“Time is on my side:' — The Rolling Stones
Wishful thinkers, those Rolling Stones.
The truth is, time Is only sort of on your
side. In fact, it may even be out to get
you. The sands of time can bury you, if
you let them.
There's a good chance you're already too familiar with
the perils of time mismanagement. By the time you
graduate, many ot you will nave pull
ed a month's worth of ali-nighters,
cranking out term papers at the last
minute, cramming for an exam in a
course you've let slip by the boards.
But so far you've withstood the test
of time, at least the way it’s meas
ured on college campuses.
But Real Life Time Management is
something else entirely, which is
why we re devoting this installment
of The American Express' Real Life
Plannerto a thorough course in
organization and planning that ex
plores ways in which you can best
manage your soon-to-be-even-bus
ier schedule. Consider that, as a stu
dent, you’re probably taking no
more than four or five courses.
GETTING
ORGANIZED
‘' rganization has nothing to do
with being neat," observes
organization expert Stephanie
Winston, author of the book The Organized
Executive and president of the manage
ment consulting firm, The Organizing Prin
ciple. "Neatness or clutter is not the name
of the game What is the name of the game
is your ability to manage and process
paperwork, because everything in busi
ness eventually rides on paper"
Okay, so neatness doesn't count Many
of you no doubt thrive in a clutter-filled en
vironment, so for you this news must come
as a welcome relief But what does count?
Well, the most basic rule is that you should
be able to quickly locate almost any docu
ment, at any time Time management ex
perts like to use what they call a "one
minute test": if you can’t produce a given
piece of paper in less than one minute,
then you've got to get your act together
But getting your whole act together can
be an intimidating prospect High-priced
organization consultants typically charge
as much as $1000 a day to help untangle
your paperwork, a hefty price tag for
something you should be able to handle
yourself So, where do you start? Well,
anywhere, as long as you do in fact get
started And start small. "A lot of people get
Thus, in a worst-case scenario you might have four or
five term papers due the same week, four or five exams
the same day. Poor planning can sneak up on you in
those worst-cases, but it's not likely to slow you down
for any length of time. In the work world, however, you 're
likely to be faced with two dozen key projects that come
due at roughly the same time. On top of that you'll have
hung up because they think in terms of
these vast goals," reports Winston "They
think, 'I have to get my life organized!'
There’s nothing you can do with that, it’s
too big You have to break it down into a
reasonable number of very specific prob
lems. For example, you're going to
organize your desk because it’s chaotic
and you can’t find anything Fine, now
you're on your way. You have to learn how
to break it down into smaller pieces that
you can do over a reasonable period of
time, rather than crashing into emergency
mode the day before something’s due”
Winston advises young professionals to
develop their paper-processing skills
before they diversify into areas more
specific to their new professions. "If there's
any single thing I would emphasize." she
says, "it’s that immediately, from the first
day you sit down at your first desk on your
first job, you should develop a follow-up
system. In other words, a very concrete way
of keeping track of assignments, discus
sions with other people, and phone calls
that you're supposed to follow up on
"The simplest way I've found to do this is
through something called the calendar/
holding file’ method Lets’s say you've writ
to tend to a mountain or paperwork
and correspondence as part of your
new. everyday routine. Chances are
very good that your first job will not
take you from one major project to
another, one at a time. Instead, you
can expect to juggle several projects
— some big, some small —and at
tend to their every detail. You'll have
to plan ahead if you want to get
ahead, and you'll have to budget
your time carefully.
Read on for some practical, real
life advice from American Express
on how to manage your busy sched
ule, how to establish your priorities,
how to know when and where to look
for help, and how to save time in
your day to day tasks.
ten a letter to somebody and you expect a
reply within two weeks. On your calendar,
two weeks from now, the document, which
in this case would be a copy of the letter you
wrote, just goes into a folder called
‘holding.’ You're still in a holding pattern,
the transaction has not yet been com
pleted Then, when two weeks comes
along, you see your note and you follow up,
and in that way nothing gets losts. You have
to be able to keep track and follow up.”