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By Pernille Yde Planck, January 2021
As a manager, your time is often scarce, and only you can prioritize and use it in a way that aligns with the task you’ve been given – the purpose of your job.
If you want to optimize your time management, it is a good idea to start by considering the purpose of your job. What is it that you must do, and which elements are the most important?
This exercise makes it clear what you should base your priorities on – which tasks you should prioritize, and which tasks you may either delegate or say no to.
It may sound simple, but in practice it is not always so easy. Therefore, here you get a tool in the form of a prioritization matrix, which you can use to prioritize your specific work tasks.
The prioritization matrix was originally developed by President Eisenhower as a model for prioritizing military strategies. It is therefore often called the Eisenhower Matrix. It was later used by management guru Stephen Covey, among others, in connection with the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."
The idea behind the model is that you sort your tasks into important/not-important and urgent/not-urgent. Placed in a prioritization matrix, this yields four different quadrants in which you can allocate your tasks based on the purpose of your job.
The square in the upper left contains tasks that are both urgent and important – the firefighting tasks. These are often unforeseen or overlooked tasks that cannot wait even half an hour or until the next day, but require immediate action here and now.
In Quadrant 2 (upper right) lie important tasks that are not urgent. These are large projects, strategic tasks, meeting preparations, and tasks where you need to consider various data or perhaps gather multiple opinions or facts.
Quadrant 3 (lower left) contains tasks that are urgent but not important. Many interruptions fall under this category, such as some phone calls and emails, or a colleague who just stops by.
If you are a manager, it is a good idea to delegate many of the tasks that fall under this category.
Finally, there is Quadrant 4 (lower right), where tasks that are neither urgent nor immediately seem important are placed. Tasks in this quadrant can be both those that contribute positively to your work and those that detract from it. For example, these tasks include minor trivial tasks and procrastination activities, but also restorative tasks – where we come up with good ideas and engage in bonus tasks. These are often the things that give us energy.
Now you know where the various tasks belong in the time management matrix. If you want an overview of how you’ve spent your time – for example, during the past week – try looking back and plotting the different tasks in the matrix. You may even use post-its.
This exercise can help you become more aware of how you want to use your time going forward.
Perhaps you will see that you have spent all your time in meetings. If these are important meetings, where, for example, you have planned how you will work in the coming year, then it may indeed be the right prioritization of your time.
If, however, your entire week has been filled with unimportant meetings, you may need to reconsider whether you can use your time better in relation to the task you have been given as a manager.
It might also be that you discover that you haven’t actually worked on the important non-urgent tasks at all, but instead spent your time answering emails, phone calls, and other inquiries. In that case, it is naturally a good idea to focus on finding a working method where you can spend more time on the tasks in Quadrant 2.
It can sometimes be difficult to prioritize tasks in Quadrant 2 because they are not urgent, and the urgent tasks tend to steal the focus. But these are important tasks, and therefore they must be prioritized.
In general, you should strive to work as much as possible in Quadrant 2, because that is where you plan your work and have focus and breathing room in relation to final deadlines.
By spending time on the tasks in Quadrant 2, you avoid them spilling over into Quadrant 1, where they turn into firefighting.
To keep tasks in Quadrant 2, you can, for example, hold regular status meetings with your employees and your boss. You can also block off parts of your calendar to ensure that suddenly one or three meetings do not prevent you from accomplishing what you have planned.
In addition, you should prioritize small tasks that are important but not urgent, and that take 5–10 minutes to solve.
Regarding tasks that belong in Quadrant 3, it is important that you are aware of when to allow interruptions. As a manager, you naturally cannot avoid being interrupted, but it is your task to assess whether an interruption concerns something you need to address immediately or if it can wait. The person interrupting may naturally want an immediate answer, but as a manager, you must view it from a broader perspective and decide if it can wait. Again, you must assess and prioritize based on the purpose of your job.
It is naturally important that you do not constantly handle tasks that belong in Quadrant 4. If you only work on tasks in this quadrant, you are exclusively dealing with tasks that are neither important nor urgent, which is obviously not desirable.
Too much work on Quadrant 4 tasks can also contribute to stress if you never get to the important tasks.
Hvis du gerne vil arbejde med at være mere bevidst om dit tidsforbrug, kan du tage et helikoptermøde med dig selv en gang om ugen.
Det er en god idé at gøre det enten om mandagen, når du starter på en ny uge, eller fredag eftermiddag inden du går hjem. På helikoptermødet ser du på, hvordan din kommende uge eller den uge, der er gået, ser/så ud. Brug mødet til at skabe overblik og vurdere, hvordan du skal prioritere din tid i den kommende uge.
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