Time management – madamenoire.com

Happy Thursday! Are you always running out of time on your projects at work? Does there not seem enough time to complete all your work, assignments, special projects, and personal development goals? Do you find yourself often wondering if you genuinely have too much on your work plate, or if maybe (only maybe), your time management skills are in need of a little dusting off…hmmm….

I’ve always loved the “Do it, delay it, delegate it or dump it” time management principle. Faced with so many demands in and outside of work, picking our priorities is sometimes easier said than done. Too many times, everything just seems to be a priority. As a result, endless competing priorities render us ineffective, at times even paralyzing us into utter ineffectiveness.

As corporate sisters, we too often are faced with multiple competing demands. And in life or at work, we proverbially try to do it all. Faced with (and intimated by) the negative stereotypes, the overwhelming racial and gender disparity at work, and the obvious male domination of the corporate sphere, we very often attempt to prove ourselves by taking on any and every work assignment or independent project we can. As we are painfully aware, we constantly have to prove ourselves, despite our qualifications, experience or proven character. And very often, while it may work on the outside, such attitude at work leaves us depleted, exhausted, and empty on the inside…In addition to decreasing our effectiveness and lowering our professional results as we go…So what is one to do to prove themselves while still carrying a heavy professional load?

1. Assess your projects or work assignments! Prior to starting anything, sit back, make a list of all your projects, and independently assess each one of them. Is this really a priority? Is the deadline close or far out? How much weight does it have on your review? How important is it as compared to the rest of your goals?
2. Once your assessment complete, and possibly vetted by management to avoid any surprises, proceed to categorizing these as best as possible. If it’s not a crucial project yet still needs to be completed in the foreseeable future, then delay it! If execution of this project can be trusted to someone else, allowing you to deploy your precious resources and energy on a more urgent, more important assignment, then delegate it. Finally, if this project has zero impact on your line of work, provides no benefits to you or your team, and is more costly than beneficial, then well, this may be one to dump!
3. Stand by your decision! Worse than a leader who does not deliver results, is one who does not stand by her decisions. While this process may not exactly be easy or definitive, it needs to be one you stand by and carry through to the end in order to see any results. Keep in mind that you still may have to discuss your decisions with management, and adjust as you go. However, it is best to stick to your original assessment in order to evaluate how well this time management approach works and better it the next time around!

Are you doing it, delaying it, delegating it or dumping it this time around?
The Corporate Sister.