Effective Time Management and Career Planning in the Context of Organizational Goals

question

The chapter on time management describes priority setting as a critical step in good time management. Give an example where you personally or have seen a leader fall into one of the time wasters described in the chapter-why did this behavior create time waste? What are some strategies you have developed to minimize wasted time and analyze how might you apply these?
The text states that fiscal planning should reflect the organizations philosophy, goals and objectives. What evidence of this have you discovered in your employment?
Briefly describe your experience or exposure to health care finances. Evaluate how this has this helped you in being more conscious of balancing cost and quality?
Develop a career map for your 5, 10 and 20 year career goals. See learning exercise in Chapter 11 for more details. You may wish to “Google” Career Mapfor some ideas. (application)
Analyze the benefits of creating a resume. (analysis). Appraise steps (if any) you have made towards building your resume such as what can/should be included (evaluation)

Answer

Time Management and Priority Setting

It is also possible to distinguish between a time waster and a time spender. Measures of time and how it is spent often reveal a common pattern in research. People who are disorganized and lack time management often feel that they need more time to get work done and often say “I haven’t got enough time.” The truth is, they have enough time for what they want to do. They often have a high amount of wasted time or what we refer to as “lost time.” This is time that they cannot account for with specific results utilizing the time. High amounts of lost time correlate with lower efficiency in work. A time spender is different; they enjoy their free time and generally feel that they are well organized.

In the Ford example, he did not realize his phone call was pre-empting an agenda item, he lacked verbal skills, and he did not take any follow-up action. This is the behavior of someone who is not skilled in time management. Wasted time can be classified into two different types: internal and external time. The behavior demonstrated in the phone call has caused Dart to experience external time, which is a gap in results. Ford’s lack of verbal skills and failure to take action has caused him to lose time that could have been spent on the agenda item. This has caused internal time, which is time spent doing something different from what was intended. The simplest way to identify wasted time is to compare actual results to desired results in work, home, or study loads. Time is wasted if there is no match in results.

Effective time management is a person who is skillful, organized, and experienced in their work and other daily activities. “Time management” is the process of exercising conscious control over how much time to spend on specific activities. People who don’t know the importance of time always let time control them. In fact, they will lose one thing that they’ll never get again in the rest of their life: time. But for people who understand the importance of time, they are able to do all of their wants and even more. They can also find free time to rest their body and mind. The purpose is that they can find happiness in what they achieve because they can utilize their time effectively. Usually, everyone wants to achieve the best result in the work they do. But sometimes, and often, something can disrupt their work, making the time they spend useless. Wasted time is the gap between expected and actual results in work.

1.1. Example of a Leader Falling into a Time Waster

In the following section, we have an example of a leader who fell into a time waster which Snow has described to be one of the time wasters, comfort. At her previous place of employment, the company developed a system and tool to effectively track and manage employees’ goals and the contribution of each employee towards those goals. The leaders at each level had a set of goals and it was required that they spend at least 5-10% of their time performing activities that directly contributed to those goals. The Vice President level leaders and above were to be assessed yearly based on their efforts towards those goals. Snow’s role was to support company-wide development and in very large part through developing front line employees to be able to take on more responsibilities and excel into higher level positions. He had a great deal of autonomy as to how he would do this and his ultimate goal was to create a larger development organization and then fill it with more developed internal candidates. At the time, there was a very good chance that the system and tools used to track leadership’s goals would be utilized by development which is what led Snow to want to figure out how to get development ‘ready’ for going through the leadership track. He decided that if he were to look at the potential leaders in the development organization as the future leaders he was developing now, he could angle some developmental work with them in a way that would directly benefit leadership in addition to benefiting the individuals. This had occurred to him in late 2006 and the turning point which led to his time wasting happened at a later date. In describing this example we will first show how the behavior was normal and this is key to identifying time wasting behaviors. We will do this by comparing the old behavior to the new time wasting behavior, followed by a then and now comparison. The old and new needs to be chronologically accurate and the then and now should be a side by side comparison of how things were done before compared to now.

1.2. Analysis of Time Waste Caused by the Behavior

The leader spends a significant amount of time responding to emails in an attempt to keep his inbox in single figures. While it is important for a leader to be responsive, it is not necessary to respond to every email as soon as it hits the inbox. The majority of emails can be directed to the trash or a subfolder, the sender can be advised to take alternative action or it may not require a response at all. By cleaning his inbox, the leader is placing a high priority on a task that can easily be delegated to others. This behavior has the potential to impact the efficiency of subordinates who may be awaiting replies or further instructions on the task. In this instance, the leader had wasted his own time and that of his subordinates with little benefit to the achievement of organizational goals.

This section provides a description of how leaders waste time and the impact their time wasting behavior has on subordinates and organizational goals. It is intended to be used as an educational tool to help leaders identify time wasting behavior in themselves and others and understand the repercussions of that behavior. A case can then be made as to why certain time management and priority setting strategies would be beneficial.

1.3. Strategies to Minimize Wasted Time

The more you can increase your awareness of how you are using your time, the easier it will be to identify where and how your time is wasted. Keep a detailed daily diary of how you are using your time. This can be quite tedious and take some effort, as it’s best to write down what you are doing as you are doing it. After a few days to a week, review your diary and identify your time-wasting activities. Determine what the causes or triggers are for those activities, as well as the associated thoughts and emotions. The more you can increase your awareness of the thoughts and emotions that lead to time-wasting activities, the better chance you have of preventing them. With that knowledge, identify alternative activities that are more constructive and better serve your goals. Now schedule the alternative activities, taking into consideration when and where is the best time to do them. This is known as a situational self-management plan, and it is a very effective way to change behavior.

Each of the strategies suggested takes a proactive approach to minimize potential time wasted. Set clear goals and prioritize tasks. If unsure as to what tasks to prioritize, then apply a SMART criteria to determine what are the best courses of action to take. When you set specific goals with measurable outcomes, it is easier to prioritize the tasks at hand. An example of a specific goal is to increase the efficiency of a specific task so that it will take less time. Then you would measure the time the task takes periodically after implementing changes to determine whether the intended outcome had been met. A specific goal that has a measurable outcome provides a strong sense of accomplishment and will help you prioritize tasks.

1.4. Application of Strategies in Personal Context

Frequently, I believe that the quickest way to do an activity is to do it myself. In the short term, that is frequently true. On the other hand, the time I spend teaching the other person to take on the task in my place will frequently save time in the long term and can also lead to a higher quality outcome. I am prepared to admit that I often take the easy option of doing it myself as I frequently convince myself that I can complete the task quicker than explaining what needs to be done to someone else. If I can change this behavior and actually judge whether the task is worth doing myself or delegating it to someone else, I can use my saved time on more strategic tasks. This will involve some assessment of the task in terms of priority and also the other person’s skill/knowledge level. This is something that I will have to develop with practice, trial and error.

Personal strategies for minimising wasted time in my job…

Fiscal Planning Aligned with Organizational Philosophy, Goals, and Objectives

2.1. Evidence of Alignment in Employment

Experience and Exposure to Healthcare Finances

3.1. Brief Description of Experience

3.2. Evaluation of Increased Consciousness in Balancing Cost and Quality

Career Mapping for 5, 10, and 20 Year Goals

4.1. Development of Career Map

4.2. Utilizing Learning Exercise in Chapter 11

4.3. Exploration of Career Map Examples

Benefits of Creating a Resume

5.1. Analysis of Resume Benefits