Workload planning and management

When planning your own and your subordinates' time, it makes sense to follow the rule of thumb:

The higher the level of responsibility an employee has, the less time he or she should have to schedule

Namely:

- For line specialists - 60-80%

- For middle management - 40-60%

- Top management - 30-50%

Never 100% for anyone.

We are talking about the maximum volume of everyday tasks: meetings, fixed mandatory activities. It is clear that in NGOs you often have to act as a human orchestra, but if you don't at least try to fix it, the situation will not change.

The percentages are so low because the management will always have some unscheduled things to do: this one will fall ill, this one will resign, these partners will disappear, these ones will suddenly appear. And the more subordinates you have, the more issues you are involved in, and the more important decisions you have to make - the more such situations and unplanned tasks there will be.

And for line employees, if the processes in the organisation are well structured, there will be a lot of clear tasks that can be planned and relatively little responsibility. But there will always be something unscheduled and urgent, for which there should be at least a 20 per cent backlash: in a 40-hour working week, that's about 1.5 hours a day.