Bahria Institute of Teachers Training

Basic Teaching Course

Time Management

Time management is defined as the management of time in order to make the most
out of it. It refers to all of the practices that individuals follow to make better use of their time.
It also refers to the principles and systems that individuals use to make conscious decisions
about the activities that occupy their time
It is 24/7 for everyone. Diversity of skills draws to different achievement level. It is
therefore the individual to cater the best possible efforts for the utmost and optimum result in
the confinement of time frame.
What is Time-Management?
Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control
over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness,
efficiency or productivity. It is the thread running through almost all aspects of teaching;
organizing the day, organizing the classroom, deciding how long and how often
to teach various subjects, recording student progress, or keeping time-consuming behaviour
problems to a minimum.
Teachers often feel overwhelmed by the mountain of tasks at hand, the never-ending
lessons they have to plan and the piles of marking they have to do. Teachers need to
balance the long-term goals of the classroom, the immediate educational needs of the
students and the large volume of
Paper work that comes with every assignment. With effective time
management skills, teachers can increase their productivity and provide a better education
for their students.
Time Management is a Skill:
Time management skill can help to reduce or even eliminate stress. Good time
management skills will make you more productive, helping you to meet your deadlines and
lowering your stress levels. It improves your self-discipline, the quality of your work, opens up
new possibilities, improves your career, enhances your decision-making ability and you can
accomplish more.
When you are not able to manage time, it creates stress, fatigue, unhappiness & poor
health in a person.

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 Bahria Institute of Teachers Training
Basic Teaching Course

Working on your time management skills can help you be a better employee and
strong candidate when you apply for new opportunities. Here are a few ways you can
improve your time management skills:
CHALLENGES FOR A TEACHER AND THE WAYS TO CATER THEM:
a. Effective Planning: Plan your day well in advance. Prepare a To Do List or a “TASK
PLAN”. Jot down the important activities that need to be done in a single day against
the time that should be allocated to each activity. High Priority work should come on
top followed by those which do not need much of your importance at the moment.
Complete pending tasks one by one. Do not begin fresh work unless you have finished
your previous task. Tick the ones you have already completed. Ensure you finish the
tasks within the stipulated time frame. Chaotic working with cluttered logistics,
disorganization in planning and searching for required output can eat up the given time
frame.
b. Setting Goals and Objectives: Working without goals and targets in an organization
would be similar to a situation where the captain of the ship loses his way in the sea. Yes,
you would be lost. Set targets for yourself and make sure they are realistic ones and
achievable.
c. Setting Deadlines: Set deadlines for yourself and strive hard to complete tasks ahead
of the deadlines. Do not wait for your superiors to ask you every time. Learn to take
ownership of work. One person who can best set the deadlines is you yourself. Ask
yourself how much time needs to be devoted to a particular task and for how many
days. Use a planner to mark the important dates against the set deadlines. Setting
deadlines means meeting the time frame with ending time to achieve the desired
results.
d. Delegation of Responsibilities: Learn to say “NO” at workplace. Don’t do
everything on your own. There are other people as well. One should not accept
something which he knows is difficult for him. The roles and responsibilities must be
delegated as per interest and specialization of employees for them to finish tasks
within deadlines.
e. Prioritizing activities as per their importance: Prioritize the tasks as per their
importance and urgency. Know the difference between important and urgent work.
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 Bahria Institute of Teachers Training
Basic Teaching Course

Identify which tasks should be done within a day, which all should be done within a
month and so on. Tasks which are most important should be done earlier.
f. Spending the right time on right activity: Develop the habit of doing the right
thing at the right time. Work done at the wrong time is not of much use. Don’t waste a
complete day on something which can be done in an hour or so. Also keep some time
separate for your personal commitments.
POSSIBLE TIME WASTERS THEIR CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS ARE LISTED BELOW

