Introduction

This set of articles explains Time Management. Time Management is a set of related common-sense skills that help you to use your time in the most effective and productive way possible.

By using Time Management skills you can learn to:

Determine which of the things you do are important, and which can be dropped
Use your time in the most effective way possible
Increase the time in which you can work
Control the distractions that waste your time and break your flow
Increase your effectiveness and reduce stress
By becoming more effective in your use of working time, you can reduce stress by:

being more in control of what you do
being productive, and secure in your job because of this
enjoying what you do
giving yourself more quality time to relax and enjoy life outside work.

The Central Shift in Attitude

At the heart of the subject is a simple, but obvious, 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 are not concentrating on the right things.

This is neatly summed up in the Pareto Principle*, or the 80/20 rule. This states that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results, and that the remaining 80% of results are achieved with only 20% of the effort. By applying time management, including planning, we aim to change this to ensure that we concentrate as much of our effort as possible on the high payoff tasks. This ensures that we achieve the greatest payoff possible with our investment of time.

 

Why don't people manage their time?

Despite the benefits of time management, very many people do not use it. This can be because:

they don't know about it
they are too lazy to plan
they enjoy the adrenaline buzz of meeting tight deadlines
they enjoy crisis management
The problem with crisis management and tight deadlines is that while they can be fun, often they can lead to high levels of stress, a disrupted private life, tiredness and, occasionally, to failure of projects.

Mind Tools Time Management
This section on time management shows you how use your time in the most effective way possible.
It concentrates on the following 'how to' areas:

Evaluating your use of time
Focussing on your priorities
Planning for effective use of time
Using time more effectively
Creating more time
Avoiding distractions
Following this we explain some of the tools that help in time management:

The Activity Log
Delegation
SWOT
Reading Skills
Writing Skills
Phone Skills
Prioritised To Do
Time assessment, and PERT

How much is your time worth?

The first part of our focus on results is to work out how much your time costs.
If you work for an organisation, work out how much you cost it each year. Include your salary, payroll taxes, the cost of office space you occupy, equipment and facilities you use, expenses, administrative support, etc. If you are self employed, work out how much your time costs each hour.
To this figure add a guesstimate of the amount of profit you should generate by your activity.
From these figures, calculate an hourly rate. This should give a reasonable estimate of how much your time is worth - this may be a surprisingly large amount!

 

How do you spend your day now?

Memory is a very poor guide when it comes to assessing how you spend your time - it is too easy to forget time spent talking to colleagues, making coffee, eating lunch, etc. It can also function poorly when you are at a low ebb during the day.
You may also be unaware that your energy levels may vary through the day - most people function at different levels of effectiveness at different times. This may be caused by the amount of sugar in their blood, the length of time since they took a break, routine distractions, stress, discomfort, etc.

 

How to use an Activity Log to find out

A revealing technique is to keep an Activity Log for several days. Without modifying your behaviour, note down the things you do as you do them, from the moment you start working. Every time you change activities, whether opening mail, working, making coffee, dealing with colleagues, gossiping, going to collect paper from a printer, etc., note down the time of the change.
As well as noting activities, it is worth noting how you feel, whether alert, flat, tired, energetic, etc. This should be done periodically throughout the day.

Analysing your log

Once you have logged your time for several days, analyse the log. You may be alarmed to see the length of time you spend opening mail, talking to colleagues, dealing with disruptions, or doing low value jobs!
You may also see that you are energetic in some parts of the day, and flat in other parts. A lot of this can depend on the rest breaks you take, the times and amounts you eat, and quality of your nutrition. The activity log gives you some basis for experimenting with these variables.

 

How should you use your time?

An important part of focusing on results is working out what to focus on! Many people work very hard all day doing little jobs that do not actually affect the quality of the work they do.
This section concentrates on three areas - clarifying what you enjoy, working out what your strengths and weaknesses are, and working out both what your job is and what constitutes excellent performance.

What would you like to spend your time on?

It is important for your own quality of life that you enjoy your job. If you know broadly what you like and dislike, you will be more able to move your job towards doing things that you enjoy. This is important as you are much more likely to do a job efficiently and effectively if you enjoy it than if you loathe it.
What do you do well?
It is important to know what your talents and weaknesses are. A good way of doing this is to carry out a SWOT analysis. This provides a formal approach to evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats that you face.

How planning helps you to use your time effectively

By now you should know the value of your time, and should understand how to find out what you should be concentrating on.
The next stage in concentrating on results is to learn how to plan. Planning can be considered to be an investment in efficiency and success. Planning is the process by which you work out what you want to achieve, and then think through the who, what, when, where, why and how of achieving that goal in the most effective way possible.
By planning well you can ensure that you concentrate only on those tasks that will move you towards your goal in the most effective way possible, without being distracted by unimportant but urgent tasks.
Planning breaks down into two main strands: personal planning, which is best done by setting goals, and project planning, which is best achieved by a formalised application of the planning process.

Goal Setting - Planning for personal achievement

Goal setting is a formal process of setting personal targets in a number of areas. The process of setting goals on a routine basis helps you to decide what you want to achieve with your time, and then set the precise personal targets that will lead you to achieving this.
Setting goals has the additional benefit of raising your self-confidence by forcing you to recognise your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set on an ongoing basis.
The following are links to a full Mind Skills section on goal setting:

Why Should You Set Goals?
Deciding Your Goals
How to Set Goals Effectively
Where Goal-Setting Can Go Wrong
Achieving Goals, and the Importance of Feedback
Pulling Goals Together