CIO Time Management Sucks

 In today’s always-on lifestyle there’s never enough time in a day for busy CIOs – or any manager – to get everything accomplished. So you need to “manage” your time more effectively, and you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. Of course, we can’t really manage time. There are only 24 hours in a day and there is not a damn thing we can do about it. So, we need to be smart about how we allocate our time.

Do a “mirror check” and check your own daily schedule to see if you’re falling into one of these time management sucks.

Not investing the time necessary to train someone to delegate a task

Admit it. You have several tasks you hate doing that eat up too much of your time. The only reason you haven’t passed them on to your assistant or an employee is you can’t seem to find the time to train somebody else to do it. Make the time. Invest the time in training others to do tasks to get them off your plate. It is tough – especially initially when they are not as productive as you are at accomplishing the task but over time it will pay off in spades.

Not scheduling your priorities early in the day

You’re the boss. You get to set your schedule the way you like it, so be smart about it and schedule your priorities in the morning. Set aside time to work on your priorities first thing in the morning and that way when you get “overtaken by events” you will have time in the afternoon by bumping those lower priority items on your calendar. And, remember that not scheduling your time is the least effective scheduling of all.

Not Managing Distractions

As the person in charge, you must be available for major decisions and to help with emergencies, but it’s likely those points only take up 10 to 20 percent of the interruptions and distractions that hit you every day. Don’t be shy about establishing dedicated “do not disturb” time every day to work on your priorities. This is absolutely critical when you do your Weekly Review.

Not practicing Inbox Zero

Stop complaining about how email is taking so much of your time that you don’t have enough time left for the important stuff and do something about it. It is kind of like complaining about the number of meetings you have to attend and then not doing something about it. If email is taking up a disproportionate amount of your time, then you need to do something about it. Take charge of your situation. Don’t let the constant stream of incoming emails take control of your priorities and time. Practice Inbox Zero and only look at an email once.

Not focusing on one task at a time

You might think you’re being more productive when you multitask and look like you’re being more productive, but the research consistently proves multitasking doesn’t work. It’s actually impossible—you can’t focus on two things at once but rather “context switch” your focus rapidly between tasks. Since it takes as much as 10 minutes to find get back into a high-productivity flow with any given task, multitasking means working at lower effectiveness all day long.