Introduction
DISPLAY 9.7 Time Inventory
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Because the greatest benefit from a time inventory is being able to objectively identify patterns of behavior, it may be necessary to maintain the time inventory for several days or even several weeks. It may also be helpful to repeat the time inventory annually to see if long-term behavior changes have been noted.
Remember, there is no way to beg, borrow, or steal more hours in the day. If time is habitually used ineffectively, managing time will be very stressful.
LEARNING EXERCISE
9.5
Writing a Personal Time Inventory A S S I G N M E N T:
Use the time inventory shown in Display 9.7 to identify your activities for a 24-hour period.
Record your activities on the time inventory on a regular basis. Be specific. Do not trust your memory. Star the periods of time when you were most productive. Circle periods of time when you were least productive. Do not include sleep time. Was this a typical day for you? Could you have modified your activity during your least productive time periods? If so, how?
Integrating Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Time Management
There is a close relationship between time management and stress. Managing time appropriately reduces stress and increases productivity. The current status of health care, the nursing shortage, and decreasing reimbursements have resulted in many health-care organizations trying to do more with less. The effective use of time management tools, therefore, becomes even more important to enable leader-managers to meet personal and professional goals.
The leadership skills needed to manage time resources draw heavily on interpersonal communication skills.
The leader is a resource and role model to subordinates in how to manage time. As has been stressed in other phases of the management process, the leadership skill of self-awareness is also necessary in time
management. Leaders must understand their own value system, which influences how they use time and how they expect subordinates to use time.
The management functions inherent in using time resources wisely are more related to productivity. The manager must be able to prioritize activities of unit functioning to meet short- and long-term unit needs. To do this, the leader-manager must initiate an analysis of time management on the unit level, involve team
members and gain their cooperation in maximizing time use, and guide work to its conclusion and successful implementation.
Successful leader-managers are able to integrate leadership skills and management functions; they accomplish unit goals in a timely and efficient manner in a concerted effort with subordinates. They also recognize time as a valuable unit resource and share responsibility for the use of that resource with subordinates. Perhaps most importantly, the integrated leader-manager with well-developed, time
management skills can maintain greater control over time and energy constraints in his or her personal and professional life.
KEY CONCEPT
Because time is a finite and valuable resource, learning to use it wisely is essential for effective management.
Time management can be reduced to three cyclic steps: (a) allow time for planning and establish priorities; (b) complete the highest priority task, and whenever possible, finish one task before beginning another; and (c) reprioritize based on remaining tasks and new information that may have been received.
Setting aside time at the beginning of each day to plan the day allows the manager to spend appropriate time on high-priority tasks.
Many individuals fall prey to planning fallacies, where they are overly optimistic about the time it will take to complete a task.
Making lists is an appropriate tool to manage daily tasks. This list should not be any longer than what can realistically be accomplished in a day and must include adequate time to accomplish each item on the list and time for the unexpected.
A common cause of procrastination is failure to break large tasks down into smaller ones so that the manager can set short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals.
Lower level managers have more interruptions in their work than do higher level managers. This
results in situational stress and lowered job satisfaction.
Managers must learn strategies to cope with interruptions from socializing.
Because so much paperwork is redundant or unnecessary, the manager needs to develop expertise at prioritizing it and eliminating unnecessary clutter at the work site.
An efficient filing system is invaluable to handling paper overload.
Personal time management refers to “the knowing of self.” Managing time is difficult if a person is unsure of his or her priorities, including personal short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals.
Being punctual implies that you value other people’s time and creates an imperative for them to value your time as well.
Effective time management is an essential part of finding that balance between work life and personal life.
Using a time inventory is one way to gain insight into how and when a person is most productive. It also assists in identifying internal time wasters.