The Hindu Business Line : Strategies for time management

Are you perpetually running around not only doing the things that you are busy with, but also thinking of all the other things you have to do, the things you should be doing, the things you want to do and the things you need to do? `Caught in a whirlwind', `spinning like a top', `being in a whirlpool', `running against time'... these are some of the expressions that people in corporate India use to describe their lives.

There is increasing talk of restlessness and a feeling of racing against time. There is just too much to do and too little time and, sometimes, too few people to do what needs to be done.

March was hectic with year-end closing, but April seemed no better.

Planning for a vacation in May seemed even more hard work, what with the need to tie up all the loose ends.

A senior executive confides that he spends sleepless nights worried that in the race to leverage all the opportunities available, his company is sacrificing quality as well as long-term strategy. Indeed who has the time to look at strategy?

Companies plan senior management workouts to discuss strategy in exotic locations, but executives are so busy thrashing out current issues that there is little or no time to enjoy the environment.

Many executives are victims of the `3 am syndrome' — they are wide-awake at 3 am (when `hell wakes up') and cannot go back to sleep.

A professor says that 10 years ago life was peaceful, dividing his time between research and teaching, but today life is so flooded with consulting engagements that his days have completely changed.

There are more people taking Personal Time Utilisation surveys now than ever before.

A friend feels guilty that he is never around when his college-going, hostel-bred son comes home for a vacation since that's the time of year that organisations have off-sites. Family schedules never seem to match!

One learning area that we hear about from young managers, middle and senior managers or CEOs is the time-tested training need for managing time.

With over 300 e-mail messages coming in each day and a hundred calls on the mobile phone, is there ever time to do anything else?

These are just a few snapshots of life in corporate India. So how are people coping with this situation of `always so much to do'? There are, of course, many who seem to enjoy it — a new sense of being wanted, being busy, a sense of meaning and fulfilment. But there are also several others who seem concerned and restless.

A decade ago, the solution was simple — sponsor the executive for a time management programme. The programme would tell the executive that the solution to managing time is to prioritise, plan, delegate, set goals, structure each day, value time, replicate themselves, get organised, become focused in the moment and eliminate time wasters — all sound advice and indisputable. However, if it was so simple how is it that today's smart executives have not figured it out?

The reason, in my view, is that all such advice is tactical, while the need of the hour is for strategic measures. Individuals (and organisations too) are in the same boat of figuring out how to achieve sustainable levels of long-term performance while meeting the challenge of doing more with less.

From a strategic point of view, therefore, the starting point is to define your core and build depth rather than stretch yourself thin. If you are faced with a shortage of resources, limit your work to a few assignments or customers and ensure quality results. This takes less effort and resources and is far more gratifying in the long run. Holds equally good for both individuals and organisations!

Sustaining intention and focus over time is the next challenge. In today's world of excessive opportunities, the temptation to grab an opportunity first and then think of how to do it is very high. The opportunities in themselves are enormously tempting and it is almost as if all that you wanted in the last many years is being made available today. Each opportunity needs to be considered carefully and we need to learn to say "No" to more work when it would be counter productive.

And finally, securing the future is as important as riding the present. There is a need to learn to make hard trade-offs. You may need to evaluate your assignments and do away with anything that is not adding value. You may even need to give up an area of strength that you have built up over the past many years, take a hard decision to step out of an assignment, portfolio, function or even a job to allow you to take up something that is your future and do justice to it!

(The writer is a Principal Consultant at Totus Consulting, a strategic HR consulting firm that designs and implements HR systems and processes for organisations across diverse industries)