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Time Management is the Biggest Lie

Time Management is the Biggest Lie

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 Transcription Time management is the biggest lie in the book. You’ve been told your whole life that if you just managed your time better, everything would work. You’d hit your goals. You’d get everything done. Your staff would perform better. But here’s the truth: time cannot be managed. You can’t stop it. You can’t move it. You can’t stretch it. Calendars and apps don’t manage time. They only organize tasks. Welcome to the Provider Power Moves Podcast. I am your host, Sara Sherman. Here, I leverage my 35 years of experience in the field to give you practical steps that create big results in your agency and in your workday. Pause for a moment. How often do you blame yourself or your staff for poor time management? I hear it all the time. I continually hear about employees who simply need to manage their time better. Given that time management is simply not possible, these staff will never achieve success. They’re focused on the wrong thing — and so are you. Further, think about all the time and energy that is devoted to nagging, harassing, pestering, and writing up employees who fail to “manage their time.” Now you may be thinking, Okay, so Sara, if time management isn’t the issue, then what is — and how do we get staff back on track? Well, I am so very glad that you asked. Here’s what we know. We know that staff are not getting their tasks done. And right now, that’s all we know. So let’s start there. Because staff are not getting their work done in the time allotted, something must be getting in the way. Somewhere, there is a barrier that is impeding the completion of the tasks assigned within the allotted time. This means we have to investigate. If the work isn’t getting done, there are only two possible reasons. First, there may be too many tasks for the time available. So you need to think about whether the amount of work assigned to that period of time is actually completable in that amount of time. This is a process issue. We know that before we can identify a people problem, we have to rule out a process problem. This means you have to first confirm that the work can be done within the time allotted. You can complete a formal time study to figure that out. You can observe staff, or meet with them and discuss the workload. If the work cannot be done within the time available, you’re going to have to make changes in order for you or your staff to be successful. That means you have to move things. You have to figure out what work will be eliminated from the task list and where that work is going to go. If the work can be done within the allotted time, then you have a different problem. You probably have a people problem. While we do not control time, we do control attention. I remember when I was working in case management or service coordination. In social services, we tend to spend a lot of time talking, and not everything we talk about has to do with the tasks of the day. Sometimes we get a bit philosophical. I have to confess, there were days when I was talking to lots of people and felt really tired at the end of the day because I had expended a lot of energy. But when I got back to my office, I realized I hadn’t done anything on my list — and the day was gone. And I thought, Oh my gosh, how did I lose a full day? Was everything I was talking about necessary for the job and for the day? And I had to be honest. The answer was no. Not all of those conversations were necessary. I gave my attention to those conversations in error. It was a mistake. I did not have the available minutes to have some of the conversations that I had. This means I put my attention in the wrong place. Now the good news is that I have complete control over where I put my attention. And so do you. And so do your staff. So if the work can be done in the allotted time, then we know attention is drifting. And we have to ask: Where is our attention drifting? Think about it. Is there anywhere right now that members of your team are experiencing this drift of attention? If the answer is yes, then let’s do a deeper dive. We need to ask the question: What is being done instead of the required tasks? What is being done instead of the required tasks? Make a list. If you’re supervising someone, have them make the list. Then check that list to see if you agree. What kinds of things are taking a little too long? What are you lingering on? Write it all down. You already know the work can be done in the allotted time. Now you’re figuring out what’s getting in the way. Once you’ve reviewed the list and agreed with your staff person’s assessment, the next question is: Why does this barrier exist? Is it because someone is confused about the tasks or task execution? Is it because someone is getting distracted? Is it because the task isn’t enjoyable and gets pushed to the end — and oops, now we’ve run out of time? Is it because there’s a lot of coworker chatter?...
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