They Don't Teach Corporate in College (27 page)

Category 4:
Non-urgent and non-important tasks that will get you fired if you're not careful (busywork, shooting the breeze with colleagues, instant messaging).

By “urgent,” Covey means that the task is highly visible and insists on action. An important task is relevant to your personal mission and corresponding goals. If you've been spending your days running around like a chicken with its head cut off, you are probably spending 90 percent of your time in Categories 1 and 3, and you might have noticed totally irresponsible people who hang out permanently in Category 4. When you master effective time management, you stay out of Category 4 and decrease the time spent in Categories 1 and 3 to allow more time for Category 2. Do this on a regular basis by scheduling time each week to achieve Category 2 tasks that relate to your goals, leaving space for unanticipated Category 1 and Category 3 activities. Review your schedule every day and take the time to reassess it, if needed. Remember to be flexible, because, unfortunately, life doesn't always work out the way you plan, and people often don't behave consistently.

You'll feel more on top of things if you keep a running “to do” list. Mentally separate all of your tasks into their respective categories, and then decide which ones you can eliminate, delay, or delegate. As you undertake a Category 1 or 3 task, think about how you can achieve the maximum impact with the least amount of effort. Remember to keep your department's processes and your own work style in mind. For example, if your group has status meetings every Tuesday morning, you might want to schedule your personal preparation for late in the day on Monday so that you can be prepared to deliver the most up-to-date information. Alternatively, if you are a morning person and your energy is highest just after you wake up, maybe you can slot an hour before office hours on Tuesday to organize your material.

When you're an overworked and underpaid junior member of your company, it's easy to fall prey to low morale. However, by developing strong time-management skills and focusing on tasks that will help you attain your long-term goals more quickly, you'll be able to approach each new day with a sense of purpose.

By virtue of their low rank in the organizational hierarchy, twenty-somethings are responsible for meeting the needs of the many individuals who qualify as supervisors. Work rolls downhill from all the people above you and lands in a giant heap on your plate. Many older—but not necessarily wiser—managers have no qualms about piling it on and watching an eager-to-please twenty-something scramble around like a rat in a maze. Well, even if you're
an efficient multitasker, you're never going to be Superman. Don't sabotage your goals by taking on more work than you can do just because someone asks you to. Staying true to the priorities we talked about in the last section means learning to say no sometimes.

No
is a tricky word in business, because you always want to be perceived as a can-do employee. In general, you should try to preempt situations in which you will have to decline an assignment. A good first step is to formalize your daily responsibilities with your official boss. Find out who on your team is authorized to delegate work to you, and note the type of assignments you can expect from each person. Let's say that Joe, who is outside this core group of delegators, gives you a bunch of client invoices to process. How should you respond? It's perfectly appropriate to politely reply that you would be glad to help, but that you would appreciate it if Joe would check with your manager first. Joe may or may not pursue the matter, but, either way, you have extricated yourself from an awkward situation and have placed the ball squarely in your boss's court. In all likelihood, your boss will say no to Joe for you, especially if processing invoices is outside your area of responsibility.

Now imagine that Jane, a member of your core group of delegators, leaves an urgent assignment on your chair that must be done by the end of the week. Jane has known about the task for a few days, but now it's Friday morning and the deadline is looming. As my mother used to say, don't let another person's lack of planning become your emergency. If your own “to do” list dictates you do something else, speak up. Tell Jane that you wish you could do the task for her, but you are currently working on a project with Tom that requires your attention. Give her the option of resolving the issue with Tom or your boss, and emphasize how much you enjoy working with her. Ideally, Jane will leave the interaction with the perception that you sincerely do want to help her, but that you can't help being caught between conflicting responsibilities.

What if your boss is the one with an urgent request that you don't have the time to attend to? In a way, this is the least painful scenario, because all you really have to do is ask her to help you prioritize your various assignments. You can say something such as, “I'd be happy to take care of that, but today I'm researching statistics for Tom's presentation. Which do you think I should do first?” If your boss wants to snatch your time at Tom's expense, that's her prerogative. Again, though, you have made someone else accountable for deciding which of the competing tasks you should direct your energy toward. Note that in all of these cases, you have declined to take on a new task. However, the actual word
no
and the phrase
I don't have time
are absent
from the conversation. Always strive to present yourself as a hardworking and disciplined employee with the best interests of the department and organization at heart.

One last point: subscribing to the servant mentality is not good time management, even if you're not preoccupied with any urgent tasks. When you get into the habit of springing into action the moment a higher-up appears at your desk, people will come to expect that you are always available. Suddenly your delegators won't think twice about asking you to do all kinds of Category 3 (urgent and non-important) tasks. Meanwhile, Category 2 (non-urgent and important) priorities, such as professional development and on-the-job training, will slip further and further down your “to do” list. Remember, in the big-picture scheme of things, Category 2 should be ahead of Category 3, so no matter how busy your department is, always make time in your schedule for Category 2 activities. Have trouble doing this? Take note of the time it takes you to complete Category 3 assignments. For example, if you think it will take you an hour to create a new database for your boss, tell him you'll have it done by the end of the day. Also, instead of asking for new work the second you encounter a few free hours, spend some quality time researching your company's products, participating in training courses, or meeting with your mentor (Category 2 activities). It's probably long overdue.

It might be difficult to turn your back on a Category 3 task that's presented to you or to set aside company time for your own Category 2 needs. But think about it this way: You have to say no to something. It's either the non-important or the important things. You decide.

We all procrastinate in one way or another. Just because something is worth doing doesn't mean it's easy to get started. Even at work, we're constantly tempted by activities that are more fun and take less effort, such as chatting with a coworker or texting a friend. However, when you're trying to stick to a schedule of prioritized tasks, repeated procrastination can wreak havoc on your master plan. It may start with a simple decision to take a longer lunch instead of making headway on your first business plan, but, next thing you know, your goals are taking longer to achieve and your upward mobility has slowed to a crawl.

To fight this battle and win, you first must acknowledge that you are procrastinating. Did you actually schedule time to play Solitaire, or are you just
putting off doing work? Confront the procrastination demon head-on and ask yourself why you're avoiding the task. Could it be that the task isn't worth the effort? Maybe the benefits of completing the task don't outweigh the time and energy you'll spend on it. If this is the case, reconsider whether it's a priority. Should you decide that the task is important, however, now is the time to rally your sense of discipline and get moving. Following are reasons you might use to put off work. Arm yourself with the motivational arguments I provide, and begin the battle against procrastination.

You can do it later.
Think about whether a momentary reprieve is worth having to overhaul your whole calendar to reschedule a particular task. Do you want to repeat this same dance again later, or would you rather just get the task over with now?

The task is boring and you'd rather do something fun.
Think about the big picture. Sometimes the most worthwhile activities require the most effort, and, in turn, produce the greatest rewards. Besides, how can you really have fun when you're feeling guilty about blowing off your work?

You're afraid the task will be too hard or take too long.
Consider that every minute you spend procrastinating is one minute you could be using to complete the task at hand. Instead of looking at the task as a never-ending dark tunnel, break it up into a series of short, manageable assignments, and think about resources you could call on for help at each stage.

You don't know where to start.
Choose the least complicated part of the task, and work at completing it as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Once you've successfully finished one component, you'll gain momentum. The task will no longer seem like such a bear, and it will be much easier to move to the next component.