Archive for February, 2011

“Nick is a bit fragile and needs lots of rest and time off. We all need to look after him”. This reported comment by a party colleague followed the Deputy Prime Minister’s decision to close his red box at 3pm every day. News articles are quoting comments like ’work shy’ or ‘part timer’.

Why is there so much negativity out there when someone who holds immense responsibility attempts to manage his time to be more effective? It’s not as if he is switching off at 3pm every day, he is just putting some boundaries out there to try to put some work structure to his day. It doesn’t mean that he won’t respond to any crisis or urgent issues that arise. He is giving parameters to those with whom he works so he can give his best and achieve optimum productivity. Whether we agree with the political results of his endeavours is irrelevant – it is how he judges he can achieve his best results.

By putting some structure in place it helps to prevent overwhelm. If your ‘red box’ or in tray keeps building there is no way you will reach the bottom. Or if you do, how thorough will you have been and how many mistakes will you make? It is the same for your ‘to do’ list. By placing a line under what you can realistically achieve in a day, allowing some time for new urgent items, you will be inspired to work through it to the end instead of flagging as you know what you are trying to achieve is just not physically possible.

So instead of throwing out negative comments about someone in a position of great responsibility for striving to manage his time, let’s take a leaf out of Nick Clegg’s book. Time is finite, so work out what works best for us as individuals so that we are achieving maximum productivity in the time we have available.