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The clock is ticking. The deadline is getting alarmingly closer. You can feel your heart pounding heavily in your chest. You think of all the things to do and all the timelines to meet. The phone rings and you reach across the desk when suddenly your arm touches your coffee cup and the whole cup spills. Now you look at the results in total dismay. You have to start all over again.

Sounds familiar? You’re lucky if it doesn’t. So many of us are caught in the trap of trying to do too many things with whatever time we have, which by the way, seems to be shrinking faster and faster as we grow older. Ask anyone around how they are doing and the most likely response will be …. Oh! I’m just so busy!

Time management is one of these critical skills, which despite all the workshops we go to, the books we read, the advice we get, we just can’t seem to be able to master. Trying to find the perfect way of getting more things done in the time we have has become the “Holy Grail” of our times. And like the Holy Grail, we haven’t found it yet.

The reason may surprise you. Being told how to manage time is one of the biggest lies we’ve bought into. Time ticks away the same way for every one. And as long as we look for the Holy Grail in books, workshops and through other people’s advice, we won’t find it. That’s because what’s been missing in all the traditional approaches to time management is our active and conscious participation. The Holy Grail of being more productive rests in your head, mind and heart, not in workshops, books or the latest technology.

So if we can’t manage time, what can we manage?

One thing we have control over is our attention. So instead of talking about a time management system, let’s design your own attention management and focusing system.

The first thing to do is to review what’s working for you and let go of what’s not. For instance, do you prefer to use the good old paper based agenda but feel pressured using the latest technology? Don’t be. Unless you enjoy working with all the new gadgets, you might end up wasting more time trying to figure out how they work.

Leverage your strengths and instead of struggling through something you are not good at, buy the services of someone who is passionate about doing the work you need done and is skilled and experienced. Your time is too precious to be doing something you’re not good at, or not enjoying.

In order to productively manage our attention, we must also review the beliefs we hold about time. A belief we have fully adopted as the truth is the myth of multi-tasking. We have come to equate our level of success with our ability to multi-task.

Research conducted by Joshua S. Rubinstein, David E. Meyer and Jeffrey E. Evans - “Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching” shows that multi-tasking may actually be less productive than you think.

Imagine your brain is a huge computer with a different switch for every task to do in a day. Every time you multi-task, your brain must turn off the switch of the task you’re doing, and turn on the switch of the task you turn to. The more you multi-task, the more energy it takes your brain to adapt; and the more complex the tasks are, the more difficult it is for your brain to focus back and forth.

The research found that the inability to concentrate for at least 10 minutes at a time means it might cost a company 20 to 40% in terms of potential efficiency.

Another belief endemic to our society is our need to be busy all the time and to say yes to every opportunity that comes our way. In fact, we are raising a generation of children, who have forgotten what it’s like to be a child. Parents believe that enlisting their children in every possible activity is a sure sign to prove that they love them. In the meantime, parents and society pressures are contributing to children feeling overwhelmed. Not everything we believe we need to do is crucial to our well being or that of our children. We must discern what is good for our professional life, our personal life and our soul, and say no to the rest.

In order to regain our sanity and our time, we must learn to let go of all these unhealthy beliefs and learn to be in the present moment, for it is in the present moment that we are most productive, most efficient and most inspired. Being in the present moment means we are fully engaged in what we do. It means that we are listening with our full attention instead of thinking of a reply before the other person has finished talking. It means we are slowing down instead of rushing. It also means we are allowing our wisdom to emerge and support us, instead of allowing the feeling of being overwhelmed to take over our consciousness.

Here are a few tips to help you regain control of your time and engage your attention:

1. Consciously breathe deeply and remind yourself to do so particularly when feeling overwhelmed
2. Give yourself permission to sit in silence and just be. “Thinking and being time” is just as productive as “doing” time
3. Increase simplicity in your life. I call it simple complexity, as we cannot totally avoid this complex world we live in
4. Use what works for you, not what the TV commercials tell you what works
5. Change your language from one of urgency to one of calmness. For instance, instead of “can’t we get this sooner”, change it to “what’s the actual timeline”
6. Avoid labeling yourself as a procrastinator. Procrastination is a wonderful excuse that hides something else. Be courageous and figure out what the real reason is. It can be fear, not knowing where to start, not knowing how to do it …
7. And make a conscious decision to be fully engaged in managing your attention, not your time

Making a conscious shift to tame time management issues in your life will prove rewarding and effective if you will only carve out time from your hectic schedule to re-evaluate how you are currently spending your time and how you want to spend it in all areas of your life in the future. Remember the clock is always ticking - are you focused and calm?

Published in Canada One

Your worst nightmare just happened. You’re two days into a much-needed vacation when you receive a phone message from one of your best employees telling you he resigns. There goes your vacation and instead of relaxing, you spend the time wondering what happened.

