How Long Does It Take To Become Effective

GETTINGAGRIP.
COM HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME EFFECTIVE?

By Robyn Pearce – The Time Queen

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME EFFECTIVE?

Published by Getting A Grip Publishing

PO Box 29586
Fendalton
Christchurch 8540
New Zealand

Published: December 2011

Typeset: Calibri.

www.gettingagrip.com

© Robyn Pearce. All Rights Reserved. This report includes extracts from “Getting A Grip On Time” 2nd
Edition, due for publication in 2011. Apart from any fair use for the purpose of personal study,
research or review, no part of this document may be reproduced without written consent from the
publisher.

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© Robyn Pearce (1999) 2011. For more help with your time and productivity challenges, 2
check out www.gettingagrip.com or contact support@gettingagrip.com

Contents
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................................4
THE FOUR ELEMENTS TO MANAGING YOUR TIME MORE EFFECTIVELY...............................................................................5
1. THE BIG PICTURE............................................................................................................................................................... 5
2. PLANNING & PRIORITISING, AND THAT EXPANDS TO FOUR SUB-‐SECTIONS: .................................................................................... 5
• Don’t get bogged down in the urgent at the expense of the important .................................................................. 5
• Develop a proactive focus........................................................................................................................................ 5
• Plan weekly, at the beginning of the week .............................................................................................................. 5
• Every day work your 1-‐5 daily plan .......................................................................................................................... 5
3. TIPS AND TECHNIQUES........................................................................................................................................................ 5
4. SANITY GAPS .................................................................................................................................................................... 5
IN WHAT DIRECTION DO YOU WANT TO GO?.....................................................................................................................7
HOW TO SAY ‘NO’: .................................................................................................................................................................... 7
SOME IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT WEEKLY PLANNING .....................................................................................................8
1. IT LINKS OUR GOALS TO OUR ACTIONS .......................................................................................................................................... 8
2. IT GIVES US THE BEST FOCUS ...................................................................................................................................................... 8
3. USING YOUR DIARY IN THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY ........................................................................................................................... 9
HOW TO USE YOUR DAY WISELY........................................................................................................................................9
THE TINY INVESTMENT THAT SAVES HOURS ....................................................................................................................10
IVY LEE’S DAILY 1-‐5 LIST ........................................................................................................................................................ 10
NOW IT’S UP TO YOU!......................................................................................................................................................12
THE GETTINGAGRIP.COM INNER CIRCLE MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM ...................................................................................................... 12
GET YOUR REGULAR SUPPLY OF USEFUL TIME HELP ........................................................................................................................ 13



Introduction
How many people do you know that consider themselves very efficient but have forgotten to take a
compass bearing on where they’re heading? They’re so busy doing things right that they forget to
notice whether they are doing the right things.

We can patch up our habits by applying some new time management practices but, if we don’t
understand why we’re doing what we’re doing, the chance of sustaining those practices is pretty slim
once the first flush of enthusiasm passes or when a crisis hits.

Those who have not taken this reality check often wonder why long-‐term peace of mind and
personal satisfaction don’t follow their improved efficiency. They still feel stressed out, even though
they know they’re wasting less time on unproductive habits. They regularly feel as though the tail is
wagging the dog: that they never seem to catch up, no matter how efficient they’ve become. Familiar?
Such people are almost always focused on how to be more efficient but not on how to be most
effective. They’re not taking the helicopter view.

The good news is that there are a few easy-‐to-‐apply strategies that will have an enormous impact on
your effectiveness.

An effective person achieves the right results with minimum fuss. They are clear about their over-‐
riding purpose and day-‐to-‐day objectives. They don’t waste time on activities which don’t support that
purpose.

KEY POINT No. 1: There’s no point in learning to be efficient if we're efficiently doing the wrong
things.

The Four Elements to Managing Your Time More Effectively

There are only four elements to effective time management (if you have read my take on this
before, apologies for the repeat, but it is that important). If you haven’t got all four areas covered,
you’ll never get a good handle on your time choices.

1. The Big Picture
2. Planning & Prioritising, and that expands to four sub-sections:
• Don’t get bogged down in the urgent at the expense of the important
• Develop a proactive focus
• Plan weekly, at the beginning of the week
• Every day work your 1-5 daily plan
3. Tips and Techniques
4. Sanity Gaps
The big picture gives you your goals, and where you should spend time. It helps you make the right
choices, especially when faced with alternatives.

Good planning and prioritising helps you use your time effectively, and if you’ve got it linked to your
big picture you’ll find it reasonably easy to work your choices into your schedule.

On their own, however, the big picture and planning and prioritising are still not enough. We all
know people brilliant at strategy and great at planning and yet they dawdle through life. You also need
efficiency -‐ to know the fast track techniques, the short cuts, the quick ways to save time.