Time Wasters Possible Causes Suggested Solutions

Lessons and all other activities
Planned a lesson in the
need to be planned well in
beginning of the year did not
order to use all the available
• Lack of Planning go through it at the time of
time well. If planned earlier
teaching/Did not plan the
must be consulted a day before
lesson at all.
the lesson.
Decide on course of action how
to go about a task and gather
sufficient information about it
Unplanned/ Unclear about the
• Crisis Management before starting the tasks.
task.
If you are not clear about the
task then approach the
supervisor to get details.
Postponed decisions result in
Not delegating tasks/Not
• Postponed clutter (Piling up of work). Make
decided when to do/Waiting
Decisions space for yourself and take
for suitable time to do it.
timely decisions.
Lack of decision making Be as efficient as possible
to do a particular when doing a task by using the
• Lack of self- task/Procrastinating best method to do it.
Discipline/Concentration
Chunks/division/partial Do every task at the most
working/disorganized/unruly/ suitable time.

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 Bahria Institute of Teachers Training
Basic Teaching Course

Frustrated/tasks forgetfulness Do the difficult tasks when you

are at your best and routine
jobs when you are low in
energy/tired.
Unclear about tasks/Not Set tasks clearly and ensure
enough information/Not that learners know how to
• Inconsistent enough effort given to a task. perform them. Learners must
Actions
Dull/impassionate have clear
Must know exactly what to do.
Avoid interruptions. You know
the interruptions that occur in
your school and you should
plan to compensate for time
lost, or avoid the interruptions.
Others tend to disturb you as
• Socializing and To avoid interruptions,
interrupting they finished their work and
establish the parameters and
others now want to have a chat with
inform people of the
you.
circumstances when you can
be interrupted (e.g., some type
of emergency where immediate
attention is needed).

Handout: Time management Page 4 of 11

 Bahria Institute of Teachers Training
Basic Teaching Course

TASK PRIORITIZATION
URGENT AND IMPORTANT MATRIX

Quadrant 1: Do
Quadrant one is the “do” quadrant, and this is where you’ll place any tasks that are
both urgent and important. When you see a task on your to-do list that must be done now,
has clear consequences, and affects your long-term goals, place it in this quadrant.
There should be no question about which tasks fall into this quadrant, because these
are the tasks that are at the front of your mind and are likely stressing you out the most.

Quadrant 2: Schedule
Quadrant two is the “schedule” quadrant, and this is where you’ll place any tasks that
are not urgent but are still important. Because these tasks affect your long-term goals but
don’t need to be done right away, you can schedule these tasks for later.

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 Bahria Institute of Teachers Training
Basic Teaching Course

You’ll tackle these tasks right after you tackle the tasks in quadrant one. You can use
various time management tips to help you accomplish the tasks in this quadrant. Some
helpful strategies may include the Pareto principle or the Pomodoro method.

Quadrant 3: Delegate
Quadrant three is the “delegate” quadrant, and this is where you’ll place any tasks that
are urgent but not important. These tasks must be completed now, but they don’t affect
your long-term goals.
Because you don’t have a personal attachment to these tasks and they likely don’t
require your specific skill set to complete, you can delegate these tasks to other members
of your team. Delegating tasks is one of the most efficient ways to manage your workload
and give your team the opportunity to expand their skill set.

Quadrant 4: Delete
Once you’ve gone through your to-do list and added tasks to the first three quadrants,
you’ll notice that a handful of tasks are left over. The tasks left over are tasks that weren’t
urgent or important.
These unimportant, non-urgent distractions are simply getting in the way of you
accomplishing your goals. Place these remaining items on your to-do list in the fourth
quadrant, which is the “delete” quadrant.

