The TIME of your Life…
As you progress through the day, log the activities of the day.
Description of the activities may be very brief, e.g. meetings, telephoning, individual work on major projects, correspondence, reading report, writing report, business travelling. Make a note also of the key people involved in the activity and the general level of team spirit. Log the start and finish times at the end of the day.
As you progress through the day, note against each activity the priority rating. The note on priority ratings at the end of this worksheet will give you an idea of a priority system we use in time management.
As you progress through the day, make a judgement about how much time could have been saved on the activity. Clearly you cannot be precise about this time saving but make a rough assessment of potential savings if you or your colleagues had managed time more effectively.
For example, if a meeting you attended was poorly chaired and people were inadequately prepared then estimate how much time could have been saved if these two factors had been corrected. You will find that as you go through the day you will see many opportunities for time saving. Please note which opportunities you identify.
As you progress through the day, assess whether the activity you are working on could have been delegated to a member of your team. Please note any particular problems you might have in delegating this task (e.g. lack of resources, personnel too inexperienced, and so on).
As you progress through the day, take note of any telephone interruptions, directory submission, or unscheduled visits. If you don’t log these fully then make a fair estimate at the end of the day of the number and time spent on interruptions.