Some people think that if you’re efficient you’re time-‐smart. No. Short cuts and good techniques
don’t constitute good time management, no matter how smart; it’s too easy to efficiently rush around
doing the wrong things. But combine shortcuts with the first two and you’re getting close.

However, great strategy, great prioritising and great techniques still don’t make for good time
management. It’s just a recipe for a very full diary. You’ll run around like a headless chook, in ever-‐
diminishing circles, until you collapse in a very ugly heap of exhaustion. Fill every waking moment and
you’ll just burn out. We also need sanity gaps. Here you’ve got time out, ‘recharge and refresh’ time, a
chance to smell the roses and live.

A quick glance at this diagram and you can quickly identify where attention needs to go.

Big Picture Plan & Prioritise Tips & Techniques Sanity Gaps

Set goals in: 1. Urgent or Efficiency tips – Recharge time
important? any shortcuts that
1. Self, well-‐being will help you get
Work/life balance
& spirituality 2. Proactive focus your work done
faster and more
2. Business & 3. Weekly plan efficiently. Quality of life
career
4. Daily 1-‐5 plan
3. Home & family

4. Community &
humanity

Focus & Clarity Effectiveness Efficiency Enjoy life


© Robyn Pearce (1999) 2011

Figure 1 The Toolbar of Time

IN WHAT DIRECTION DO YOU WANT TO GO?

If we don’t know the answer to this question, if we don’t have clear goals or a vision for where we
want our life to go, how can we possibly be sure we’ve made the right decisions on a daily basis when
faced with multiple time choices? That clarity gives us the confidence to prioritise effectively. In a
business context it gives us the ability to stay strategic with our focus – keeping to task on the
important few activities that will make the long-‐term difference.

Every day we have to make decisions. ‘Shall I do this or shall I do that?’ There is no shortage of good
ideas and fascinating by-‐ways to distract us. (I promise you – I’m constantly tempted!) A clear picture
of our possible future life gives us far greater power to say ‘no’ or to push back in an appropriate way.
(Not in a career limiting or a relationship limiting way, I hasten to add!)
How To Say ‘NO’:

• ‘Sorry but my time commitments don’t allow me to do that’
• ‘Sounds great but that’s not the focus of my business right now.’
• ‘I love the idea but I wouldn’t be able to give that project the focus you deserve’
• To a boss attempting to overload you: ‘I’m on ….. (projects) right now. I’m happy to take this
new one on, but which of the others would you like me to defer?’
• Or: ‘I’ll be free to start this in …. (Give a realistic time frame). Is that ok or do you need to ask
someone else to take this on?’
• To a family member or friend: ‘I’d love to but I’ve already made a commitment to do something
else.’ (You don’t necessarily have to explain what that other commitment is. It might be to have
some ‘me’ time!)

KEY POINT No. 2: ‘No’ is your most powerful time management tool

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT WEEKLY PLANNING

Let's consider the reasons behind weekly planning.
1. It links our goals to our actions
This is the best way I know to link our long-‐term goals with our day-‐to-‐day activities. It stops those
exciting goals and proactive plans from drifting like smoke into the blue yonder.
2. It gives us the best focus

When, in a beautiful garden we look closely at one plant, the rest of the garden will be slightly out of
focus. If, instead, we stand back and take a wide-‐angle view of the whole garden we get a clearer
perspective of shape, colour and layout.

Scheduling our activities is no different. If we mainly focus on our daily task list (and traditional time
planning does this) we see clearly what's under our nose. That’s equivalent to daily prioritising. It has
its place, but be careful. It tends to immerse us in the urgent, always trying to achieve more, faster,
better. When the focus is on the reactive ‘stuff’ under our nose, including demands from other people,
we easily become caught in an addictive, tail-‐chasing trap.

If instead we take responsibility for long-‐term results and plan our workload in a more strategic and
proactive way, even with work that others have requested from us, we put ourselves in the driving
seat. We’ll be far more able to achieve the things that really matter, we’ll escape that life-‐quenching
sensation of always being off the mark and it also dramatically increases our personal effectiveness.

3. Using your diary in the most effective way

Many people use their diaries (by whatever name – calendar, scheduler -‐ it’s the same thing)
primarily to keep track of appointments. A lesser number also include notes and tasks or ‘to-‐do’ lists.
These uses are good. They’re certainly an advance on not using a diary at all. But -‐ if this is all they’re
used for, their owners are missing the real power of the tool.

KEY POINT 3: The people who get best value out of their diary use it as a planning tool, not just an
appointment taker
HOW TO USE YOUR DAY WISELY

The final step in effective use of our time is the way we make small choices throughout the day. The
critical factor is learning to give the best part of your day to the things that really matter.

