Executive Time Management

On my first day as a CEO, I felt both exhilarated and overwhelmed. However, through the years, I gained skills that gave me the confidence that I could do a good job. In this next set of articles, I’ll discuss leadership skills that can help you manage time and priorities, direct reports, decisions, quality outcomes, and employees. Some of these skills you may already use, and some may be new.

 

Managing Time and Priorities

If we’re honest, time and priority management is a skill we may learn but never master. Time management is one of the top complaints of CEOs. Nevertheless, there are tried and true techniques that can give you confidence you are managing your time well.

 

As mentioned earlier, I like lists as do most CEOs. Those lists have taken various forms over the years, but they have been a consistent part of my time management skills. In our digital age lists are available electronically, but an old-fashioned pen and paper also work perfectly well.

 

Probably one of the most common techniques is using an index card you keep in your pocket, purse, or portfolio. You simply list your priorities for the day or week. As you move through the day, mark through completed items leaving remaining items to roll over to the next day.

 

That’s list management in its simplest form. More often than not, we have more than we can do in a day, so we must prioritize. In this case I use the ABC Method.

 

Here’s how it works. Again, write down your list of priorities for the day or week. Next, mark each item with an A, B or C; A for your highest priorities, B for your medium priorities and C for the items that can wait. Next, you’ll want to prioritize your A items by marking your highest priority with a 1 and then numbering your other A priorities in numerical order.

 

Let’s say your list has 6 A priority items. As you review them, you find that most of the tasks will take 15-30 minutes to complete, but your highest priority item will take several hours. Often, I’ll knock out several of the 15-minute items to give me a sense of accomplishment before I tackle my more time-consuming priority item.

 

Excerpt from The Extraordinary Business by Mike Hill

 

Write to Mike at Mike.Hill@TeamTrenton.com