Time management

This unit is used in: First Line Management and Survey research and design in psychology

Overview


Time management is a somewhat ambiguous term.

Time itself cannot be "managed", but an individual can manage him/herself and the way that s/he deals with time (Claessens, Eerde, Rutte & Roe, 2007; Cannon, 1996).

Time management refers to strategies which support successful executing of behaviors required to effectively achieve goals. Thus, time management aims to maximize individual productivity.

Time management strategies include planning and prioritizing, allocating time, setting goals, monitoring time usage, and self-organization of one's time particularly with regard to performance of multiple tasks within a certain time period (Claessens et. al., 2007). Ineffective time management affects productivity in the workplace and has detrimental consequences on an individual's private lives.

A meta-analysis found that time management behaviors are associated with increases in job satisfaction, health, and stress reduction. However, they noted that the findings in regard to work and academic performance were unclear. Where effects on performance were found, they tended to be positive; however, they were often of small effect size or inconsistent with regard to statistical significance. Time management can also be a useful strategy for coping with stress.

Parts of time management are art, and parts are science. Also, be aware that time management is a multidimensional concept that can be dissected into many skills and behaviours.

Step 1 - How much time do you have?
First, we have to know how much effective time we have available. For instance, if we want time to manage our day at work, we have to figure out how long is available for the work.

This is harder than it appears. You may work an 8 hour day, but it is doubtful that you have 8 hours of effective working time in that day. Meetings, trips to the water cooler, discussions about last nights TV shows all cut into your working time. Many people are interrupted by others when they are working - this can be in the form of phone calls, personal visits or urgent e-mails. If you don't know how much effective time you have, you can do an informal time study. Underestimating the amount of time a task will take (e.g., by failing to account for setting the up, travel time to the location, etc.), or overestimating the amount of time one has to complete the task is a cognitive mistake consistently at the heart of poor time management.

Step 2 - What are the tasks?
This is the simple step - you simply record what you have to do. This can be done on a piece of paper, in an electronic organizer, or in some other form. Make sure it's not just in your head, though - while you might have a fantastic memory, we need the information in some form so we can manipulate it. Pick the form that you are happiest with, as it'll be you that has to work with it.

Step 3 - Prioritisation - What is important?
The next step is to ranking the tasks by their importance.

One method is to make three lists, A, B and C:
 * A is the list of items to do today;
 * B are things that need to be done in the next week or so, and
 * C are in the next month or so.

Next, put a number (starting at 1) beside each A list item.

We won't order the B or C list right now.

Importance Of Time
Do not play carelessly with time. No man can ever make up a second of lost time. The only real capital is time. Most people would be shocked at the findings if they measured the amount of time they waste every single day.

Time moves on its own pace regardless of whether we make use of it or not. Never take time for granted. All the money in the world can’t buy a wasted moment back.

Time is the one thing that can never be retrieved. The hours that are lost in idleness can never be brought back. The time is going to pass anyway. The only question is how you use it.

Conditions can change in no-time. The very next moment they could be different altogether. Value the current time. Make use. Get down to work immediately.

Always ask, "Ey, brain, what’s the best use of my time right now?" to yourself. There will always be only one answer to this question. Your ability to answer this question accurately from time to time and getting down to that work immediately will play a very important role in your success.

Step 4 - How much time will each task take?
Go through the list A of tasks and estimate how much time they will each take. Don't worry too much about being perfect, just be as reasonable as you can.

Step 5 - Planning a schedule
Based on the working time available and the estimate of how long each one will take, schedule an order for the tasks.

For example, after meetings and daily tasks, let's say we have 5 hours we can do work. We have 20 tasks, 8 of which are on our A list. Give the 8 tasks an order, and estimate that it will take 1 hour to do each task.

Now, from our plan, we know that we won't finish our A list today. So, we review to see if any of the bottom 3 items is due today (if they were, they should have been a higher priority, but we double check) and then we finalize the ordering, drawing a line after the 5th item (5 items giving us 5 hours of effective work).

Step 6 - Do the work
Do the work. If you find yourself drifting off, put yourself back on track. If you find yourself drifting onto the same distraction, limit it! If you find Youtube videos distracting, put a time limit on them using a browser extension.

However, don't waste time. If a task is too difficult or too boring to do now, do a different task and return to that task in a different context later. Maybe there were birds migrating outside your window whilst road-works where in full blow and children were screaming at each other. Don't waste that time doing a focus-dependent task. Try something that does not need as much focus. You can always return to that focus-dependent task a little later (not too much!!).

Step 7 - Review the progress
As soon as we can, after our effective time is up, we review our progress.

For example, maybe we only got through 3 items - item A2 (maybe it was that focus-independent task from earlier) was 2 hours instead of 1 hour, and just as we got started on item A4 we got pulled away for the rest of our effective time for an emergency (maybe the children had fallen into the tar and you needed to help the construction crew take them out).

We learned a few things in this example. First, we underestimated item A2 - so similar items should get more accurate in the future. We also learned that 5 hours is the maximum time that we have available, but we might have less. We can cross 3 things off of today's list.

It is important at this stage to avoid thinking of these misestimations, or of the undone tasks, as failures; they aren't, at least not when you go beyond looking at the directly-visible results and into the less visible results. They are, in fact, successes in that they constitute new and important information that you have gained regarding how long those tasks take. This information will be useful to you in the future.

Impacts
Sirois (2014 ) found that students who chronically procrastinate over tasks usually thrive under pressure. As a result, their stress levels do not dramatically increase when deadlines are imminent because they work best in that state (Sirois, 2014).

Häfner, Oberst, and Stock (2014 ) found that when students were taught and implemented TM skills, such as planning, procrastination was prevented.