How much power do you have, really, over your time when you are an employee?
You don’t set deadlines. You often report to more than one boss (thanks a lot, “flat management structure,” for all those dotted lines on the org chart that mean you have to get sign-off from people who technically aren’t your boss but somehow have veto power over your work, amirite?) . Often, deadlines are set by outsiders – clients, customers, the IRS.
All these forces can collide in your calendar. But to free up time for a side-step that can give you new skills and help you meet people essential to networking to a new job, you’ll need to master time management skills that prove you can handle the lattice assignment.
Here are three ways to do that.
- Group like work and functions together. The temptation is to tackle the project for Client A, finish it (or, at least get it far enough along to dump it on somebody else’s desk), then pick up work for Client B. Look under the lid to find similarities so you can do similar work in a single pass. For instance, if you have to get signoff on a few paragraphs from legal, bring legal all the sign-offs at once. You’ll have more leverage to push to the top of legal’s priority list when you’re doing so on behalf of three clients, not just one, and you’ll move ahead with all the projects at once while driving for the first deadline.
2. Analyze your “flow state” so you can protect productive time. The “flow state” is your groove: when you’re clicking along, ignoring the clock, getting the coding or writing or analyzing or calculating done in a glorious, sparkling steam of productivity. Some people can turn their flow on like a tap (I’m one of those lucky ones). Others find their flow in a quiet office before others have arrived or after others have left. Chances are you love the work you od in the flow. Treat yourself and block out the flow on your calendar for uninterrupted, closed-door, flow. Save the petty, annoying, paperwork and inbox-pecking for your door-open time.
3. Track your time so you can identify bottlenecks and barriers, both human and technical. Your boss(es) gives you work to do so she doesn’t have to do it. Build trust by documenting the amount of time you spend on each task. An easy way to do this is to use a time-tracking app designed for freelancers who charge clients by the hour.
If the time reports don’t seem to line up with your boss’s priorities, review the reports with her. She may not realize how much of your time is taken up by those doted-line relationships or by technical problems you have to work around. Let her run interference in blocking and tackling the barriers – that’s why she’s paid more than you are. And – bonus! – if you are thinking of transitioning to self-employment, you will become conversant with time-tracking so you can more accurately estimate how long it takes to do key elements of the job you envision creating for yourself.