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Book
Description
There’s no such
thing as “time management.” You can’t manage time. You can’t make it
last longer or spend it faster than it comes to you. You can’t save it
up for later when you need more. It simply proceeds as it always has,
uninterrupted, and all you can do is live within it.
You Can’t Manage Time – But You Can Manage Many
Priorities is a guide for overwhelmed professionals doing their
level best to get it all done. However, the way to do it isn’t by
managing time but instead by managing yourself – your creativity, your
energy, your communication.
Early on, you’re invited to take a short assessment (“Ask Yourself”)
aimed at identifying your strengths and shortcomings relative to getting
things done. The “Ask Yourself Score Sheet” organizes the responses into
categories, six in all. Five of the six categories are squarely within
your direct ability to control and manage (for example, procrastination,
professionalism, communications). The last category – “Beyond Your
Control” – acknowledges that certainly there are things that fall out of
the sky and land in your lap. But if you think the entire problem of
getting things done is way beyond your individual ability, you’re wrong.
Most of it is well within your power to improve significantly.
That’s what You Can’t Manage Time is about. More than a
mere how-to, it’s a book of encouragement and practical advice:
You can manage many priorities, and here’s how.
There are several stories throughout the book (at least one in every
chapter), drawn from the author’s 25-year career in Information
Technology in a variety of industries. The author also includes the
practical application of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the workplace,
and there are a number of places where practical recommendations about
handling the challenges of managing many priorities are linked to
leading EI authority Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence model.
Excerpt - Managing Email
Long ago, early in
my career, I worked for the University of Southern California, in Los
Angeles, leading a group that was supporting Personal Computers. In
those days, our on-campus group sold PC’s, serviced them and taught
campus users how to use them.
Universities were early adopters of email, and USC was no exception. One
regular user of email, who was also a PC owner, was the university’s
president, Dr. James Zumberge. He’d called us to say he was having
trouble with his email when he dialed up (yes, it was in the days of
dial-up) from home, and could we have someone come out to check out the
trouble. My boss suggested I go.
“Me?” I said. “I’m hardly the team’s top technician.”
“No, but I think a manager should attend to the president,” he said.
Unconvinced, I nonetheless went to Dr. Zumberge’s house to see what the
trouble was.
I drove out to the estate in Pasadena, owned by the school, where the
president resided. I was admitted at the gates, and then drove up to the
front door of this expansive, Spanish-style mansion. In the distance,
dogs were barking as the front door swung open. Mrs. Zumberge showed me
upstairs to Dr. Z’s study, then brought me some tea.
There, next to his large stately desk, sat his ailing PC. I fired it up,
and began an initial examination of the patient. Then I set to work
swapping out cables and connectors, hoping that one of them was at
fault.
While I was effecting repairs, Dr. Z himself entered the room. A tall
slender man who’d been a geologist before becoming an administrator, he
had the sort of the serious, focused demeanor of a scientist. He asked
if there was anything he could do to help.
“I do have one question,” I said. “When you’re in your email, and you’re
re-reading an email you’ve looked at previously, do you have the same
problem both times?”
He tilted his head a bit to one side, as if the question puzzled him.
“I never open the same email twice,” he said. “I read it once and move
on!”
Chagrined, I said, “Oh, of course!” and thought, That must be why he’s
the university president, and I’m crawling around on the floor of his
office swapping cables!
No matter what our job these days, email swamps us, so reading the same
email over and over without responding, forwarding, deleting or taking
some other action is a good way to squander time. The university
president probably had an advantage many of us don’t: He could delegate
to others. Wouldn’t we all like to forward an email to a subordinate
with our own note attached, “Here, handle this”?
Even if you can’t delegate (which, by the way, doesn’t mean you’re off
the hook – you still have to follow up to make sure it gets done, even
if you’re the prez), I’m sure there are many times you’ve handled an
email needlessly more than once. Try not to do that. Whenever possible,
read it, decide, and move on.
Book Review
The Software Quality Advisor Newsletter gives Susan de la Vergne’s new
book You Can’t Manage Time a “5” on a 1-5 scale! Reviewer Randy Rice
says of the book:
“Many times I read books on personal improvement and feel guilty because
I know it's just another book that will be on my shelf and I probably
won't take action on anything (I tend to procrastinate). However, I came
away from this book with many new ideas and techniques I can apply right
away to help me get a grip on getting things done.”
Then he gave it the following ratings:
Readability - 5
Applicability - 5
Coverage of topics - 5
Depth of coverage - 5
Credibility - 5
Accuracy - 5
Relevance to software quality - 5
Overall - 5
Susan’s popular class,
You CAN'T
Manage Time: But You CAN Manage Many Priorities
is based on her successful book.
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