"I'm going to miss my flight!" Andrew was stressing as he packed in a rush. "What a disaster. I will have failed before I even get there if I miss the flight."

Andrew was going overseas on a business trip. This trip was longer than most of his trips. He had been at the office 15 or more hours each day for the last few days trying to get everything in order. "There is no-one else in this organization who can run this department." He was thinking to himself, so he kept working the ridiculous hours. How was he going to cope? While he was away he had to do his day-to-day work AND all the work for the trip.

"I have enough work to keep me here 24x7!" Andrew (not his real name) moaned with a desperate look in his eyes.

Finally, with no other option he told himself, "I'll give it my best shot and clean up the mess when I get back." He allowed himself about 2 hours each day to "keep the ball rolling" back at the office.

This is true for most people today. There is so much information, so many ways people can contact you and your boss wants you to do more with less resources. Business time management is much more about deciding what gets done than trying to get everything done. Otherwise your heading for job burnout.

I believe we have moved to a stage in our work lives where it is impossible for most people to get all their tasks done. Time management at work now requires a different mindset. This is a mental hurdle for many of our clients. They hold on to the idea that one day they can "catch-up".

I say, forget It. Don't even try to catch-up.

Turn your focus to what is critical.

Let's get back to Andrew. How do you think things went at the office while he was on his business trip?

A funny thing never happened. Nothing major fell apart. Basically he did everything critical in 2 hours a day.

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Here's the thing - because he knew he only had about 2 hours, he focused on the MOST important tasks. And these tasks kept almost everything running.

Business time management is about deciding what to do and what NOT to do (or what to STOP DOING).

Now I am not suggesting that everyone can work 2 hours a day and be successful (though Tim Ferriss, author of The 4 Hour Work Week might disagree with me!). Andrew actually had a distinct advantage. He was not in the office, AND he was a long way away. About 95% of Andrew's interruptions disappeared. This meant he could put his attention to the important tasks and have two solid uninterrupted hours of high impact work.

How often do you get 2 hours uninterrupted to work on high priority, high impact tasks?

I observe managers who are do not get two hours a day for high impact tasks, and yet they still work 12 or more hours a day. Their time is stolen by interruptions and wasted on low impact tasks. I suggest that most managers need to allow between two and four hours a day for interruptions. These are neither good nor bad, they are part of managing a team. The trick is to still get the critical, high impact tasks done, like Andrew while he was away.

How do you do this? Here are two ways to get started. Ask yourself these questions.
If you could only work 2 hours a day what tasks would you choose to do?
If you were going on holidays for a month tonight and you had to leave work at 6pm, what would you spend your time on?

The answers to these questions are guidelines as to what has the biggest impact in your role. Make sure you spend most of your time on these areas.

Related Articles:

Time Management in the workplace

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Links you should visit

1) Time for FUN Put some fun into your day by watching this short video of how an Aussie teenager "communicates" with his Dad

2) Time Management Central.net time management videos to inspire you to use your time wisely.

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