Time Management for IT Professionals
“It’s not at all that we have too short a time to live, but that we squander a great deal of it. Life is long enough, and it’s given in sufficient measure to do many great things if we spend it well.” — Seneca
Time is the currency of our lives. It is more valuable than money. It is a non-renewable resource. We can always make more money, but we cannot create more time. Once it is spent, it is gone forever. And though people scrimp and save every last penny, they freely waste their most valuable asset…time.
Don’t be one of those people.
The IT Professional who manages their time well focuses on the most important things. They deliver the most value. They have their projects completed on time. They do not let important things “slip through the cracks” because they got distracted by trivialities.
A simple formula on the importance of managing your time well:
Managing Your Time = Creating More Value = More Opportunity
Managing your time will allow you to focus on the most critical things. This will help you deliver more value to your family and organization. Delivering more value creates opportunities.
How IT Professionals Can Better Manage Their Time:
Have a System
It is not enough to tell yourself you need to manage your time better. You need a system to support your efforts. You need a system that supports both your tasks and your calendar. You must get away from writing things down on scraps of paper. All your important tasks and commitments need to get into your system. Once you are collecting everything into a digital system, you can optimize from there.
Get it on the Calendar
If you have something important to do, don’t just add it to your to-do list. Put it on your calendar. Make the time commitment. Make it clear to yourself when you will complete that task. If it is important enough to do, it must make it onto your calendar.
Think Like a Lion
This is a mental exercise that helps me focus on my most important tasks. Think of yourself like a lion. Think of your important tasks as antelope. Think of your unimportant tasks as mice. When you are deciding what to work on next…Think like a Lion! Hunt antelope, do not chase mice.
Record Your Time
This practice is recommended by Peter Drucker in The Effective Executive. Record your time throughout the day to better understand where it is being spent. The exercise is simple; just take the time throughout the day to record what you are doing. You can record this in a notebook or on a daily planner. It is a simple but effective exercise. If you do this for a week or two you will have a clear understanding of what your time is being spent on and where you might be wasting it.
Know Your Maker vs. Manager Time
Ask yourself a couple of questions. What time of the day are you most productive? What time of the day do you feel most distracted? Ok, your productive time is your “Maker” time. This is where you do deep work on the highest value projects. Your distracted time is “Manager” time. This is where you work on tasks and schedule meetings. Personally, I feel more productive in the morning. So I do my best to block off time in the morning for projects and creative work. Meetings and task-driven work get done in the afternoon when I tend to be more distracted.
Time is your most precious asset. Spend it wisely. Use systems and mindset to better manage your time to complete your highest value tasks. Make the most of your precious gift of time by spending it on your most valuable tasks and priorities to make.
Instead of wasting your time and getting nothing of importance completed, be the different one. Be the one to makes the most of your time to create value and opportunities.
