The use of executive time

MANAGERS are busy people. How busy? If Parkinson is right in his statement that work expands to fill the time available, we cannot necessarily be sure that we are really busy because we feel busy. We can only find out by analysing how we spend our time so as to discover how much we are really accomplishing in a day. We do know that some people seem to be able to do many more things in a day or a week than other people. There is a popular saying that if you want to get something done ask somebody who already has a lot to do. We say this because we know that such a man has learnt to use his time effectively, and that if we go to him he is likely to give us his attention. We can learn both from his example and by studying how we are using our own time.