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 Bahria Institute of Teachers Training
Basic Teaching Course

Sample Worksheet: The Urgent-Important Matrix

Q. Write each task in the appropriate matrix quadrant.

Task List:

 Prepare daily status report

 Work on training to get a designation
 Complete year-end items (two days overdue)
 Complete data gathering for a project (due in three days)
 Have lunch with friends
 Talk to V.P/HOD about possibility of taking On a project
 Send daily report to VP/HOD

Urgent and Important Important, but not Urgent

Urgent, but Not Important Not Urgent and Not

Important

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 Bahria Institute of Teachers Training
Basic Teaching Course

DEVELOPMENT OF TIMELOG
 Is a written record of how you spend your time
 A chronological set of records that track time for teachers' activities
Name: _________________________

Date/Date: ______________________

Institution: ______________________

Time Q1, Notes

S# Date Activity Start Finish Spend Q2, Next to Do
Q3, List Q1 –
Q4 Q4

Benefits of Time Management “LOG”

 Better work-life balance. ...
 More time freedom. ...
 Greater focus. ...
 Higher levels of productivity. ...
 Less procrastination. ...
 Things are simpler and easier. ...
 Less distraction

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 Bahria Institute of Teachers Training
Basic Teaching Course

PRINCIPLES OF TIME MANAGEMENT

• Set goals and Establish priorities
• Spot the Time Wasters
• Unclear objectives
• Disorganizations
• Interruptions
• Inability to say no…etc………….
• Think quality not quantity of Time
• Organize yourself for success – Prioritize, Clear your goals, delicate work to others,
stay healthy in body and mind, Act purposefully and positively.
• Write a Daily/weekly Time schedule: - Time, Activity, Priority (mark each activity
according to how important it is
• A: Extremely important;
• B: Important;
• C: relatively unimportant), Effectiveness and then evaluate the complete time
plan of the day.

MOST COMMON TIME MANAGEMENT MISTAKES

• Mistake #1. Failing to Keep a To-Do List
• Mistake #2. Not prioritizing Goals
• Mistake #3. Failing to Manage Distractions
• Mistake #4. Procrastination
• Mistake #5. Inability to say “No”
• Mistake #6. Multitasking
• Mistake #7. All work and no play

Handout: Time management Page 9 of 11

 Bahria Institute of Teachers Training
Basic Teaching Course

ADVANTAGES OF TIME MANAGEMENT

Practicing time management has lots of advantages. Some of the benefits of time
management are listed below:
 Increased accomplishments:
Implementing good time management allows you to accomplish more in a shorter
period of time, which leads to more free time resulting in lower stress, increasing your
attention span and work quality, which ultimately leads to more success. Each benefit of
time management improves another aspect of your life and it keeps going in a constant
cycle. So why is time management important? Because, it makes you happier, more
successful, live a stress-free life.
 More achievements with less effort:
By taking control of your time, you're able to stay focused on the task at hand. This
leads to higher efficiency since you never lose momentum. Imagine running a mile where
you stop every 15 seconds, this would cause you to become exhausted very quickly and
take much longer to complete the run.
 Better decision making:
There are many choices in life and often-times we're faced with many choices to
choose from at the same time. When you practice good time management, you have
more time to breathe; this allows you to determine which choices are the best to make.
When you feel pressed for time and have to make a decision, you're more likely to jump to
conclusions and not fully consider the different options; this leads to poor decision
making.
 Reduction in Stress:
One of the main causes of stress is due to people feeling rushed. The phrase "I have
so much to do and so little time to do it" is generally spoken with frustration which leads to
stress. With good time management, you know how much time you have, how long it will
take to get your tasks done, you accomplish more, and have more free time. This gives
you more breathing room, which reduces the feeling of being rushed, which in turn leads
to less frustration and stress.
 Higher quality work:

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 Bahria Institute of Teachers Training
Basic Teaching Course

We all need some free time to relax and unwind but, unfortunately, many of us don't
get much free time because we're too busy trying to keep up with our daily activities and
workload. By implementing time management skills, you are able to get more done in a
shorter period of time leading to more free time
 Extra productive hours:
Because of better time management, you gain extra productive hours. You tend to be
more disciplined when at work instead of talking about gossip with your co-workers or
aimlessly browsing the internet.
 More disciplined Life:
When you practice good time management in your life, you are less likely to
procrastinate. Time management leads to higher productivity and leads to a disciplined
life.

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