GAINING TIME WITH EISENHOWER AND POMODORO

Carrying on from my recent posting about making a good start to the year, I’ll be sharing a few thoughts this week about how to follow up on the resolution you probably made about becoming better organized in the office.

And I’ll be focusing on a former American president and Italian tomatoes!

An article I came across recently spoke about how to gain an extra hour each day at work by becoming more organised. An interesting topic I thought, so I read it.

A lot of the advice was simple and straight forward – saving time by better managing ones emails, improving the efficiency of meetings and so on – things that I’ve spoken about more than once here on EnglishWaves.

But even if these things seem to be no more than common-sense, ask yourself these questions: do you apply them and respect them each day? And if not, why not?

In terms of time management, two main concepts are frequently mentioned – the Eisenhower Matrix and Francesco Cirillo’s Pomodoro technique. Let me give you a quick recap of these.

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower is credited for devising a method which breaks down tasks into 4 major categories.

The first is Important and Urgent – such as crises or unexpected tasks. In short, they need to be tackled personally and without delay.
The second category is Important but Non-urgent – such as finishing those PowerPoint slides or checking the agenda for next month’s meeting. These need to be done personally but you can set (and, of course, respect) a pertinent deadline.
Next, Unimportant but Urgent – this could include things such as confirming the date of a business lunch. Quite often, these can be delegated.
And finally, Unimportant and Non-Urgent – but be careful what you file here since, as circumstances change, a task filed here could move to a different category. So remember, this quadrant is not a dumping ground!

Ideally, it shouldn’t be too difficult to decide which category the tasks on your to-do list can be filed under. And once you’ve done that, you can decide how much time to devote to them – but be realistic! Don’t try to give yourself an impossible list of things to do in too short a time, and don’t waste time by checking your emails each time a new one arrives or by procrastinating about another task.

The Pomodoro Method – whose name comes from the tomato-shaped kitchen timer originally used by Cirillo at university – recommends dividing time into chunks of 20 to 35 minutes, followed by a five to ten minute break. The idea is that it is easier to remain fully focused for a short time rather than a longer time. As a result, one can gain in efficiency and recuperate the energy expended during the break.

Further research suggests that each individual is more productive at different times of the working day, some have an energy rush first thing in the morning while for others it can be just after lunch.

Have you considered this yourself? Are you a morning person or do you need a couple of coffees to get going? Or are you more productive late afternoon, as I am? I tend to use the morning for calling people and answering emails, the early afternoon for the tasks I find dull and tedious so I can finish with a bang! And feel happy about it too.

I explain to my clients that it may be a good idea, after completing a certain task, to see how satisfied they feel and how tired they are. After occasional surprise – or even opposition – they can quickly see which sort of tasks they perform efficiently and which require more energy or concentration. By cross-referencing this with their energy levels, they are able to allocate different time periods to different types of task.

Having understood the importance of prioritising tasks and allocating the best moment to accomplish them, the next stop is to put this into practice on a regular, sustainable, basis. There’s little to be gained if you try hard for a short time and then allow “bad habits” to kick in again.

Working in an office can often be difficult, with demanding managers and/or critical colleagues that you can’t change. But you can change the way you approach the things you have to do.

I’m not sure that the Eisenhower Matrix or the Pomodoro Technique will allow you to save an hour a day, but I am sure that when linked to other good practices, they should allow you to be more efficient when you’re at work and more relaxed when you aren’t.

And that’s a good target to aim for!

new year's resolutions