Time Management is Dead: The New Reality of Productivity

We’ve all been there. There’s mail piled up on the corner of your desk. You have 37 unread e-mails. The phone is ringing (not that phone – the other phone). And you’ll be lucky if you can get through three of the fifteen items on your to-do list.

Oh – and you have four hours of meetings ahead of you.

It didn’t used to be this way. The world has changed in the last decade or so. Has your approach to time management changed with it?

If you find yourself stressed out and frustrated every time you try to hunker down and take control of your time, there’s a good chance that’s because you need a new way to think about time management. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to force yourself to work within a system that just isn’t compatible with the pace of your day or the nature of your work. Just like electronic organizers are perfect for some and others swear by paper planners, even the best time management system will fail if it doesn’t jive with the way you get through each day.

If you’re looking for a productivity system that is compatible with real life, consider 4-A Time Management. By focusing on four key elements of productivity you can create a flexible, customized productivity strategy that is compatible with the fast paced demands of today.

Activity. When there are 117 things that could be done next, how are we supposed to prioritize? In this new era of productivity, it is pretty much impossible to successfully schedule your day in advance. You might set out a clear list of objectives and a bulletproof timetable, but we all know that one unexpected phone call can cause the whole plan to collapse in on itself – priorities change, a crisis pops up, a deadline is moved up a week; these things happen.

Since you can’t plan for everything, it is important that you have a crystal clear understanding of what your priorities are. If something happens that is beyond your control and these priorities need to be adjusted – fine – but until then, you should have a game plan.

Evaluate your to-do list to see which tasks will yield the greatest benefit. The old A-B-C method probably won’t work if the flow of your day changes often. You need a new method of deciding where to spend your valuable time.

Think about the average amount of time that you can work uninterrupted. Which of your tasks will benefit most from that undivided attention? Which require a lot more or much less? Make a plan to work on the bigger, more time-intensive projects when you know you’re least likely to be disturbed. Save the little ones for those windows between meetings and phone calls when you won’t get much else done.

If one of your important projects is just too intimidating for you to ever make any headway, break it down into smaller, manageable steps. I guarantee that nine times out of ten, once you get started you’ll forget why you put it off for so long to begin with.

Availability. The best laid plans won’t stand a chance if you don’t find a way to control your availability. Your time is your most valuable asset. Don’t just give it away to anyone who asks! You’ll never have complete control over your availability, but it’s important to know how to carve out blocks of distraction-free time that is conducive to productivity.

Meetings are notorious for eating up massive blocks of time. Learn to say “no.” It’s pretty likely that you don’t need to be at all of the meetings that you’re attending. Can you send someone in your place? Ask for the minutes to be forwarded? Address the situation with a quick phone call? Evaluate whether the meetings you attend are really necessary.

When you’re not in those meetings, schedule time to work. In some jobs this is easier to do than others. It might just be a matter of shutting your office door and setting your phone to voicemail. Or working from home or heading to Starbucks with your laptop. You might need a clear signal for your co-workers, like using a do-not-disturb sign or putting on head phones when you need to work uninterrupted.

Whatever your solution – don’t abuse it. If you try to make yourself constantly unavailable, you will quickly find that others lose respect for your “I’m busy” signal.

Then you’re right back where you started, whether you’re up against an important deadline or not.

Accessibility. You’ve already decided that you aren’t going to give everyone around constant access to your time. The next step is to make sure that you have easy access to the information, tools, and resources you need to be productive.

Invest the time necessary to make sure the things you need on a regular basis are at your fingertips. Things you access frequently should be filed on your desktop in an organizer or in a drawer that’s at arm’s reach. Put the files you only use occasionally where they are accessible at your desk, but give the easiest access to those things that you reference regularly. Archive files you rarely need in the bottom drawers or in files away from your desk.

Perhaps the most important and overlooked thing you can do to get organized is to structure your electronic files. In an age where most files are electronic, it’s easy to lose them to the vacuum of cyber storage. File electronic documents similar to the way you would paper ones. Don’t just plop everything in “My Documents” or on your desktop and leave it for lost. Set up folders and sub folders that have intuitive titles that you’ll easily navigate. Use dates and enough detail in file names that you won’t have to open multiple documents when you’re looking for something specific. In short, do the initial work of saving the files in an organized manner to make referencing them an easy task.

