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Personal EffectivenessBelow are some common examples of time management problems.EXAMPLE 2.1 EXAMPLES OF TIME MANAGEMENTPROBLEMSWork -related‘I work on a project to implement IT in my organisation, but I report to two bosses, thehead of the IT Department, and the Project Leader – their demands of me are diverseand sometimes conflicting and very confusing, as a result I get in a mess.’‘I work in an open-plan office. I constantly get distracted by people talking on the phone,chatting across desks, stopping to talk to me. I just cannot concentrate on my work, andI end up frittering my time on superficial tasks whilst at work, and then working well intothe night at home to catch up with the tougher parts of my work.’‘I am a design engineer and each part of the work I do seems to take at least threetimes longer than we estimate it will take, meaning that I spend a lot of time explainingwhy the work is late and reorganising schedules and activities. This impacts negativelyon people further down the development process.’‘I set myself priorities but because I also work as a support service for other people inthe organisation, I get inundated by e-mails and requests from others. I spend all mytime meeting other people’s demands and my priorities go out of the window!’‘Last year I spent ages developing a balanced scorecard system for the organisation toperformance manage the managerial team, then a new director was appointed and hepulled the plug on months of work and asked me to set up a totally different scheme. Itseems like much of my work is a waste of time.’Study -related‘I am engaged in a part-time professional development programme ‘Into Leadership’where I am attending day release modules, writing coursework assignments bothindividually and with a group, and am trying to juggle this in between a busy workschedule in my role in the Laboratories of a Government Department. I feel so panickedwith all I have to do I end up feeling paralysed.‘I don’t seem to be able to get going early enough on my distance learning courseassignments and so I often end up staying up into the early hours to get it in thefollowing morning. The work is rushed and mediocre as a result, and I am then tired fordays after.’‘I have young children and I find it impossible to get on with my studying at home. As aresult I feel incompetent when it comes to discussing case studies in course discussionbecause I haven’t the faintest idea what they are about as I haven’t read them in advance.34WHERE DOES ALL MY TIME GO? – THE TIME BANDITS ANDTRAPSA time bandit is a work practice, attitude or behaviour that leads to ineffective workingpractices or your time getting stolen or expropriated away from your core priorities andfrittered on less important activities.A free sample chapter from Personal Effectiveness by Diana Winstanley. Published by the CIPD.Copyright © CIPD 2005All rights reserved; no part of this excerpt may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying in theUnited Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.If you would like to purchase this book please visit www.cipd.co.uk/bookstore.