smart | work Managing your work obligations so


you can enjoy those summer nights The trappings of poor time management are rife in summer; don’t let work monopolize your time


W


ith the longer daylight hours, the urge to do more and the belief that we can do more flourishes. We wake up energized as we head to work in the day-


light, and when we return home, it’s still daylight. Te entire evening is available to spend time with friends, get caught up on household projects, or take part in a favourite hobby. However, to many people, the


best of intentions get cast aside for the obligations of the day that simply meld into the evening. Suddenly, you find yourself at the end of a week feeling like you haven’t accomplished enough, and are taking work home for the weekend. Good time management is


Good Work Lisa Cefali


just that – the ability to manage time. It requires effort to be good at it, and in most cases, must be learned. Acquiring effective time man-


agement skills offers great benefits. It reduces stress as you have a plan for how to get everything done. You actually gain time that you can use personally to give you work-life balance. It also reduces the amount of tasks you avoid and pro-


motes re-evaluating what you are doing, and removing items of no importance. As well, it improves how you spend your day, keeping you motivated as you accomplish more. So, how effective are your time management skills? See how you measure up against the following procras-


tination styles. “Tere’s too much to do; I can’t handle it all.” Tis is an easy out. Rather than looking at all the tasks at


hand and ensuing deadlines, as well as planning how you’ll accomplish them, you simply give up. “Tere’s plenty of time; I can do that later.” Later is such a general term that it never arrives, and


hence, it makes it very easy to put tasks off. Consider how many hours you really have, and aim to complete the task sooner than later – today, this afternoon, or even right now is a better time to get something done. “I’m busier than usual right now, so it makes sense to


shift some tasks off to another time.” Are you really busier today? Assess what you have on your


plate and ask yourself if you are simply procrastinating. Are the items you want to push off simply tasks you don’t enjoy doing? If you don’t actually schedule the items you are plan- ning to put off, they won’t be completed.


Time is on your side this summer – make sure it's well-spent at work so you can enjoy your nights. Photo by Markus Spiske.


Rescheduling something to later is procrastinating. Focusing on your immediate deadlines of higher-


priority items is smart, and rescheduling secondary items to another time is very good time management – as long as you are committed to actually completing the work. “Tis little task is not important.” Making the assumption that little tasks are of lesser


importance will only catch up to you. Important tasks come in all sizes and if they impact the progress of other outcomes and other people’s deliverables, then they are very important. Ensure you are aware of deadlines so that you are not left


scrambling to complete a task that has larger ramifications. How do you gain time management skills? Start with these basic tools. 1. Recognize you’re procrastinating, and make a fool-


proof plan to get things done. Prepare a time management matrix. Label appropri-


ate items as “important” and “urgent.” Accomplish these tasks first (think: projects with deadlines, appointments, meetings with purpose, etc.). For those “important but not urgent” tasks, ensure they


are still in your focus, but avoid spending time on items that are not important, or timewasters. 2. Keep an activity log. How are you currently spending your time? Are you


spending most of your day on items that keep you busy, but are not urgent or important? Seeing the trend will help you nip it in the bud. 3. Create an action plan. What are you going to do differently? Commit to your


new plan of attack for at least the next 10 days to see its impact. 4. Use a to-do list, doing the right tasks first. Identify the time you have available, and block in the


essential tasks you MUST do to be successful in your job – even the vital housekeeping activities. 5. Block in appropriate contingency time to handle


unpredictable interruptions. Tey will always be there – so make sure you allow time


for the unforeseen. Now, use your freed-up time for activities that meet


your own priorities and personal goals – professionally or at home. Lisa Cefali is the vice president of executive search with


Legacy Bowes Group, where she uses her many years of busi- ness experience, and assessment of emotional intelligence, to uncover organizational insight and those attributes that provide the best fit for her clients with their strategic plan- ning needs. Please feel free to contact her at lisa@legacy- bowes.com for your executive search, recruitment, coaching and strategic planning needs.


A place for potential ideas to go Store your creative insight in a safe place – maybe it’s just not the right time for your idea


I first came across it, it was captioned, "Einstein and his therapist," which made me love it even more. Later on, I learned it's actually


T


not his therapist; however, it re- mains top of my list because of the way it makes me feel. It always shocks me how frag-


ile and defeated Einstein looks. My heart goes out to him, as I imagine that what makes him so great (his genius) is also what makes him feel so alone. And I think we can all relate to


Think Shift Geeta Chopra


this feeling at some point, where the grand ideas, concepts, and innovations we come up with aren’t understood or welcomed by the people around us. Many of us experience this as we enter new jobs, where our ideas may


clash with that particular organizational culture, or we might fear rejection due to the unknown. So in these situations, we are often left no choice but to contain the idea within ourselves. But as any creative person can attest, ideas rarely re-


main contained. By nature, they are rebellious, dynamic, and insatiable. One of my favourite anonymous quotes is, “ideas love


avenging their own deaths.” During my transition from full-time work in a creative


ad agency with a culture that supports and fosters the production of ideas at a furious and dizzying pace, I find myself seeking the same type of culture within my Master of Business Administration (MBA). Te very nature of an ad agency is so different than most companies – and now


8 Smart Biz Albert Einstein: lonely genius? Image by Thierry Ehrmann.


my constant wide-eyed-and-excited announcements of “A GREAT IDEA!” are often met with quizzical looks, or the desire for evidence, data and logic. Listen, I’m all for research and supporting an initia-


tive based on fiscal decision criteria, but sometimes you can just feel the potential in a good idea. And most good ideas have a fast spoilage rate – you want full support! Excitement! It’s no surprise, but I started to feel a bit isolated and


maybe like I was going a little mad… I mean, if no one's around to validate whether my idea is “genius,” then it can only be considered the “crazy” idea, right?


www.smartbizwpg.com


here’s a picture of a deflated-looking Einstein sit- ting with an overeager listener in the Life Magazine archives – it’s one of my all-time favourites. When


“As any creative person can attest, ideas rarely remain contained. By nature, they are rebellious, dynamic, and insatiable.”


Not so. My solution to this feeling of abandoned-ide-


ation was to create a home for them. For all of the rogue ideas I typically think up at 2 a.m. and send to my MBA Whatsapp group, only to be met with silence (because, duh, normal people are sleeping), I decided to create a place to store my ideas – an outlet of sorts. And one of the happy side effects of the MBA, where you


are constantly learning and analyzing and reflecting and inferring, is that ideas just naturally pour out. Whether it be considering a new market in New Venture Analysis class or considering Snapchat as a social media strategy in Consumer Behaviour class, with knowledge comes insight, and with insight, ideas! Keeping ideas in your back pocket


Tis new storage of ideas (which, by the way, is a great


app called Strand) helps me feel less guilty for abandon- ing them. It immortalizes them. Allows them to sit and wait until the perfect moment where I’ll look back and say, “Aha! Now is the time to use you.” It’s been a wonderfully healing and surprisingly ca-


thartic experience. It’s also made me incredibly more perceptive to potential opportunities, as well as more engaged in the broader creative industry. Since I’m not surrounded by designers and developers anymore, I vir- tually surround myself with that type of content. I read advertising publications way more than I used to; I keep up with the latest trends and thought papers; and overall feel more “advertising” than I ever did before. I encourage you to consider how many ideas you let drift


off during your day, and to imagine what could happen if you gave them a place to wait. To wait until you released their full potential. And they release yours. Geeta Chopra is currently on leave from her role as ac-


count executive at Tink Shift while she completes her MBA at the Asper School of Business. With the perspective that comes from a little time away from agency life, she’s been able to look at advertising and communications through the lens of a business student.


July 2015


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20