How often do you arrive at work with good intentions and an internal conversation
going something like this?

‘Today I am definitely going to start on that report for the boss.

‘I'll book time with the new staff member to check how she’s going.

‘And that heap of professional journals isn't getting any smaller. Jim mentioned there
was a very good article on paper-‐handling systems. I'm sick of my office looking like a
bomb-‐site; I'll definitely dig that article out.’

You reach your office, the phone starts ringing, there is a pile of 'stuff' still waiting to be
attended to from yesterday and two staff members are waiting to see you. You plough
straight into the fray, attending to each item as it waves its hand at you, much too busy to
analyse what is going on. When the rush dies down it's 2 p.m. The good intentions have
become rather jaded, your energy levels have dropped to survival mode because you
haven't even taken time for lunch and you've just remembered that a newsletter must be
done NOW or the secretary won't have time to finish it today.

You may find it reassuring to know that many other people operate the same way most of the time,
but I'm not encouraging you to! Successful people don't make a regular habit of such work patterns.
They don't just start with the tasks under their nose or the ones making the most noise. They don't get
distracted by all the interesting or easier items that gobble up huge tracts of time. Of course, it's more
fun doing the easy and obvious things and appeals to our sense of instant gratification. But, if we're
really honest with ourselves, such items can usually either wait, be passed on to someone else or don't
really need to be done.
THE TINY INVESTMENT THAT SAVES HOURS

Daily planning is simple and very quick -‐ if we’ve already done our planning for the week. Think of it as
an investment – of time.

1. Review the already-‐scheduled appointments. This is an opportunity for adjustment if something
urgent has swooped in.
2. Do a quick reality check on the list of tasks you’d hoped to achieve. What is really likely to fit
into today’s gaps? Because we’ve already done our major wide-‐angle strategic focus for the
week it becomes much easier to defer the time-‐stealers that don't really matter.
3. Apply Ivy Lee’s technique as described next.
4. Feel the satisfaction as you control your day’s activities better.
IVY LEE’S DAILY 1-5 LIST

This famous legend beautifully illustrates a very simple daily planning process.

In America about the beginning of the 1900’s the head of Bethlehem Steel, Charles Schwab, called in
his public relations consultant Ivy Lee (who also had an interest in business) to suggest ways to make
Bethlehem Steel more effective. This was the simple process Mr Lee recommended.


1. At the beginning of the day (or the night before), make a list of all the things you want to do for
the day, in no particular order.

2. Then identify the top five activities. Number them 1 through 5, wherever they are on the list.
Don't bother to number the rest of the list -‐ just the top five.
3. Start at No. 1 and don’t go off it until you’ve finished, gone as far as you wish to go, or as far as
you’re able to go.

When interruptions come, as they always do, ask yourself: ‘Is this new activity more
important than the one I’m working on?’ If it’s not, add the new thing to your list, put it out of
eye-‐range so it doesn’t distract you and stay focused on the more important activity. However,
if it is more important, put the other task aside, work on the new job and when completed go
back to your list (which has been considered and thought about before the day started bossing
you around!).

4. Each time you move to the next number down, check the list. If something that’s jumped on the
list during the day is of higher priority than the activity you’d planned to do, give it lead
position. Because the other things are written on the list instead of jostling for mind space you
can keep them under tight rein -‐ they won’t distract you.

5. If there's any day left once the top five and their relevant queue jumpers have been handled, go
back to the list and number off another five. This saves time at the beginning of the day
prioritising things which you may never get to.

6. If, at the end of the day you’ve only done the first one or two items and everything else was a
queue-‐jumper, at least you have the satisfaction of going home knowing that you’ve done the
most important tasks for the day.

When Schwab asked how much he wished to be paid for this wisdom Lee answered, ‘Teach it to
your managers, all use it for a month and then pay me what you think it's worth.’


A month later a cheque for US$25,000 landed on Ivy Lee's desk. (That’s a lot of money even today!
Think of the value about 100 years ago!)

When asked later why he paid so much for such seemingly simple information, Mr Schwab replied
that it was the single most useful piece of advice he had ever received and significant in moving
Bethlehem Steel into the pre-‐eminent position in the steel industry that it subsequently enjoyed.

KEY POINT No. 4: It’s really simple to take control of your time – just begin the day with at least one
high value task. Even 30 minutes makes a difference, not only to your productivity but also to how
you feel.

Now it’s up to you!
I hope you’ve learned something from this report. But more importantly, I’d like it to prompt you into
action – because, of course, what matters is not knowledge itself, but applied knowledge.

If you read this and do nothing, that’s just as bad as not reading it at all. In fact, it’s worse, because
you’ve wasted your time!

So please take action, and start now.

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GETTINGAGRIP.

COM HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME EFFECTIVE?

By Robyn Pearce – The Time Queen