Time Management

A Brief Guide to Time Management

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 career 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.
Implications 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.
Urgent/Important

What Is the Difference Between "Urgent" and "Important" in the Eisenhower Matrix?

In a 1954 speech to the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, former U.S. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was quoting Dr J. Roscoe Miller, president of Northwestern University, said:
"I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the
important are never urgent." This "Eisenhower Principle" is said to be how he organized his workload
and priorities.

He recognized that great time management means being effective as well as efficient. In other words,
we must spend our time on things that are important and not just the ones that are urgent. To do this,
and to minimize the stress of having too many tight deadlines, we need to understand this distinction:

Important activities have an outcome that leads to us achieving our goals, whether these are
professional or personal.

Urgent activities demand immediate attention, and are usually associated with achieving someone else's
goals. They are often the ones we concentrate on and they demand attention because the
consequences of not dealing with them are immediate.

When we know which activities are important and which are urgent, we can overcome the natural
tendency to focus on unimportant urgent activities, so that we can clear enough time to do what's
essential for our success. This is the way we move from "firefighting" into a position where we can grow
our businesses and our careers.

How to Use Eisenhower's Principle

To use this principle, list all of the activities and projects that you feel you have to do. Try to include
everything that takes up your time at work, however unimportant.

Next, think about each activity and put it into one of four categories.

1. Important and Urgent

There are two distinct types of urgent and important activities: ones that you could not have foreseen,

and others that you've left until the last minute. You can eliminate last-minute activities by planning

ahead and avoiding procrastination.

However, you can't always predict or avoid some issues and crises. Here, the best approach is to leave

some time in your schedule to handle unexpected issues and unplanned important activities. (If a major

crisis arises, then you'll need to reschedule other tasks.)

If you have a lot of urgent and important activities, identify which of these you could have foreseen, and

think about how you could schedule similar activities ahead of time, so that they don't become urgent.

2. Important but Not Urgent

These are the activities that help you achieve your personal and professional goals, and complete

important work.

Make sure that you have plenty of time to do these things properly, so that they do not become urgent.

Also, remember to leave enough time in your schedule to deal with unforeseen problems. This will

maximize your chances of keeping on track, and help you avoid the stress of work becoming more

urgent than necessary.

3. Not Important but Urgent

Urgent but not important tasks are things that prevent you from achieving your goals. Ask yourself

whether you can reschedule or delegate them.

A common source of such activities is other people. Sometimes it's appropriate to say "no" to people

politely, or to encourage them to solve the problem themselves.

What Is an Example of Not Important but Urgent?

An urgent but not important task might be responding to emails that don't concern you directly, posting

to social media, or proofreading a colleague's report. These tasks need to get done, but they may not

require your specific skill set.

What Can I Do to Stop Doing Urgent but Unimportant Things?

If you can't delegate or reschedule these tasks, try to have time slots when you are available, so that

people know they can speak with you then. A good way to do this is to arrange regular meetings with

those who interrupt you often, so that you can deal with all their issues at once. You'll then be able to

concentrate on your important activities for longer.

4. Not Important and Not Urgent

These activities are just a distraction – avoid them if possible.

You can simply ignore or cancel many of them. However, some may be activities that other people want

you to do, even though they don't contribute to your own desired outcomes. Again, say "no" politely, if

you can, and explain why you cannot do it.

If people see that you are clear about your objectives and boundaries, they will often avoid asking you to

do "not important" activities in the future.