7 Habits of Highly Effective Time Managers

1. 7 Habits of Highly Effective Time Managers
• Stephen Covey wrote an amazing book called, ‘7 Habits of
Highly Effective People‘, which was based on his research
into the habits of highly effective people. Each habit
helps us to identify how we can change a piece of the
way we work to become more successful. For example
Habit #2 ‘Begin with the end in mind’, is where Stephen
helps us to focus on what we want first, before we ‘get
stuck in’.
• On the same theme here are ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective
Time Managers’, taken from working with thousands of
learners over the past decade, helping them to create
effective time management habits:
www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk

2. Habit #1: Long Term Perspective
– The most effective time
managers are those with long
term perspective. This is unlike
many people who are working
hard every day, working
excessive hours, not knowing
what they really want to
achieve, other than a vague
notion to do well.
– Dave Allen, the Time
Management guru, talks of the
various levels of long term
perspective. The chart below
gives you an idea of those
levels and the challenge that
effective time management
becomes when you
understand that long term
perspective is way beyond just
delivering the day-to-day.
These levels encourage us to
consider our goals beyond a
year and ultimately for life.
www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk

3. Habit #2: A Daily Plan
– There are 4 groups of time managers, as far as the daily plan is
concerned; 1. Those that create a plan each day, or the night
before, and stick to it, 2. Those that create a daily plan &
mostly ignore it, 3. Those that convince themselves that they
have a daily plan but it is more of a continuous list of tasks,
and 4. Those that do not write a daily plan.
– The most effective time managers are those that write a plan
their night before, having made conscious choices about how
they will spend their time at work the following day. Their plan
works towards their long term perspectives and is flexible
enough to allow changes through the day without throwing
them too far off course. The other 3 groups are not working
towards their long term perspectives because they have not
made conscious choices about what they will do that day.
www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk

4. Habit #3: On the Payroll?
– Of the levels of long term perspectives the key work goal is to
know why we are on the payroll, which falls under ‘area of
responsibility’. Working with many learners during our Time
Management course we ask them ‘Why are you on the
payroll?’ and many respond with a long list of items of what
they do at work.
– The answer is much simpler. In any commercial organisation
the answer needs to have a strong link to a sales or profit
number because if those people are not employed to make
money for the business then what are they there to do? We
know that in some functions this is more challenging to
identify, but it is still vital to know what part they play in
delivering the financial performance of the business.
www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk

5. Habit #4: Steering the Wheel
– We use a car metaphor to describe a time management system.
The steering wheel of this car is the project list. Few people
have a project list and even fewer have a ‘living and breathing’
project list. A project list is essential because it enables the
time manager to identify what big things are being worked on
and then to choose from those things, which of them will
ultimately deliver why we are on the payroll.
www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk

6. Habit #5:
Manage Email Effectively
– Managing email is one of the most challenging for any time manager.
The average worker spends over 11 hours per week managing email
and this number will increase by +6% per year. This means that in 5
years the average time manager will be spending over 15 hours per
week managing email. Many people start their day with the best
intentions to start a big project, ‘nail’ the customer presentation and
‘get some decent work done’. They then look up at 3pm and wonder
where the day has gone because they ‘just wanted to check their
email’.
– An effective time manager checks their email 3 times per day and
has a time management system that supports quick decisions about
emails. This is achieved by having the appropriate parts of a time
management system in place, e.g. ‘Remind me in 3 weeks’ and trust
that the system works to remind them in 3 weeks. If there is no
system and/or no trust the time manager reverts to living in their
inbox to avoid missing something.
www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk

7. Habit #6:
Evolve Your System
• Some learners that we train have had the same time
management system for over 10 years, if not 20 years. They
have never mapped it, challenged it or changed it. By their
own admission they know it could be better, yet they were
‘too busy doing the job’. In the You Tube clip ‘7 habits of highly
effective people’ Stephen talks in his ‘habit #7’ about ‘Sharpen
the Saw’, where a lumberjack is too busy sawing with a blunt
saw to stop and sharpen his saw.
• The simple and effective tool to adopt in our time
management system is a weekly review. Taking 15 minutes at
the end of the week to identify what went well and what could
have gone better, so that we can make the following week just
that little bit better. A 0.1% improvement per week will equal
1,004% improvement in 10 years!
www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk

8. Habit #7:
Time Management Student
• Of all the skills we need to have, develop and constantly
evolve, like People Management, Strategic Thinking, etc., time
management is the ultimate enabler because without it little
else is possible. Becoming a student of time management is
about committing ourselves to learning all there is to know
about time management, from books, from blogs, to sharing
with colleagues, to seeking out hints & tips, to becoming tech
savvy, and so on.
• By becoming a student of time management time managers
can look back at their career knowing that they spent their
time the way they wanted to and not the way they ‘fell into’.
Subscribing to a podcast, or reading a book about time
management, is a better investment in skills development than
any other because time management is the skill that ‘unlocks
all other doors’.
www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk

9. In Summary
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Time Managers are:
• Habit #1: Long Term Perspective
• Habit #2: A Daily Plan
• Habit #3: On the Payroll?
• Habit #4: Steering the Wheel
• Habit #5: Manage Email Effectively
• Habit #6: Evolve Your System
• Habit #7: Time Management Student
Which habit do you need most adopt? Please share
your views with us.
www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk

10. What do we do?
A typical People Development programme with a supplier to the big
four UK supermarkets consists of a combination of the items that helps
suppliers to achieve their business objectives.
Try our popular
Category Management Academy

11. Where next?
• Learn Time Management the Sticky Learning way.
• Take a 1/2 day Masterclass in time management with
12 colleagues for only £750+vat.
• Find out the power of discretionary time.
• Making Business Matter,
Sticky Learning House
5 Cheshire Road
Thame,
OXFORDSHIRE,
OX9 3LQ
• Telephone: 0333 247 2012
• Email: helpme@makingbusinessmatter.co.uk
www.makingbusinessmatter.co.uk