The Mentalist

The Mentalist seems to have an avid dislike of pen and paper!  There’s a firm belief that “keeping it all up here” is a much better approach to planning and staying organised.  There’s a perception that writing things down can be too restrictive and might block any creative flow that might be going on.

The Mentalist’s fellow bandits find this an “interesting” approach and are careful what tasks and responsibilities they pass on; it’s almost impossible to keep track of the progress being made, especially if the Mentalist isn’t around that day.  Maybe the Mentalist likes to feel indispensible?  It’s certainly an approach to time management that makes it difficult for anyone else to notice when help might be required or to dovetail their own work with that of our “head case” bandit.

It’s an approach that’s served the Mentalist well for quite a while but lately, as activity for the gang has picked up,  it hasn’t being going so well!  Important rendezvous have been forgotten, key tasks have slipped and people are starting to get annoyed!  The Mentalist’s brain is cluttered; there’s just too much going on to keep track of.

Writing things down doesn’t have to be viewed as a sign of weakness!  Writing things down doesn’t have to constrain your creativity!  There are many ways to track activity and they don’t have to be onerous or boring.  I’ve recently written an article on 6 great uses for the post it note – a handy little tool that might be a great help to the Mentalist.  Let me know if you’d like a copy.

The Raider

Our Time Bandit, The Raider does do some planning and even remembers to set aside chunks of time to focus on the important things – fantastic!  It seems as though The Raider’s been reading the blog and learning from the mistakes of fellow bandits.  At last, someone with their house in order?

Let’s not hand out the Time Management awards too soon!  The Raider is often an ambitious and optimistic sort, who expects to achieve more in a week than is realistic. Guilty of trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot, estimating how long a task is going to take is a skill not yet mastered by The Raider.  This optimism, or lack of skill, (depending on your outlook) means that often the ‘little’ jobs take far longer than anticipated and key activities suffer.  The only way to get the ‘little’ jobs done is to raid the time allocated to those important projects and tasks.  Those important projects and tasks also suffer as soon as a crisis rears its ugly head: The Raider never builds in contingency time and so, yet again, has to steal time to get urgent bits and bobs done and is always playing ‘catch up.’

The Raider often struggles to prioritise and seems to take some tips from the Butterfly, working on the tasks that are the most appealing first, rather than fitting them in around the ‘big’ stuff.

Maybe The Raider would benefit from keeping a time log for a few weeks to help gauge how long things really take.  It won’t come easy; The Raider will probably be reluctant or even resistant, at first, unwilling to face the facts, but used well, these logs can make a big difference. 

When calculating the time available – allowance should be made for non-productive time: coffee and lunch breaks, loo breaks, the odd diversion (we all get them), the nuisance but necessary tasks like filling the photocopier or printer with paper, finding the right file, dealing with interruptions from the boss, etc.  Once this lot is filtered out, the remaining time is the actual production time available.  This, combined with the analysis of the time logs, will give a much clearer idea of what can realistically be achieved in a day, a week or a month.

S O Particular

Conditions often have to be right with all the pieces in place, all the research done, and the end to end process thoroughly planned before S O Particular will make a start and take any action!

Painstaking, pedantic and picky S O Particular makes slow progress with tasks, dotting every “i” and crossing every “t”.  The content of the plan for banditry may be completed but the plan isn’t ready to hand in yet; S O Particular is still busy with layout, formatting and finding a nice picture for the front cover.  Surely missing a deadline is preferable to handing in something that’s not 100% perfect or completed to an incredibly high standard?

If only this bandit could learn the phrase “good enough” and take into account the needs of fellow bandits in the gang, they might find that suddenly they have a lot more time to focus on their most important priorities and still get finished on time.

Upholding high standards is a noble quest indeed, but it does mean that S O Particular takes on far too much; who else would give the time, care and attention the task deserves?  Other people can end up feeling left out, undervalued and under-developed as very little ever gets delegated.  Admittedly, it takes time to build up trust, but if S O Particular doesn’t make a start, stress, exhaustion and burnout could be lying in wait just around the corner.

The Magpie

The Magpie has a time management strategy.  At last, a bandit who thinks about such things!

Look in the Magpie’s ‘nest’ and you’ll find all manner of shiny objects – the latest smartphone, a netbook, a mini voice recorder, several beautiful Filofaxes and conference organisers.  All swooped upon as the ‘next big thing’ for helping the Magpie to be more efficient and organised.

Unfortunately the Magpie hasn’t realised that a planner or a gadget is merely a tool, an aid to organisation.  With no real strategy in place these tools are often found to be a ‘waste of time’ and are either abandoned in favour of the next ‘next big thing’ or used with a scattergun approach; calendar held on several devices but rarely kept up to date on any of them!.  Used regularly, consistently and with a defined purpose they can make a difference.  Perhaps the Magpie could try eliminating the ‘shiny things’ one at a time being sure to notice what, if anything, they miss about them. Or, if a Magpie of the species Acquirus Abandonus, try reintroducing the tools one at a time and notice if they make a difference.

