Time Management

On a whim (well, not REALLY a whim, my review said I should take a course in time management...) I signed up for a course on-line for Time Management. While my review suggested I do this on THIS year's review, I actually signed up for the course over a year ago, but ... didn't have time to finish it.

Anyway, back to the whim, I decided to actually work on the course, so I could tell my boss I did something. I'm on the first exercise, which is writing down EVERY TIME I CHANGE tasks at work, and the time. Example:

7:15 am. Sign on and work diary
7:30 am. Work Que
7:40 am. Bid on e-bay for Dan (my boss, and this is true)
7:42 am. Go get coffee with Dan and listen to the story of the day
7:52 am. Work Que

you get the picture.

Then at the end of a week, you tally up all the time you spend on various tasks, and identify areas where we can use our time more effectively and efficiently. I think one of the biggest time-eaters is my supervisor.

So, today is day 2 of the record keeping. Interestingly, since I know I'm tracking things, I'm magically better already. Whereas most days I have to move most of my "diaries" from today to tomorrow, yesterday and today both I have managed to wade through the entire day's diaries. I've even returned all my phone calls and that alone is a miracle. I usually don't get to my phone calls until 4-5 days later, sometimes even more. And finally, I've been able to get through all my mail both days. Holy cow! This tracking is amazing. It even accounts for lots of wasted time, like typing this blog at work. I started the blog at 2:18 pm. I wrote it in my log. I don't even feel (too) guilty because all my phone calls are returned, all my diaries are current and all my mail is done. I have an hour and a half to go before my day is done here. AMAZING!

I can't wait to see what happens in the rest of the course. Who knows what I might accomplish with all that extra time I'll find!