Time & Capacity

I’ve been thinking a lot about my time and how to manage it lately. If your anything like me you have a schedule that could keep 2 people busy. The biggest question I struggle with is what is my capacity to accomplish things? I read a really good post on morethandodgeball.com about capacity heres a clip the full post is here.

50-75% capacity - This is your average employee - these people deliver day in and day out. The worker bee of the business that very simply gets work done. Occasionally something remarkable comes from this group, but typically they get the job done and go home at night and turn off. People who run at 50-75% capacity need vision, encouragement and recognition to reach to the next level.

75-100% capacity - These are the stars, people working on all cylinders every day. These are people who think about the next level constantly. They recognize the value of their individual contribution to the team’s goals and won’t settle for anything less. They push themselves and value management doing the same. They believe in themselves, they believe in the team and have a strong work ethic. Honest assessment, team recognition and promotion make them tick.

Understanding what capacity level you operate under is important to making decisions as to what new projects you can take on, or should let go of. So comes the question of time, how to best manage it, and is it possible to make more of it? Of corse we know that there are only 24 hours in a day, so creating more hours is humanly impossible. So the real issue is how do I redeem the wasted or lost hours in a day? As I have spent some time thinking about this issue here are my thoughts.

1. Stop Worrying - Worry cause a loss of focus and consumes your time. When your worried your not productive. Matthew 6:25 says don’t worry. Worry has never helped me accomplish anything, however it has caused me to miss a few deadlines.

2. Know your abilities and limitations - I like to help people and I have a tendency to get in over my head. There’s nothing wrong with helping people out, you just need to know where to stop and where you can’t help. Understanding that even when you can do a project it doesn’t always mean you should do the project.

3. Always have a current priorities list - To manage your time effectively you have to know what is most important for that day. Keeping a daily priorities list is key to not wasting time. I find that without my list I sit in my office and think about what to do next instead of doing it.