They’re unlikely to make a huge difference to time management, unfortunately it goes a tad deeper than that but the feeling of being organised and on top of things can lead to a burst of energy which harnessed correctly can increase productivity.

The Control Freak

This little bandit often has very high standards coupled with a need for speed. Do they trust other people to complete tasks on time and to their satisfaction?  Reader, you be the judge! 

Nobody does it better (to quote Carly Simon) and so they find it difficult to let things go.  

This “My Way or No Way” approach often means The Control Freak is still hanging on to part of their old job even though they were promoted a year ago.

The world of a Control Freak can sometimes be a lonely place, as they forge ahead alone, carrying the full burden of the project, from idea generation right through to implementation and evaluation.  Workplace relationships can be difficult, which probably doesn’t worry this bandit, who believes that the workplace is just that: a place for and of work and not somewhere for forming bonds or friendships.  To a certain extent, I agree, but there’s nothing wrong with a little human companionship and, dare I say it, some fun along the way.

I admire people with high standards, but those standards are tricky to maintain when the pressure is piling on. There comes a point when even the Control Freak will need some help; it’s impossible to take on every little task and hold on to every responsibility with each move up the ladder, so other people suddenly become important, but with few relationships it’s hard to know who to trust and fellow bandits haven’t necessarily been receiving the experience or development they need to be able to help out effectively.

Let’s hope the Control Freak reads this and realises it might be worth starting to involve others now before they need to rely on them.  Starting by delegating simple or small tasks will help to develop confidence in both parties and over time a relationship built on solid foundations of trust and respect will form.

Succession planning?

There’s nothing wrong with having high standards and if the Control Freak could only let go sometimes and delegate some tasks then it would give other people the opportunity to develop their skills.

The Genial Host

Need help or advice?  Go to the Genial Host.  Always happy to help, often to be found chatting with Harmony Seeker, the Genial Host welcomes distractions; they brighten up a boring day.

They love meetings, workshops, training days, anything that takes them away from the pile of work on the desk for a few hours.  Often to be heard saying “let’s do lunch” or “let’s meet for a coffee and discuss it” and suddenly a 5 minute discussion turns into a 30 minute chat over coffee (plus the time it takes to get there and back).

Meetings tend not to have agendas – that’s all a bit stuffy and formal.  After all, meetings are a great way for people to catch up with each other, aren’t they?

If you have a Genial Host in your gang, they can be very distracting; you might need to bring out the big guns of assertiveness!  If they come into your office, stand up, fail to offer them a coffee and be careful not to build too much rapport during the conversation and the chances are, they’ll soon tire of you and leave you to get on with your day.

Social interaction is important – teamwork can make a big difference in achieving the task, but the Genial Host takes it to extremes.  If you feel that you’re required to attend too many meetings, perhaps you’re dealing with a Genial Host.

If you think you might be the Genial Host in your gang then maybe it’s worth noticing the body language of those around you – is your attention really welcome?  And as for your own workload, how are you doing?  Struggling with a full inbox (physical or electronic)?  Tot up how much time you spend away from your desk and work on gradually reducing it.  Set time limits and draw up agendas for meetings that you call and stick to them.  Allocate certain times during the day for more social interaction and stick to them. Set specific tasks to achieve each day and, yes, you’ve guessed it, stick to them!

The Butterfly

The Butterfly has a short attention span, fluttering from one task to the next, alighting on a leaf for a moment before spotting something brighter and more colourful and flying off to investigate.

Projects are initiated with energy and enthusiasm and a sudden flurry of activity.  It’s common for the Butterfly to have several projects on the go at once; it suits their need for variety and appeals to their short attention span.

Tasks often drift without much significant progress being made and the Butterfly finds that much of their energy is used up by starting and re-starting projects – having to review what stage they’ve got to each time they pick up a project to spend some time on it.

There are a few tips we could offer the Butterfly.  

One might be to practise concentration, building up the length of time focussed on one task over a period of time.

Start with some self-study to work out the existing attention span.

Some people find it difficult to focus for just 10 minutes. Others delude themselves they can focus for 2 hours but in reality find themselves experiencing the pull of the outside world every 30 minutes, feeling jumpy and fidgety and needing to check emails or make a phone call.

Once the threshold is established, begin to build it up, little by little, until you can focus for a full hour.

In the meantime, break tasks into chunks that you can realistically achieve in the 10, 20 or 30 minutes that you can concentrate. That way you‟ll experience the joy of completion, that sense of actually getting something done.