2. Know thy time

Welcome back to this short series on The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker.

In lesson 1, I shared the 8 practices that make leaders and executives effective. 

Here’s what we’ll be going over today…

Know thy time

According to Drucker, one of the most effective time managers he’s ever met was the president of a big bank who he spent two years consulting for.

Drucker says that he used to meet with him once a month, every month, and that the bank president was always prepared for every meeting, and there was never ever more than ONE item on their agenda.

And an hour and 20 minutes into their meeting, Drucker says that the president would turn to him and say ”Mr. Drucker, I believe you’d better sum up now and outline what we should do next.”

Exactly 10 minutes later, he was out of there.

Every meeting, for two straight years went on like this.

And all of them were exactly an hour and a half from the moment he’d walk through the door.

Finally, Drucker asked the bank president, “Why always an hour and a half?”

He answered,

“That’s easy. I have found out that my attention span is about an hour and a half. If I work on any one topic longer than this, I begin to repeat myself. At the same time, I have learned that nothing of importance can really be tackled in much less time…”

Furthermore, during the hour and a half that Drucker was in his office every month, he says that there was never a phone call, and his secretary never stuck her head in the door to announce that there was some urgent or important thing or person that needed to see him either.

So, one day Drucker asked him about this too.

The bank president said to him,

“My secretary has strict instructions not to put anyone through except the president of the United States and my wife. The president rarely calls– and my wife knows better. Everything else the secretary holds till I have finished. Then I have half an hour in which I return every call and make sure I get every message. I have yet to come across a crisis which could not wait 90 minutes.”

So, how exactly can you be as effective an executive as the bank president in the story above?

Here’s how Drucker puts it in The Effective Executive,

“Most discussions of the executive’s task start with the advice to plan one’s work. This sounds eminently plausible. The only thing wrong with it is that it rarely works.

The plans always remain on paper, always remain good intentions. They seldom turn into achievement.

Effective executives, in my observation, do not start with their tasks. They start with their TIME.

And they do not start out with planning.

They start by finding out where their time actually goes.

Then they attempt to manage their time and to cut back unproductive demands on their time.

Finally they consolidate their “discretionary” time into the largest possible continuing units.”

In case you’re wondering whether what you just read above could be broken down into a step-by-step process—it can.

And according to Peter Drucker, it’s the foundation of executive effectiveness.

Here’s your three-step process to being as effective as possible with your time:

1. Record your time.
2. Manage your time.
3. Consolidate your time.

Let’s break each of the above down, one-by-one…

Recording Time

The first step toward executive effectiveness is to record the actual amount of time that you’re using on a day-to-day basis.

Now, with regard to recording your time: it doesn’t really matter how you do it; what matters is that you actually do it.

You’ll find more details on how to log your time in the Actionable insights section at the end of this lesson.

Managing Time

“‘Delegation’ as the term is customarily used, is a misunderstanding – is indeed a misdirection. But getting rid of anything that can be done by somebody else so that one does not have to delegate but can really get to one’s own work—that is a major improvement in effectiveness.”

Once you’ve gotten a good idea of where the majority of your time actually goes, then it’s time to identify the time wasters.

Consolidating Time

“Whenever I see a senior executive asserting that more than half his time is under his control and is really discretionary time which he invests and spends according to his own judgment, I am reasonably certain that he has no idea where his time goes. This is true in any organization.”

Now, the final—and probably most important—step is to consolidate the time that you have available under your control.

Time really is your scarcest resource, and unless you manage it appropriately, nothing else can be managed appropriately.

Drucker says that the reason why working late at night at home is so popular is actually its worst feature: it enables an executive to avoid tackling his time and its management during the day.

Now, let’s talk about how you can implement these ideas in the workplace…

Actionable insights

On recording time

• Log your time. The best way to figure out where your time is actually going is to log your day-to-day activities in real time, over a period of 4 to 6 weeks. Doing this will give you a good idea of whether you’re focusing on things that are getting you results, or if you’re focusing your time on things that are not.
  • If you’re old-school like me, get a paper-based notebook and start writing down how long you’re spending in each of your areas of responsibility as a leader: log every activity, meeting, and unexpected surprise that comes your way.
  • If you’re more of a tech-head, there are plenty of apps that allow you to log your time. They can help you stay on task and avoid doing things like checking social media or email like a hamster. Simply search for “time tracking app.”

On managing time

• Identify your time wasters by taking a look at all of the activities you regularly perform, and then asking the following question: ”What would happen if this were not done at all?” Once you’ve identified your time wasters,
• ask the next question, which is: “Which of the activities on my time log could be done by somebody else just as well, if not better?”

On consolidating time

• Do your work early in the morning. Instead of coming home and catching up on unfinished work, Drucker recommends that you figure out a more effective way to get those things handled. Drucker’s got two strategies for making this happen:
  • 1. Get work done early in the morning before people begin to call you or before other people wake up.
  • 2. Work in a closed office or bedroom where nobody can access or bother you, thus allowing you to focus intently on the work that needs to get done.