Managing Your Time at Work

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Managing Your Time at Work
YOUR TIME AT WORK
Are you a time filler or a time manager?

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Attribution: All images are from sources where a Creative Commons license exists for commercial use. All icons are on subscription
from thenounproject. All clipart is from free sources. The MTL Professional Development Programme is copyright of Manage Train
Learn.
Managing Your
Time at Work
Introduction: In the workplace, time is a key factor in determining productivity,
efficiency, and success. By thinking about how much time we have, how much we
own ourselves and what factors determine our freedom to use it as we want, we
can start to think about managing it better. In this topic, we’ll show you the 7 key
factors that govern working time.

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1. WORK AND
TIME
Stress-expert Cary Cooper found that there is a
difference in the way time is managed in some
jobs as opposed to others. Where the work
forces us to be reactive to events, it is hard to
manage time, simply because it is not ours to
manage. These include jobs which are machine-
driven, customer-driven, or deadline-driven.
Where people do less reactive jobs, such as in
the arts, consultancy work, design and the
thinking professions, people have more of their
time to manage and so stress is lower.
How do I find enough time for all my jobs?
Flickr attribution: /jar0d/4649749639/

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2. WORK AND
CULTURE
The culture of an organisation is the way people
behave and things are done. It determines the
amount of time people are allowed to manage.
In an anarchic culture, there may be little
direction from above and people are expected to
manage most of their time. In a bureaucratic
culture, however, work is determined by set
rules, procedures, and systems and so people
have less chance to manage their time.
The bureaucratic nightmare
Flickr attribution: /bombardier/6195107168/

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3. WORK AND
THE BOSS
Your boss will have a considerable influence over
the amount of time you are allowed to manage.
There are four types of boss: the default boss
who likes to be hands-off and allow you more of
your time to manage; the drive boss who may
shut down your choices and micro-manage your
time for you; the delegated boss, with whom you
can negotiate your time on agreed tasks; and the
developed boss, who allows you more time as a
way of developing you.
Keeping an eye on things
Flickr attribution: /forkcandles/21391587635/

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4. YOU AND
YOUR WORK
PATTERN
Not so long ago, it was standard for people to
only work the 3 x 47 work pattern. This was a
working life of 47 hours a week (including
overtime), 47 weeks a year (a full year less
holidays), and 47 years in a lifetime (16 to the
average retirement age of 63). Today, people
work a wide range of time patterns to suit the
demands of the job, the availability of work, their
financial circumstances, and their search for
work-life balance.
How much time do you have to manage?
Flickr attribution: /77799978@N00/14442598351/

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5. YOU AS A
TIME
MANAGER
There are 7 scales against which we can measure
ourselves as time managers at work. They are: Is
control of your time with you or others? Is your
pace of work even or erratic? Do you have short-
term or long-term objectives? Is there a little or a
lot of variety in your work? Do you own what you
do or do others? Does the way you manage your
tasks result in rushed jobs or uncompleted jobs?
Is there balance in the different tasks you do or
are they repetitive and the same all the time?
You can’t hold back time
Flickr attribution: /aidanmorgan/2331754875/

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6. TIME-
FILLERS
Time-fillers are people who see working time as
a period which somehow has to be filled.
Without direction, they put themselves at
others' beck and call. They swing from boredom
to crisis and back again. Sometimes they allow
themselves to fall behind time and so have to
rush to catch up, while at other times they have
nothing to do so they waste time on unimportant
tasks. Time fillers either find themselves
underworked or overworked and so suffer stress
as a result of not being in control of their time.
So then she said to me..
Flickr attribution: /68800167@N07/6256946197/

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7. TIME
MANAGERS
Time managers see time as a partner in helping
them achieve their goals and objectives. They
know what they want to achieve with their time
and feel in control even when there is little
personal freedom to arrange their working day.
They work closely with others and work at an
even pace without highs or lows. They are able
to vary their activities to maintain their interest;
can balance their tasks; and feel a sense of
accomplishment and achievement.
Achievement, result, success
Flickr attribution: /paxson_woelber/5427078006/

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This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
Many time management books will tell you that managing your time at work is all about you and
your approach to time. While this is partly true, it is also about the kind of job you do, the culture
of the organisation, and the style of the people you work with.

Managing Your Time at Work

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