Strict focus wastes time

By ASHLEY CAMPBELL

Trying to force naturally disorganised people into organised, scheduled work habits is likely to be a waste of time and money, says Darryl Forsyth, a Massey University lecturer in human resource management.

Forsyth says student research he supervised suggests, for example, there are three different strategies for handling email.

One strategy is to organise emails into different folders with different priorities and keep your inbox clear. Another priority is to simply deal with emails as you wish, apply no real strategy and not worry about it. The third is to fail to regularly organise email, but worry, feel guilty and have infrequent "spring cleans", trying to clear the build-up.

"Most time management people suggest you should put it in the right folder straight away," he says. "Interestingly, she [his student] found this was true for people who like being organised."

However, the student also found that the people who adopted the second strategy, and who liked being disorganised, got just as much done as the first group and experienced as little stress.

The problems occurred with the third group, who felt stressed because they wanted to be organised but never really got around to it.

People feel less stressed if they have perceived control of their working time rather than actual control of their working time, Forsyth says. And research shows that an organisation's climate has a major effect on time management.

"Role ambiguity is a real nasty," Forsyth says. No matter how good employees are at organising their time, if they have unclear reporting lines, they will feel stressed.

Home environment also affects how employees feel about time pressures at work.

"If you perceive you have emotional support at home, you are going to feel a lot better about the time pressures in the work environment."

Trying to force naturally disorganised people into a regimented way of working could actually be counter-productive, says Forsyth.

"If I worked in an organisation that forced me to schedule everything, it would annoy me."

Other research suggests that one of the most positive aspects of time management programmes was that they gave colleagues a chance to compare experiences and realise they were not alone in feeling stressed.

"Maybe the best thing to do would be to put on an afternoon tea with nice food and encourage workmates to talk to each other about how they feel about time and how they feel about stress.

"As soon as you realise other people are rushing around, I think it just takes a load off you."