Losing a valuable employee unexpectedly — especially in an industry such as secondary woodworking where good employees can be hard to find — can spell trouble for a company. But it’s more of a common occurrence than you might think. Consider these statistics from the 2005 Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study: only 17 percent of Canadian workers reported being highly engaged with their jobs while 66 percent reported being moderately engaged and 17 percent, fully disengaged. According to the study’s findings, engaged employees tend to stay with the same company longer. Indeed, 63 percent of the people who reported being highly engaged had no plans of leaving their company while only 12 percent of the disengaged employees felt the same way.

The old business truism that replacing a customer is more expensive than retaining a current one also applies to employees. Studies put the cost of replacing an employee as high as 150 percent of an annual salary for hourly employees when direct costs such as replacement and training and indirect costs such as lower productivity are factored in. And if you think that the number one reason employees leave is for more money, think again. Monetary incentive is rarely cited as one of the top five reasons.

What causes employees to become disengaged and more likely to leave? There are a host of reasons but there is one in particular that I think every business needs to pay attention to:  company culture. Regardless of the size of your business, if you embrace a culture of respect, fairness and empowerment, and take a genuine interest in your employees’ well-being, you increase the likelihood of keeping your employees for a long time.

Here are seven strategies to help you translate a healthy company culture into actionable steps:

1. Walk your talk
Employees have a sixth sense and can smell “fake” a mile away. You can’t say that employees are your most valuable assets and walk by without acknowledging them. You can’t advocate open communication and not share your company’s vision with the rest of your organization. Successful companies and business owners are authentic. What they say, feel, think and do perfectly match. Do a mental check before speaking and acting, and encourage the rest of your management team to do the same. Don’t make empty promises; if you promise you will do something, do it. Ask for feedback and mean it.

2. Be fully engaged
Someone I know left his company because his boss hardly ever shared anything with him — whether it was the company’s strategies or how well he was performing. Communicating regularly with your employees goes a long way. Take the time to know your team, to know what excites them, what they like about their jobs, what challenges they have and how you can help them. One of the best ways to engage your employees is to make them feel like they are part of the big picture. Explain to them how their contribution impacts the company.

3. Be proactive with employee development
Employees need to know how well they are doing. Rather than simply give your employees a yearly review, make it a year-round practice. Set individual goals with team members at the start of the every year. Follow up with steady support through coaching and possibly outside training. Check in at the mid-year point to ensure they’re on track, and then meet again at year’s end. See yourself as the coach of a team.  How can you help them realize their potential and by the same token help your company achieve strong results?

4. Allow people to learn and grow
 Many companies shy away from empowering their employees for fear that they will not exercise proper judgment in making decisions. In his book The Four Pillars of High Performance: How Robust Organizations Achieve Extraordinary Results, Paul C. Light makes the point that giving employees authority to make routine decisions helps build strong performing companies. Studies have also shown a significant correlation between employee empowerment, job satisfaction and company financial performance. Savvy employers know that opportunities for growth and development through training, education and empowerment inspire employees and demonstrate investment in that person. Simple things like sending a team member to a trade show and then sharing the information through a presentation reinforce that empowerment.

5. Watch for the signs
Believe it or not, people have an “internal clock” that starts ticking louder as their need for change gets stronger. There’s an HR assessment called The Inventory of Work Attitudes and Motivation that some companies use to measure how long people will do the same thing before feeling the need for change. In one case study a company was losing some of its best employees after two to three years. During  exit interviews, the employees could not really pinpoint any particular reason for their departures. They liked the company and were happy. After agreeing to take the assessment, results showed that these employees needed changes after two to three years. When the company introduced new responsibilities within the employees’ position, retention increased. Regularly check your employees’ level of motivation and enthusiasm for their work. Consistently employ strategy number two and when you “hear” those employee “clocks” ticking, offer alternatives such as working on a new machine or different job responsibilities before they choose the option of leaving.

6. Practice the Golden Rule
How do you want to be treated by the people around you? Chances are it’s no different than how your employees want to be treated. For some reason, as people move into managerial roles, they often adopt a whole new set of beliefs that bosses must be tough. Far from the truth! Bosses, whether they are business owners, managers or supervisors, have a responsibility to model fair and respectful behaviour. Rude and demeaning behaviour is never a motivator. So while there may be times when you’re frustrated by an employee’s actions you’ll be more likely to elicit a positive response by calmly discussing the problem in private and working together to come up with solution. Show employees you care for their well-being. Appreciate their work and their own unique qualities. Say thank you.

7. Create a fun environment
Research conducted at California State University showed that humour in the workplace increases employees’ creativity and productivity and decreases absenteeism. Involve your employees in deciding how they’d like their workplace to be more fun. Some ideas include scheduling mini time outs to help relieve stress, a “joke corner” in the lunchroom, or regular potluck or pizza lunches. What’s important is that you enjoy yourself as well (see strategy one).

All of these strategies are easy to afford and implement. What they cost is some reflection time assessing the culture of your company. Ask yourself some questions: Am I a good boss? Do my employees like coming to work? Your answers can mean the difference between a mediocre workplace with a high employee turnover and an outstanding work environment where employees feel valued and inspired.

printed in Woodworking Canada.com 

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