Time Management
March 7, 2010
Time management refers to a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals.
This set encompasses a wide scope of activities, and these include planning, allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring, organizing, scheduling, and prioritizing
Initially time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities as well. Time management has been considered as subsets of different concepts such as
Project Management
Time Management, can be considered as a project
Management subset, and is more commonly known as project planning and project scheduling.Time Management is also been identified as one of
The core functions identified in project management
Attention Management:
Attention management relates to the management of cognitive resources, and in particular the time that humans allocate their mind (and organizations the minds of their employees) to conduct some activities.
Time Management Skills
Personal time management skills are essential skills for effective people. People who use these techniques routinely are the highest achievers in all walks of life, from business to sport to public service. If you use these skills well, then you will be able to function exceptionally well, even under intense pressure.
At the heart of time management is an important shift in focus
Concentrate on results, not on being busy
Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activity, but achieve very little, because they’re not concentrating their effort on the things that matter the most.
The 80:20 Rule
This is neatly summed up in the Pareto Principle, or the ‘80:20 Rule’. This says that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results. This means that the remaining 80% of results are achieved with only 20% of the effort.
Time Management Tools
Beating Procrastination
If you’ve found yourself putting off important tasks over and over again, you’re not alone. In fact, many people procrastinate to some degree – but some are so chronically affected by procrastination that it stops them fulfilling their potential and disrupts their careers.
The key to controlling this destructive habit is to recognize when you start procrastinating, understand why it happens (even to the best of us), and take active steps to manage your time and outcomes better.
What is Procrastination?
In a nutshell, you procrastinate when you put off things that you should be focusing on right now, usually in favor of doing something that is more enjoyable or that you’re more comfortable doing.
How to Overcome Procrastination
Follow these steps to deal with and control procrastination:
Step1: Recognize that you’re Procrastinating
Here are some useful indicators that will help you know when you’re procrastinating:
Filling your day with low priority tasks from your To Do List.
Reading e-mails several times without starting work on them or deciding what you’re going to do with them.
Sitting down to start a high-priority task, and almost immediately going off to make a cup of coffee. Leaving an item on your To Do list for a long time, even though you know it’s important.
Regularly saying “Yes” to unimportant tasks that others ask you to do, and filling your time with these instead of getting on with the important tasks already on your list.
Waiting for the “right mood” or the “right time” to tackle the important task at hand. Action Programs
Becoming Exceptionally Well Organized
To-Do Lists are great for managing a small number of tasks. The problem is that, for most of us, our To-Do List is not really a planned, focused action list. Rather, it is a sort of a catch-all for a lot of things that are unresolved and not yet translated into outcomes
Step 1. Collection
First, make a list inventory of all the things in your world that require resolution. Try to collect and write down everything – urgent or not, big or small, personal or professional – that you feel is incomplete and needs action from you to get completed.
Step 2. Pruning
Now, process the list made in step1, by looking
Carefully at each item.
Decide whether you should, actually, take action on it. A lot of what comes our way has no real relevance to us, or is really not important in the scale of things. If that is the case, then delete these things from your inventory.
Now, process the list made in step1, by looking
Carefully at each item.
Decide whether you should, actually, take action on it. A lot of what comes our way has no real relevance to us, or is really not important in the scale of things. If that is the case, then delete these things from your inventory.
Step 3. Organizing and Prioritizing
This comes in three parts.
First of all, review your inventory of items. For any which are separate, individual actions that make up part of a larger project, group these individual actions together into their projects.
Second, review these projects, and allocate a priority to them (for example, by coding them from A to F) depending on their importance. Clearly, your personal goals are exceptionally important projects
Third, insert your projects into a formatted Action Program. The Action Program is split up into three parts:
A “Next Action List,” which shows the small next actions that you will take to move your projects forward.
A “Delegated Actions List,” which shows projects and actions have delegated to other people
A “Project Catalog” that shows all of the projects you are engaged in and the small individual tasks that you have identified so far that contribute to them.
Step 4. “Working” Your Action Program
An Action Program is typically fairly long. But you don’t have to run through the entire Program every day!
Usually, you’ll only be dealing with the top page or pages. Some activities may be day-specific or time-specific. Depending of the way you work, these can be either maintained as the top page of your Action Program or marked on your calendar
To-Do Lists
Prioritized To-Do Lists are fundamentally important to efficient work. If you use To-Do Lists, you will ensure that:
You remember to carry out all necessary tasks
You tackle the most important jobs first, and do not waste time on trivial tasks.
You do not get stressed by a large number of unimportant jobs
Prioritization
Prioritization is the essential skill to make the very best use of own efforts, and those of your team.
It is particularly important when time is limited and demands are seemingly unlimited. It helps you to spend your time wisely, freeing you and your team up from less important tasks that can be attended to later – or quietly drop.
With good prioritization (and careful management of deprioritized tasks) you can bring order to chaos, massively reduce stress, and move forwards successfully. Without it, you’ll flounder around, drowning in competing demands
Simple Prioritization
At a simple level, you can prioritize based on time constraints, on the potential profitability or benefit of the task you’re facing, or on the pressure you’re under to complete a job
Prioritization Tools
A technique that has been used in business management for a long time is the categorization of large data into groups. These groups are often marked A, B, and C—hence the name. Activities are ranked upon these general criteria:
A – Tasks that are perceived as being urgent and important.
B – Tasks that are important but not urgent.
C – Tasks that are neither urgent nor important
Paired Comparison Analysis
Paired Comparison Analysis is most useful where decision criteria are vague, subjective or inconsistent. It helps you prioritize options by asking you to compare each item on a list with all other items on the list individually. By deciding in each case which of the two is most important, you can consolidate results to get a prioritized list.
Grid Analysis:
Grid Analysis helps you prioritize a list of tasks where you need to take many different factors into consideration.
The Action Priority Matrix:
This quick and simple diagramming technique asks you to plot the value of the task against the effort it will consume
The Urgent/Important Matrix:
Similar to the Action Priority Matrix, this technique asks you to think about whether tasks are urgent or important
The Ansoff & Boston Matrices:
These give you quick “rules of thumb” for prioritizing the opportunities open to you.
The Ansoff Matrix helps you evaluate and prioritize opportunities by risk. The Boston Matrix does a similar job, helping you prioritize opportunities based on the attractiveness of a market and your ability to take advantage of it
Pareto Analysis:
Where you’re facing a flurry of problems needing to be solved, Pareto Analysis helps you identify the most important changes to make.
Nominal Group Technique:
Nominal Group Technique is a useful technique for prioritizing issues and projects within a group, giving everyone fair input into the prioritization process.
Effective Scheduling
Scheduling is the process by which you look at the time available to you, and plan how you will use it to achieve the goals you have identified. By using a schedule properly, you can:
Understand what you can realistically achieve with your time;
Plan to make the best use of the time available;
Leave enough time for things you absolutely must do;
Preserve contingency time to handle ‘the unexpected’; and
Minimize stress by avoiding over-commitment to others
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time management is utmost importance even in practicing islamic fundamentals.islam not only stress upon time management but also teaches us how to do it.This article reflects about this.