I find in certain situations that I am the reason I don’t achieve things. I procrastinate because I am overwhelmed or I find the task dull or sometimes it just seems a little daunting. It’s natural to feel these emotions at times but it is how you respond that is important.

It’s important to look at the cause rather than focus on the symptoms, so let’s look at some of the common reasons why we almost sabotage ourselves.

“The task is boring” – unless you are an astronaut or Beyoncé, then you are going to have to do boring tasks at times (Although, I bet that astronauts get bored of doing that bouncy moonwalk thing. Beyoncé will have people to do the boring stuff for her but she can’t eat pies so that’s a point in your favour) Ask yourself if it is important. If it is, then think about what the impact of not doing it will be, as sometimes fear goads us into action. Other options are to set a time limit of how long you will spend doing it, the incentive being that after that time you can move on to something more interesting. What can happen in some instances is that we end up completing the task and it was the starting of it that was the issue. You could offer yourself other incentives to complete the task. I always find that cake is a great motivator, but it could be as simple as having a cup of tea after task completion.

“I am overwhelmed” – what I sometimes call ‘bunny in headlights syndrome’ coupled with a chant of “ohmygodohmygodohmygod”. Usually, when you feel overwhelmed, you are thinking about everything that you need to do. Now I don’t like that adage “How do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time.” Why would you want to eat an elephant? They are cute and that would be really mean. So let’s replace it with a really big bowl of pasta (which is much more elephant friendly) and eat it one forkful at a time. Tackling anything huge is easier bit by bit, if you just focus on “all of it” it will seem overwhelming so break the huge task into smaller more manageable chunks and then put them in order. Tackling lots of things is best done by prioritising therefore ask yourself what is the most important thing, do that first, then what is the next important thing and do that afterwards.

Take a step back and be more realistic about what you can achieve.

The key thing is to identify whatever it is that is stopping you and once you have acknowledged what that is, do something about it.

Remember the longer you leave a task the harder it will be to start and potentially the more critical it will be. You do not want to be in a situation where you are constantly firefighting.

Next month I will talk about a great book that changed the way I deal with tasks called ‘Eat that frog’ (please note, as with the elephant comment, this is not about really eating a frog. No animals were harmed in the production of this article.) We will also look at how to deal with interruptions.

Until then dear readers as Mr Shakespeare wisely said, “Make use of time, let not advantage slip.”

For more information about management training for your business or for a friendly chat on guidance on training and development of staff contact Jackie Astbury on jackieastbury@chadlaw.co.uk or telephone 0113 2523452.