Often you’ll hear workplaces explain that their biggest issue in the office is time management. This includes scheduling things appropriately, not falling behind on projects and taking on tasks that we are able to handle. However, time can’t really be managed; it’s sort of just there. So this leaves the real problem at the surface which is attention management.
In today’s society it’s more difficult than ever to stay focused at work. We have open work spaces and infinite number of media sources that catch our wandering attention throughout the work day. There are always the few that are naturally goal-driven and these people can more easily stay focused on the tasks at hand. But with this group of people you’ll also find the naturally interruption-driven workers who have their minds wandering all throughout the day with little focus on work.
And then there’s the final group who works in panic mode most days. They are unsure what’s most important so they find themselves troubleshooting each and every project quickly and with high stress. Even for this group of people there is a more efficicient way to grid their work.
The following working style, the Time Management Matrix will help each employee find the highest priority of work and figure out where their attention is needed most.
To break down the chart a bit more follow these quadrants:
Urgent = in your face, vying for your immediate attention.
Important = Critical to the success of your role. Essential to the business or organization.
Q1 – Urgent and Important: DO NOW
Q2 – Not Urgent, but Important: PLAN TO DO
Q3 – Urgent, but not important: REJECT ( Diplomatically)
Q4 – Neither Urgent nor Important – RESIST AND CEASE
This is the type of guidance attention management needs most. Employees need to know what they need to complete each day as an individual and as a team. To help make this even better be sure to ban all electronic devices from the workplace and forbid social media networking use on the office computers unless at lunch.
