Apply this principle of “constraint analysis” to your work hour-by-hour, and day-by-day. Keep asking, “What is the constraint that determines how fast and how well I complete this task?” Whatever it is, go to work immediately in that area. This is your top priority, and alleviating this constraint will help you to accomplish your most important task faster than anything else you could do.
For example, if you want to get to work on time, you could say that the constraint is the amount of traffic that will be on the roads between your home and your work. But perhaps the traffic is always the same. Then your constraint would be how early you leave home for work, to allow for the traffic. Or perhaps your constraint is the hour at which you arise in the morning so that you can get fully prepared and leave the house on time.
Apply Constraint Analysis to Each Task
When you examine each of your goals, small or large, short-term or long-term, and identify the constraint, chokepoint or limiting factor that 105
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determines how fast you achieve that goal, you will see clearly the specific actions you will have to take to achieve your goal on schedule.
Once you have identified your limiting factor, you then concentrate all of your energies on alleviating that specific bottleneck. You focus your intelligence and creativity on finding ways to remove this constraint so that you can accomplish your goal far faster.
Once you have identified the constraint that is setting the speed at which you achieve your goal, and alleviate it, you will find that another constraint exists immediately behind it. A key part of personal effectiveness is for you to engage in an on-going process of “constraint analysis.” Keep asking yourself, “What sets the speed at which I accomplish this specific goal, or complete this task?”
Look Into Yourself or Company
The 80/20 Rule applies to constraint analysis in a special way. It seems that 80% of the limiting factors that determine your success at home or at work are contained within yourself. Only 20% is actually contained within the situation, the company or the environment. This is an important observation.
The average person always looks for the reason for his or her problems outside of themselves. The experienced person on the other hand always looks for the reasons inside himself or inside the organization.
In most cases, the reasons that you are not achieving your personal goals are because of the lack of a skill, ability, quality or talent. The problems or 106
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frustrations you are experiencing on the outside are almost always a result of some lack or need that you have on the inside.
One of my rules is that, “To achieve a goal you’ve never achieved before, you are going to have to develop and master a skill that you’ve never had before.” It may be that to achieve one of your important goals, you are going to have to become a different person. You are going to have to develop skills and qualities that you are currently lacking. You are going to have to become a different person if you want to get different results.
Always take a few minutes to stand back from your situation and analyze it objectively, as though you were a consultant who had been called in from the outside. Then ask, “What is it in me, or in my company, that is holding me back?”
What Else Is Holding You Back?
When I do sales consulting for organizations, I help them think through this process from beginning to end. First, we set a hypothetical goal of doubling their sales. We then ask, “What is the limiting factor that determines how quickly you double your sales in this company?”
The first and most common answer is “the number of sales we make.” If this answer is true, we set a tentative goal to double the number of sales.
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We then ask, “What is the constraint or limiting factor that determines the number of sales that you make?” The answers to this question can lead in several different directions and suggest different solutions.
For example, the answer may be, “We are not making enough sales.” If this is the correct answer, or constraint, then the solution is to find a way to increase the number of sales sales.
Perhaps the answer is, “Our salespeople are not selling enough to each of our prospects.” If this were the answer, then the skills and abilities of the sales force will need to be upgraded through training and development.
Identify the Correct Constraint
Perhaps the reason we are not selling enough is, “Our prospects are buying too much of our product from our competitors.” If this is the answer, the solution to alleviating the bottleneck may be to change or upgrade the product or service, to focus on different customers and markets, to develop new products and services, or to use different distribution channels.
Perhaps the answer can be rephrased as, “Our customers are not buying enough of our products from us.” In this case, the solution is to advertise more effectively, sell more professionally, explain the product to the prospect in such a way that it is more attractive, or to close more assertively.
Perhaps the solution to increasing sales is to improve the effectiveness of the advertising, or to advertise in a different media. Perhaps it is to change the 108
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prices and terms of purchase. Perhaps it is to change the size, packaging or ingredients of the offer. Whatever the answer, the time taken to correctly identify the limiting factor determines the specific actions that will be taken to alleviate that constraint and achieve the desired result of sales improvement.
The point is this. The more thoughtfully that you engage in constraint analysis, the more likely it is that you will select the correct area of focus to alleviate the chokepoint and achieve the goal. You will set the correct priorities and save yourself an enormous amount of time and money.
Remember, “The very worst use of time is to do something extremely well that need not be done at all.”
Think About the Future Consequences
In setting priorities, one of the most important thinking exercises you engage in is to consider the future impact of any action you take. One of the ways to measure the value or importance of a task is to look at what might happen if the task is done or not done. Something that has a high potential future impact on your life or work is a task of high priority. Something that will have little or no impact on your future is a task of low priority and value.
For example, if you were to read this book on time management and incorporate the very best ideas contained here into your ways of living and working, you could double your productivity, performance and output. You could accomplish vastly more and be paid at a far higher rate. You could dramatically increase the value of your contribution to your company and 109
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become one of the top people in your field. On this basis, reading this book, and becoming extremely skilled at time management, is a top priority for you because of its long-term future impact.
At home, playing with your children and spending time with your family has potential long-term impact for their happiness and health. Investing time in the most important people in your life is therefore a top priority because of the impact it can have on their future, and yours.
On the other hand, watching television, reading the newspaper, surfing the Internet or going out to lunch with your friends, are activities of low priority because they have little or no potential impact in the long term.
Keep asking yourself, “What are the possible consequences of doing or not doing this particular task?” What are the consequences of engaging in this particular activity? If it can have significant consequences, it should be at the top of your list. Engaging in this activity should be a far better use of time than most of the other things you can do.
Practice Creative Procrastination
An important part of setting priorities is the practice of “creative procrastination.” The fact is that everyone procrastinates. Everyone has too much to do and too little time. In one recent study, the researchers concluded that the average executive has 300-400 hours of projects, responsibilities and reading materials stacked up that they have not been able to get to, but which they hope to get through in the future.
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Because you cannot do everything, you have to procrastinate on many things, if not most things. Creative procrastination requires that you deliberately decide, at a conscious level, the items that you are going to procrastinate on so that you have more time to do those things that can really make a difference in your life.