What’s the difference between time management & time utilisation?

Mar 8 - by Darren

‘Time Management’ and ‘Time Utilisation’ are very different distinctions.  The major difference between these 2 distinctions is that activity is not equal to achievement.  This means that you can be ‘busy’ working without getting anything done.  For example ‘time management’ would have you block out 1 hr a day to make telephone calls to prospects to arrange appointments, you could make calls solid for 1 hr without reaching anyone and your time management objective would be met but have you achieved anything?

Time Utilisation would have you making calls until you have secured appointments with 10 prospects this could take you 30 minutes or 2 hrs and in the end you will have been much more productive and successful.

Its much more effective when your objective is always stated in terms of what you can accomplish with your time, not how to spend your time.

Here’s a very simple and effective Time Utilisation process that when integrated into your daily routine will have you performing much more effectively:

Question 1: What are the key results I want to have achieved at the end of this day?

Question 2: Why are those key results really important?

Question 3: What actions must I take today to achieve these key results?

Question 4: When will I take these actions today?

If you can take the actions there and then and if you cannot schedule and take them that day.

If you find that you’re getting distracted or that your focus has drifted you can pull yourself back by asking yourself:

What are the key results I want to achieve today?

Why are those results really important?

and What is the best use of my time right now?

Integration is always key – display these questions somewhere where you can see them or ask a staff member to ask them of you during the day or consider setting them as an alarm in your phone or on your desktop calender.