The 4 Ds of Time Management: How they can help you Boost Productivity
Many types of research on time management from different industries have shown that the people who know managing their time are more productive and happier than the ones who don’t. Here, in this article, we’ll unveil the 4 Ds of time management which are suggested by the expert management leaders to get more efficient at work.
What are the 4 Ds of Time Management?
They are – delete, delegate, do and defer. Let’s understand each of these in detail:
Delete
This refers to something which is not important now for you so no need to allot a time slot for it. You should delete such tasks from your list which has no use. For example, you get so many emails as you log in to your workstation every morning and you delete those with no use or spams. To identify such waste tasks, you should ask yourself about the importance of the task and if it worths your time. As per the Peroto principle, People spend 80% of their time on useless activities that add no value. So let’s start deleting your task memory on a regular basis.
Delegate
If you’re a team leader where some of the team members report to you, you can delegate some of the tasks allotted to you. Delegation should be based upon the task’s criticalness and responsibilities of each team member. So you have to decide if you need to be involved fully with the task or it can be delegated to the team member as of less importance. Delegation of the tasks doesn’t need to be always downward but sometimes it can be upward to the seniors or other departments as well.
Being a team leader it is your responsibility to train your team member about the task given to him by making them understand the priority and importance of the task.
DO
Doing a task which will take your few minutes only, comes under this step. In the workplace, you may be loaded up too many small tasks that don’t require more than two minutes to accomplish. Ignoring these micro-tasks can increase your workload at the end of the day so it is advised to take these tasks on priority and get it finished straight away so most of the time is given to other more important tasks. However, the micro-tasks given to you, should not have a nature to get deleted, delegated or deferred.
Defer
Postponing certain tasks which are important but they can be deferred at this time due to its less urgency. There may be certain tasks allotted to you which you’re not able to deal it right now. For example, planning a family vacation is an important task for you but you can defer it to be done at the weekend.
Similarly, you have a task to meet with the sales team to discuss the ways to scale up the sales during the festive season. It is an important task but still, you can defer it till the two days remaining for the meeting.
There may be some tasks that you had deferred in the past but now they have no use or don’t require to be done by you. Simply delete such tasks or delegate it to your subordinates.
Conclusion
At Truworth Wellness, we put emphasis on time management in our corporate wellness programs to get employees out from physical, mental, financial and social stressors. The best way to implement the 4 Ds of time management is to review your daily task list regularly and mark each of the tasks under any of the above 4 Ds.