Stopping to hunt for what you need not only wastes time, but it destroys your rhythm and forces you to break your concentration. It’s well worth it to organize as you go.

Attention. The most effective time management system in the world won’t do a thing to improve your productivity if you don’t focus on the task at hand. For many of us, the problem isn’t a lack of willpower; it’s having the restraint to refuse distractions.

This means closing Outlook when you’re not working on e-mail and trying to check it only a few times a day. Resist the urge to open messages as they come in. This also means letting the voicemail light stay on until you’ve finished what you’re doing. Treat your project time like an appointment with a coworker. Ignore the phone, the e-mail, and the urge to go get a cup of coffee.

Of course, avoiding email and the phone might be much easier than avoiding the distractions that come from coworkers. If you’ve already put your “do not disturb” signal in place, be it headphones or a closed office door, and you’re still being interrupted, it’s time to tactfully redirect the person distracting you.

Acknowledge the issue and let them know you’re in the thick of an important project. Ask if you may give them a call in an hour when they may have your undivided attention.

Just remember – it’s better to be like a postage stamp and stick with something all the way to the end than it is to be a butterfly that flits from task to task!

So forget managing your time – it can’t be managed. Manage yourself with these 4 A’s and you’ll increase the likelihood you’ll have a productive day.

Make it a productive day! ™

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Q: I'm interested in finding some information about productivity and depression in the workplace. This company I interviewed at has cubes that are like boxes. The walls are very high on each cube and the space very small. If you look out your door all you see is another wall. How would this affect a person when you can't see anything but walls in a 4 X 6 environment with no way to stretch your eyes or view of a window to the outside? I can't work here because I would feel like an experiment and it would depress me to not see anything but cork board all day. Isn't it important to have some openness, or is this only about putting as many people in a room as possible?

A: I agree with you…I couldn’t work there either. According to a study reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the effects of productivity loss due to depression (from any cause---not specifically cubicle environment) were equivalent to approximately 2.3 days absent because of sickness per depressed worker per month of being depressed. Productivity losses related to depression appear to exceed the costs of effective treatment. The best treatment of all would be to avoid it all together. I could imagine that the environment you described could contribute to depressive incidents in those tending toward the illness, although some people who are in noisy environments probably think your description sounds like heaven, so I couldn’t say conclusively. Companies have battled with the question of productive work environments for centuries and today generally swing to one of two extremes with cubicle layout. They either embrace a completely “open space” design with low walls, where you can see (and hear) all the people around you. Employees tell me the noise level is unbearable, with speaker phones, loud conversations, music, smells, etc., that it’s nearly impossible to concentrate and hear yourself think. Then some organizations swing completely the other way, similar to the environment you speak of, where walls are high and you can’t see anything, so you begin to feel claustrophobic, like a rat in a cage. Obviously the best answer is somewhere in between, which allows privacy when desired and teamwork where needed, where movable, community areas where a team can gather ad-hoc; where wireless internet is available throughout the campus, so workers can leave the box and go somewhere they feel creative; where partial glass partitions are high enough to buffer noise but blinds or privacy screens can be used to gain privacy. If you’re in a noisy area, there are CDs that create “white noise” in your cubicle and noise-canceling headsets and iPod can help drown out sound. In the stilted environment you describe, you’d have to make an effort to take regular breaks and go outside or at least get near a window. Instead of emailing co-workers who sit in a nearby cube, send a meeting invitation to request some time on their calendars to gain some social interaction. Often once an email goes back and forth several times, it’s a lot easier to pick up the phone or meet in person to hammer it out. Either way, open your mouth and communicate your concerns to management. Your responsibility is being the most productive employee you can be, and leadership should be very interested in rectifying anything you tell them impedes your work and task focus. For more tips on battling depression at work, visit:

Depression affects productivity.

Treating depression improves productivity.

Depression lowers productivity.