It is surprising to see in many organizations that managers are running out of time whereas subordinates are not getting enough work. In such scenarios, it is necessary to understand and evaluate the meaning of time management as it links directly to the interaction between bosses, managers, subordinates, and peers.
Generally, there are three types of management time: boss-imposed time, system-imposed time, and self-imposed time. The first category includes activities assigned by a boss that the manager cannot avoid at any cost. The second category links to the requests from peers that demand active support; rejecting such requests may also pose penalties. The last category involves things that the manager agrees or originates from doing. Subordinates will take some portion of this time; hence, it can be termed subordinate imposed time. The remaining part is discretionary time that the manager needs to handle his work.
Managers need to handle the time and content very carefully to accommodate various demands. As they cannot steal time from bosses and peers, they need to utilize self-imposed time more efficiently. Furthermore, they need to reduce the subordinate component to some extent to spare more time to deal with other problems.
Let us consider a scenario where a subordinate comes to the manager with a problem. The manager listens to it and finally replies, “Let me think about it, and I will get back to you.” It means the manager takes responsibility for the “next move.” This next move is the monkey here, and it is currently on the back of the manager. For instance, if the manager replied, “Send me an email concerning the whole issue,”; then the money would be with the subordinate since he has to take the next move. Therefore, your time management is greatly influenced by that monkey, and it is vital to take care of these monkeys in your day-to-day life.
Experts define a few trusted rules or strategies to handle these monkeys. Below we have listed a few of them to help you manage your time carefully:
- It is essential to understand that monkeys, in this case, should be either shot or fed. Otherwise, they will starve to death, and managers must waste more time on resurrections.
- The population of these monkeys must be kept low, depending on the time available with the manager to feed them.
- It is good to feed the money by appointment only.
- It is better to feed monkeys face to face instead of via email so that you can save some time.
- Managers need to assign appropriate feeding time to each monkey depending upon the data, expected outcome, and goals.
When managers start following this strategy for dealing with monkeys, making the best out of self-imposed time will make it easier. The professionals at Global Investment Strategies can guide you better to learn new strategies to tackle problems at the workplace while saving much of your time.