Management: 'urgent' response saps productivity.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey

The productivity of most managers "stinks," according to author and consultant Wolf Rinke. That's because they pay too much attention to the urgent--they spend their time putting out fires.

By being connected "24/7," each email and phone call can become an urgent matter that some executives believe must be responded to immediately, and the "urgent" requests just keep coming. Before you know it, another day has passed without any concentrated think time or time to attack the major projects, Rinke says.

He advocates what he deems the "rubber band approach" to stretch one's time:

Routinize crisis. To manage crises instead of having them manage you, after putting out the fire, analyze the crisis. Ask: what is the pattern here, why did it occur, what can we do to avoid it or who can be trained to prevent it? Then implement actions designed to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Establish critical priorities. "Urgent" requirements mess up your day when everything that presents itself becomes urgent. The only way to deal with that is to get very clear about your top three priorities--what Rinke calls Winning Result Areas (WRAs). These are the make-or-break activities, the ones that will cost you your job if you do not complete them.

Analyze your time expenditures. Look at each task listed on your calendar and ask yourself three questions. (1) What would happen if I don't do this task...