“There’s no magic pill!!!”

Becoming a better time manager

Could it be that because we are so accustomed to time wasters when someone really organized and on target comes along we can’t help but notice?

What’s their trick?

It’s no trick, industry educator John Koontz told foremen recently at a “Practical Time Management Skills for Foremen” seminar. Improving time management skills is difficult. PERIOD. “The most productive guys are the ones who think and plan ahead before they go to work. It’s about making every minute count,” Koontz said. Most of us aren’t good managers of time due to the bad habits we fall into. Converting those bad habits into good ones is difficult and time consuming. However, the benefits promise to make the effort well worth it.

One of the keys to becoming a good time manager, Koontz pointed out, is realizing that time is a non-renewable resource; when it’s gone it’s gone. If you give your time away freely and don’t guard it carefully, there will never be enough of it left to accomplish all your goals successfully. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share your time. Just be mindful of how and when you dole it out to others.

There are lots of pitfalls, time wasters, to identify in your work environment and either avoid or correct. Similarly, there are several time management skills, good habits, to build into your daily routine. Koontz advises foremen to identify a few of each that seem to apply to them, then fix one at a time. Trying to fix too many problems at once, he warned, will invite failure. Here are a few major time wasters as well as good habits and what you should know about each.

Some deadly sins

Telephone as boss. “The cell phone was the best and worst thing to happen to us,” Koontz said. Everyone has them and they make it easy to talk to anyone in an instant. That may be good for communication but deadly for time management when incessant calls are left unchecked. The steady stream of disruptions can’t help but prevent you from maintaining the concentration you need to keep focused long enough to solve problems or simply get things done. If you are not managing your telephone it could be managing you. Learn to shut the phone off at critical times, if not during certain hours each day. Study your calls, Koontz suggested, to discover when most of your incoming and outgoing calls occur. If a majority occurs during a certain part of the day, try shutting off the phone during other periods. Train yourself and your callers to limit calls to the same part of the day. The on/off switch on the cell phone should help make this one of the easier disruptions to control. Finally, don’t let phone messages fester too long, or die, in voicemail. Always return messages promptly, Koontz advised, and batch them as much as possible, again to minimize disruptions.

Drop-in visitors. A cousin of the casual phone call, the visitor whose question evolves into a social call can also siphon off your time and productivity. Don’t be unneighborly, Koontz said, but be protective of your time. Deal with their question right away. Say, “What can I do for you” instead of “How are you?” to gain control of the conversation right off the bat. Additionally, don’t make your office area too comfortable, as comfortable people stay longer. Be like a dentist, if necessary, scheduling as much of your time as possible, and never see sales people without an appointment. “Most of your time that is doled out to others, should be by appointment,” Koontz said.

Meetings, meetings and meetings! How many meetings are too many? Any meeting you don’t have to be at is one you should strive to avoid, Koontz said. But if you are forced to attend an unnecessary meeting, bring along some paperwork — memos, a daily log or safety form — to make it productive time.

Just say “no” when you can’t. Great people are remembered not for how much they did, but rather how well they did it. Good foremen aren’t afraid to say NO, when they know taking on another responsibility will diminish their effectiveness significantly. If you can’t do it right now, say so and explain why. Do well what you can do now, and leave the rest for another time. Don’t volunteer to do too much at once.

Good habits to strive for

Schedule quiet time. This is the most important thing you can do to retain ownership of your time. Each day should include in it one hour of quiet time when you go inside your office, shut the door and turn off the telephone. During this undisturbed period you coordinate everything necessary to keep your job moving ahead, solve problems that demand your attention, or take care of other important details that probably won’t get done on the fly. The “quiet hour” should not come at the beginning or end of the day, but somewhere in the middle. Everyone will need to know this is your hour and during it you are only to be disturbed if there’s a dire emergency. Establishing quiet time may be difficult to accomplish, but Koontz urged foremen to give it a try. “All excellent time managers say this is the cornerstone and foundation of effective time management,” he said.

Be goal-driven. People who are goal-oriented usually get more accomplished, Koontz said. Goals can be for the day, for the week or month, or for the job duration. Define each goal clearly and make sure it is realistic, then aim all your plans at their attainment.

Prioritize everything. Good time managers know the value of prioritizing their goals, once they are written down, to make sure things get accomplished in the correct order. Koontz suggested assigning the following four priority labels to everything you do:

• priority: Important but Not Urgent

• 3rd priority: Urgent but Not Important

• 4th priority: Neither Urgent Nor Important

When everything is viewed in terms of its priority, you are more likely to focus on the right things first and not be led off track.

Delegate the right person. “If you want to get the job done right, you have to do it yourself.” It’s okay to think this but foreman surely shouldn’t practice it. “Great foremen don’t make all the decisions or do most of the work,” Koontz said. The good ones delegate as much as possible to get the whole team in step and moving ahead. Don’t assign a task to just anyone you know can do it. Make sure first they are the least senior and expensive worker who can do it properly. In other words, don’t send a journeyman to fetch a particular tool or fitting when an apprentice is handy. You’ll not only keep your costs under control, but also give that lower level person a chance to grow in skill and confidence.

Several more time savers and time wasters can be added to the partial list above. None of the advice within them, however, will be more valuable than the realization that time is non-renewable, and as such is your most important resource for success. Take ownership of that time and treat it as if it were money in your wallet. Don’t give it away too freely, without being selfish when it comes to providing all the help people expect from you. Work hard at becoming an asset to all the people you deal with on the job site, but save enough time for yourself to prepare, to organize the project, and manage your time, and your work crew’s, effectively.

John Koontz currently serves as MCAA’s National Director for Project Management and Advanced Supervisory Education. He is a former associate professor in Purdue University’s Department of Building Construction Management. John has also worked as project manager, project engineer and estimator for mechanical contracting firms. He may be contacted at mechprof@insightbb.com.