Figure 15. Schedule for Daily Work This is the schedule sheet upon which W. H. Ingersoll makes out his day's work. 4:00 6:00 Till 10:30 Personal letters 4:30 to 5:00 A casual walk Dinner Current news and other reading. Two evenings of the week along banking lines and two other evenings along advertising lines. 5. DAILY WORKING PLAN OF MANAGER 9 to 10:30 o'clock MORNING Study sales received in morning mail, and sources thereof. Study the sales total for month so far, and its relation to the monthly sales quota established. Make definite notes for further research, planning, and sales effort, depending upon tendencies indicated by status of sales to date. 10:30 to 11 o'clock Correspondence. II to 12 o'clock Conferences and discussions with members of advertising, copy-writing, and sales staff. 12 to 12:30 o'clock Arrange actual copy-writing and plan work for the after Actual mail sales planning. Close study of various channels of outlet, and particular copy appeal required on each list for each unit to be sold. Assigning of copy-writing work to members of staff. 4:30 to 5 o'clock Follow up the regularly scheduled mail-order work going through. Check up with members of staff as to actual mailings and their routing through, according to schedule. 6. DUTIES RECOMMENDED FOR SCHEDULE (a) Correspondence (b) Conferences for: (1) Coaching men (2) Getting facts (3) Giving orders (c) Customers (d) Interruptions (e) "Mixing" (f) Studying reports, planning, and individual work-block- (g) Reading and keeping in touch with the trend of busi ness Preparing Your Plan Though valuable as suggestions, the foregoing plans should not be adopted unchanged, as the plan which works most effectively for a specific executive depends primarily upon an analysis of his particular duties. Such an analysis. involves the keeping of a record for a period of several days, possibly weeks, of everything that is done during the working day. It may be well also to include in this record the things which suggest themselves but which somehow are crowded out; they oftentimes represent choice opportunities which have been neglected. A study of these records will soon reveal certain groupings, which means that the outlines of a day's work plan, are beginning to emerge. Needless to say there will be wide variety in the results obtained by different men. Some executives have merely an ordinary round of activities; with others it may seem at first that the only regular feature of their work is its irregularity. But in any case it will be profitable to raise a few definite questions in regard to the day's work to run a few "levels" as a surveyor does in laying out a street. Classifying Your Work The first and most important question to apply is that of the kind of activity involved in each kind of task which enters your regular day—whether it appears as a constant item or merely comes once in a while. That activity may consist of: 1. Personal study, or formation of opinion. This may be done either: (a) Through thinking things out for oneself. (b) Through examination of data which have been 2. Inspecting work of others. This may include: (b) Supervising subordinates, examining equip- (c) Remedying trouble. (d) Inspection work outside the office. 3. Consultation. This may include: (a) Reporting to superiors. (b) Explaining "the law" to subordinates. (c) General discussion of points of policy or methods. (d) Argument regarding the adoption of a particular plan. A second question is that of an executive's relation to a given piece of work or to any part of it. His function may be that of: 1. Originating the idea; visualizing it and explaining or "selling" it to his associates. 2. Developing or promoting an idea by someone else; what is required on his part is loyal and sympathetic elaboration of people's plans. 3. Reviewing, checking, testing; what is required of him is to see that specifications have been properly complied with. Thinking over the various groups of tasks which the record shows enter his working day will enable a person to decide pretty definitely regarding each group: 1. Whether it should be given a regular place in his daily schedule or may be disposed of in one of his "free" periods. 2. Whether it must be taken up according to the convenience of other persons. 3. Whether it requires fresh energy, or may be handled on "exhaust steam." 4. What is required in the way of office conditions and conveniences? Is it seriously affected by noise, by a crowded office, etc.? The effort to apply the above questions, or similar questions devised for yourself, will reveal to you perhaps things you have not realized regarding the character and relationships of the tasks which make up your regular working day. Applying the Analysis in a Definite Plan The next thing, which at first thought may appear much more difficult, is to rearrange the working time so far as possible to fit more perfectly with the tasks to be done. Very likely the reader will say at once: "This is impossible. Definite plans do very well for the president or general manager, but not for the subordinate. My own position involves continual adaptation to the calls of other persons-superiorssubordinates outsiders. My duty is to be ready for any duty. I could not hold to a plan through a single day. I may plan, in a sense, for a month or a week-that is, outline the work |