Hard Truths about time management

I spend a good bit of time discussing time management with leaders. Sadly, this requires brutal truths. Such as, the phrase ”time management” is a misnomer. It can’t be done! Go ahead, try it. Put 65 seconds in a minute or five more minutes in an hour, or (what we all wish for), one more day each week to get it all done. We can’t. We simply cannot manage time. It is immovable and unstoppable. The best we can do is manage our ourselves in time.

”Time management” is a misnomer.

Here’s another hard truth: the phrase, “I don't have time,” is a lie. Everytime. We couldn't utter the words if we didn't have time. It takes time to say words. Only the dead could think this honestly and the dead don't think. Therefore, it is impossible to say "I don't have time" truthfully. It is we who choose what to do with that time.

Here’s a third hard truth.  Think of the most successful person you know. Now think of the the least successful person you know? Likely, the only thing they have in common is the amount of time they have--24 hours every day, 60 minutes in every hour.

SO the final hard truth. The biggest challenge in managing ourselves in time is not a lack of tactics or even a lack of time itself; it is a lack of discipline.

The biggest challenge in managing ourselves in time is not a lack of tactics or even a lack of time itself; it is a lack of discipline.

When we are in the lower levels of an organization we are outwardly directed. Those above us dictate the timing of our work and when we do what. Once we move up the ranks we are faced with the horrible realization that we determine what gets placed on our calendar. This requires real clarity and fierce discipline. Suddenly we need to know what is most important and how to keep those things which are merely urgent out of the way so that we can achieve "most important." This is where many leaders run off track.

It is the easy to measure our leadership by how well we answer email or how available we are to every whim and need of those we serve. We can get further confused and think that “humble, servant leadership” means that we should be doing the menial tasks to show that we are willing to do so. Sadly, it just ain’t so.

Too many leaders dedicate themselves to answering every email within seconds and allowing anyone to schedule time on their schedule; they will say yes to every invitation and be available around the clock to any request or need. They may confuse themselves into thinking that this shows responsive helpfulness. It shows a severe lack of discipline.

Peter Drucker taught us that “Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.” He also told us, “If you have more than five goals, you have none.” Good leaders have a to-do list. Transformative, determined leaders have a to-don’t list.

“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.”

Am I trashing servant leadership? Absolutely not. Yet another hard truth is that we all die with a full inbox, and there will be things only we can do that will still not get done. That is the reality. Therefore, spending time on things others could do is a failure of leadership. This is not a hard and fast rule—there are times when the leader making the coffee is the right thing—but consider a different perspective.

We remember John F. Kennedy's vision to put a man on the moon within the decade. Sometime after that speech, he was walking through Cape Canaveral and met a custodian. JFK asked what he did at Cape Canaveral and the man replied, “I am putting a man on the moon.”

That man did not tell his children he was sweeping floors. He told them he was helping put a man on the moon—and he was right. His contribution was not strapping into the rocket or doing the math or welding the iron. It was sweeping the floor. And he did it with pride and dignity. We got to the moon only with his contribution.

So we might think of it this way: doing tasks that are best done by others as a regular course is not servant leadership; it is robbing others of the dignity of their contribution. If others are not working with that inspired dignity, it is not a sign that you should do the work for them. It is a sign your vision isn’t clear enough.

If others are not working with a sense of inspired dignity, it is not a sign that you should do the work for them. It is a sign your vision isn’t clear enough.

Claiming fierce ownership of our time in a hallmark of transformative leadership. Which of these five hard truths stick out most to you?