One of the paradoxes of young ambitious workers is that they are always in a hurry to get things done in the short term, but when it comes to longer-term goals, they often seem to lack a sense of urgency. The increasing pace of information transfer and delivery has changed how we all think of time, but especially members of Gen Z who have never known the world any other way. They are less likely to think in months or weeks—they think in hours and minutes.
But technology isn’t entirely to blame for this phenomenon: Young people—no matter their generation—have less experience working toward the kinds of long-vesting goals often dealt with in business. In high school or college, their group projects have been relegated to the timeframe of a semester or, at most, a year. This is part of the reason it can seem to managers that their younger employees are focused on the wrong things at the wrong times. But it also means there is opportunity to rapidly improve young workers’ priority setting skills with a little coaching.
Help Them Set Priorities
Setting priorities is usually step one in most time management programs and seminars. The hard part is teaching team members how to set priorities. Many managers forget their direct reports—especially newer and less experienced ones—are operating with less information than they are. No one can be expected to effectively prioritize if they are unaware of the big picture and how their work fits into that picture. A manager’s primary job is to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and information up and down the chain of command. Start by making sure you are routinely updating your team on how big picture priorities are evolving.
Then make sure team members are devoting the lion’s share of their time to immediate first and second priorities. Often what that means is teaching them how by setting priorities together. Let them follow along with your thinking process. Walk through it with them. Teach them to postpone low-priority activities until high-priority activities are well ahead of schedule. Those are the time windows during which lower-priority activities can be accomplished. Time wasters, on the other hand, should be eliminated altogether whenever possible.
Help Them Eliminate Time Wasters
Everyone has time wasters, but nobody can afford them, least of all people in the early stages of their careers who are eager to succeed but are also quite easily distracted. The best gift you can give anyone is helping them to identify their biggest time wasters and eliminate them altogether.
Probably the best tool for identifying time wasters is an old-fashioned time log or diary, in which an individual keeps track almost minute by minute of what they are doing. The idea is that each time the person changes from one activity to another, they note briefly the time and the activity.
The time log is useful only if the user faithfully logs every activity precisely. Used properly, three or four days is all it takes to get a reality check on how a person is spending their time. How much time is spent on first, second, or third priorities? What are the big time wasters that can be eliminated to free up time?
Remember that most people treasure time above all other nonfinancial rewards. When you help them eliminate time wasters and limit the time they spend on low priorities, you are helping them focus their time on top priorities and giving them free time they otherwise would have wasted. That is a reward that keeps on giving. They’ll really appreciate it.
When helping young workers identify time wasters to eliminate, don’t mistake distractions for time wasters. They may or not be. Remember that young people today are used to having a huge amount of control over their immediate environment—especially their information environment. Gen Zers have likely been doing their homework for years while also paying attention to a whole virtual world on a second screen. Just because it might be distracting to you doesn’t mean it is distracting to them. If the task in question is being performed well within expected time frames, then the employee is probably not distracted. Pay attention to which of the so-called distractions help them remain absorbed in their tasks at work as opposed to those that draw their attention away.
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