Time Management Activity

I found the Focus Funnel and interesting concept which, upon reflection, I realised I did something
similar on a case-by-case basis for every task that I am set or that I set for myself. Something I have
found difficult to comprehend, potentially due to the nature of my job and the company I am in, is
the idea that a work task could be worth eliminating. I have tried to think back to past tasks I have
had and I can’t think of any that would be unnecessary for completion. Automation is a more likely
result for me to have but very infrequent, again just due to the work I am in. Delegation is something
that I should certainly do more but I have had trouble doing. This is partly due to the size of the
company and the fact that there are not many people with the understanding of my particular
department. I have, however, caught myself accepting tasks that others who could complete them
have offered to take on and chosen to decline even though it puts more work unnecessarily on me.
Delegation is certainly an area which I know I need to develop on and I have, with this new
acceptance, agreed to let others take on some of the tasks I have been given.

I have never used a priority matrix as a physical tool, only as a mental one. I found that it did allow
for me to have a tangible record of what needs doing and when, which has helped a lot with
moderating the workload. Of course, it often seems that most tasks are urgent and I have found that
organising these urgent tasks into an order of simplicity or rather the time it will take to complete
them, I complete the most tasks in the shortest time. This has a positive mental effect on me as the
task list is reduced and thus the work yet to be done does not feel as overwhelming.

I have been working from home permanently since January and it has resulted in a few interesting
effects to my work life, both positive and negative. One frustration I have found is using remote
access which can be patchy and slow to respond. This obviously wastes time as you lose focus on
tasks and become exasperated by the system. On the other hand, because I am not on the office
where people have easy access to me, I have found there are far fewer interruptions as people tend
to send emails which I will deal with a specific time of the day. As I will receive a hundred plus emails
each day, I have found it far more effective to not react to every one that comes through to me. The
lockdown has given staff members who would normally expect to be hand fed all the answers a need
to sort out their own issues, which has proven to be very beneficial to management.