Managing your Time.

Over the years, many management gurus have said and written a lot about effective time management, but still, countless professionals, employees and executives in different fields are still struggling with this problem.

Every living being under the face of the earth is entitled to the same number of hours in a day and the same number of months in a year, so, why is it that some people seem to get more things done than others? Why do some employees appear to be more productive than others?

Perhaps the best way to manage your time better is one portrayed in the classic Ivy Lee approach and  which has been told and retold many times in one of the few truly charming stories in the history of management.

Several years ago, Charles Schwab, who was at the time, President of Bethlehem Steel, a well known steel manufacturing company in U.S.A, was looking to increase his own efficiency, and that of the management team at the steel company. He was visited by Ivy Lee. Lee, was a well-known efficiency expert at the time and is considered today as one of the founding fathers of Public Relation.

In that meeeting, Lee told made some recommendations and told Schwab that he could turn things around for him.

Ivy Lee: “I can increase your people’s efficiency – and your sales – if you will allow me to spend fifteen minutes with each of your executives.”

Charles Schwab: “How much will it cost me?”

Ivy Lee: “Nothing, unless it works. After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel it’s worth to you.”

Charles Schwab: “It’s a deal.”

The following day, Ivy Lee met with Charles Schwab’s management executives, spending only ten minutes with each and told them:

Ivy Lee: “I want you to promise me that for the next ninety days, before leaving your office at the end of the day, you will make a list of the six most important things you have to do the next day and number them in their order of importance.”

The astonished Executives asked, “That it?”

Ivy Lee: “That’s it. Scratch off each item after finishing it, and go on to the next one on your list. If something doesn’t get done, put it on the following day’s list.”

Each Bethlehem executive consented to follow Lee’s instructions. Three months later, Schwab studied the results and was so pleased that he sent Lee a check for $25,000.

Within five years, the Bethlehem Steel Company had become the biggest independent steel producer in the world and Schwab went on to make a hundred-million-dollar fortune.

The story of Lee and the recommendation he made to Schwab and his team is well-known in the business and self-development world. But even if you do already know the story, it’s totally worth studying again and again until it’s ingrained into your daily habits.

In just 4 steps:

• Each night, make a list of the top 6 things you want to accomplish the following day
• Prioritize the list
• Start working on task number one, and keep working on it until you complete it. Do not move onto the next task until you complete this one.
• If any tasks are left at the end of the day, move them to the top of the next days list. For example, if you finish tasks 1-4 today, tasks 5 and 6 become tasks 1 and 2 on tomorrows list.

This, like most great ideas, might seem incredibly simple, and some might even be disappointed at its simplicity but, if you´re really determined to be effective and  a true achiever, this obviously simple system can bring about the desired change and turn the tables around for you and your organization. 

The lesson to be learned is the importance of defining top priorities and focusing on those important items until they are finished, rather than letting the mundane and unimportant distract  us.