Page 10 - Leadership Basics 8

Analyze

When you have clarified and recorded your goals you should move onto a more practical analysis of
how you actually use your time. Before you can control your time you must know how you are using
it. This is of course a simple statement, but it is a surprising fact that many leaders cannot tell you in
any detail how they spend an average day or week. It is essential that you know how you spend your
time. It is just as important, once you know what you are doing, to analyze your time usage. Break
your day up and look at it. Ask yourself questions such as: How much time do I spend in meetings?
How long do I spend doing other people’s jobs?
Your first step is to find out exactly what you are doing at present. There are a number of ways of
doing this.

 Shadowing
Have someone follow you around for a set period of time – but this is usually not possible, at
least for extended periods. Even asking someone to spend half a day with you can be revealing.
Ask the person to observe and record everything you do.
 Diary/Self‐Observation
This method involves shadowing yourself. This may involve recording your actions at five, ten,
fifteen or thirty‐minute intervals.
Once you have recorded how you spend your time, you need to analyze what you’ve been doing.
To do this you might ask yourself questions like those suggested below.
1. Which of my constructive activities took most of my time?
2. Which of my non‐constructive activities took most of my time?

3. Which of my constructive activities were not worth the time I spent on them?
4. Which of my activities were worth more time than I spent on them?

5. Which were my busiest times of the day?

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