Team Work 

Grooming
Professional Decorum
Time Management
Interpersonal Skills
The Concept of Self-Confidence
Resume Writing

Time management is the process of planning and controlling how much time to spend on specific
activities. Good time management enables an individual to complete more in a shorter period of
time, lowers stress, and leads to success. 

Benefits of Time Management 

The ability to manage your time effectively is important. Good time management leads to
improved efficiency and productivity, less stress, and more success in life. Here are some
benefits of managing time effectively: 

1. Stress relief 

Making and following a task schedule reduces anxiety. As you check off items on your “to-do”
list, you can see that you are making tangible progress. This helps you avoid feeling stressed out
with worry about whether you’re getting things done. 

2. More time 

Good time management gives you extra time to spend in your daily life. People who can time-manage
effectively enjoy having more time to spend on hobbies or other personal pursuits. 

3. More opportunities 

Managing time well leads to more opportunities and less time wasted on trivial activities. Good time
management skills are key qualities that employers look for. The ability to prioritize and schedule work
is extremely desirable for any organization. 

  
4. Ability to realize goals 

Individuals who practice good time management are able to better achieve goals and objectives, and do
so in a shorter length of time. 

List of Tips for Effective Time Management 

After considering the benefits of time management, let’s look at some ways to manage time effectively: 

1. Set goals correctly 

Set goals that are achievable and measurable. Use the SMART method when setting goals. In essence,
make sure the goals you set are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. 

2. Prioritize wisely 

Prioritize tasks based on importance and urgency. For example, look at your daily tasks and determine
which are: 

 Important and urgent: Do these tasks right away. 

 Important but not urgent: Decide when to do these tasks. 

 Urgent but not important: Delegate these tasks if possible. 

 Not urgent and not important: Set these aside to do later. 

3. Set a time limit to complete a task 

Setting time constraints for completing tasks helps you be more focused and efficient. Making the small
extra effort to decide on how much time you need to allot for each task can also help you recognize
potential problems before they arise. That way you can make plans for dealing with them. 

For example, assume you need to write up five reviews in time for a meeting. However, you realize that
you’ll only be able to get four of them done in the time remaining before the meeting. If you become
aware of this fact well in advance, you may be able to easily delegate writing up one of the reviews to
someone else. However, if you hadn’t bothered to do a time check on your tasks beforehand, you might
have ended up not realizing your time problem until just an hour before the meeting. At that point, it
might be considerably more difficult to find someone to delegate one of the reviews to, and more
difficult for them to fit the task into their day, too. 
  

4. Take a break between tasks 

When doing a lot of tasks without a break, it is harder to stay focused and motivated. Allow some
downtime between tasks to clear your head and refresh yourself. Consider grabbing a brief nap, going
for a short walk, or meditating. 

5. Organize yourself 

Utilize your calendar for more long-term time management. Write down the deadlines for projects, or
for tasks that are part of completing the overall project. Think about which days might be best to
dedicate to specific tasks. For example, you might need to plan a meeting to discuss cash flow on a day
when you know the company CFO is available. 

6. Remove non-essential tasks/activities 

It is important to remove excess activities or tasks. Determine what is significant and what deserves your
time. Removing non-essential tasks/activities frees up more of your time to be spent on genuinely
important things. 

7. Plan ahead 

Make sure you start every day with a clear idea of what you need to do – what needs to get done THAT
DAY. Consider making it a habit to, at the end of each workday, go ahead and write out your “to-do” list
for the next workday. That way you can hit the ground running the next morning. 

Disadvantages of Poor Time Management 

Let’s also consider the consequences of poor time management. 

1. Poor workflow 

The inability to plan ahead and stick to goals means poor efficiency. For example, if there are several
important tasks to complete, an effective plan would be to complete related tasks together or
sequentially. However, if you don’t plan ahead, you could end up having to jump back and forth, or
backtrack, in doing your work. That translates to reduced efficiency and lower productivity. 

2. Wasted time 

Poor time management results in wasted time. For example, by talking to friends on social media while
doing an assignment, you are distracting yourself and wasting time. 

3. Loss of control 

By not knowing what the next task is, you suffer from loss of control of your life. That can contribute to
higher stress levels and anxiety. 

4. Poor quality of work 

Poor time management typically makes the quality of your work suffer. For example, having to rush to
complete tasks at the last minute usually compromises quality. 

5. Poor reputation 

If clients or your employer cannot rely on you to complete tasks in a timely manner, their expectations
and perceptions of you are adversely affected. If a client cannot rely on you to get something done on
time, they will likely take their business elsewhere. 

Time Management Matrix by Stephen Covey – Urgent vs

  
Stephen Covey, popularized the concept of a Time Management Matrix for prioritizing by
advocating the use of four quadrants to determine the tasks you “need” to do and deciding what
should be made a priority. 

Covey is the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First 
 

The Time Management Matrix, Diagram 

 In Quadrant 1 (top left) we have important, urgent items – items that need to be
dealt with immediately. 
 In Quadrant 2 (top right) we have important, but not urgent items – items that are
important but do not require your immediate attention, and need to be planned for.   
  In Quadrant 3 (bottom left) we have urgent, but unimportant items –  items which
should be minimized or eliminated. These are the time sucks, the “poor planning on
your part does not constitute an emergency on my part” variety of tasks. 
 In Quadrant 4 (bottom right) we have unimportant and also not urgent items – items
that don’t have to be done anytime soon, perhaps add little to no value and also
should be minimized or eliminated.  These are often trivial time wasters 

Quadrant 4 – Not Urgent and Not Important 

Time Wasters include: 

 Mindless web browsing 

Quadrant 3 – Urgent and Not Important 

Other “Urgent” tasks that add little to no value 

 Phone calls that are off topic 

Quadrant 2 – Not Urgent and Important 

Your overall health is something you may take for granted today, and may not see urgency in
dealing with it – but long term, we know it’s of supreme importance. 

There are some other important, yet not urgent, things that fall into this quadrant as well: 

 Exercise 
 Reviewing your career path 
 Maintaining relationships with family/friends 

Quadrant 1 – Urgent and Important 

  
Examples: 

 Family Emergencies 
 Real, hard deadlines for important projects