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Time Management
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Learning Objectives
• When you have completed this module you will be able to define the key concepts associated with Time Management and you will be able to:
• Identify the main obstacles to effective Time Management in your daily role
• Understand the nature of Time Management
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Learning Objectives
• Understand a range of tools, techniques and concepts for Time Management
• Use these techniques to build an effective Time Management process that will enhance your productivity and lower your stress
• Explain the benefits of having an effective Time Management process
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Introduction
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Time Management & The Organization
• Looking at time management from the perspective of the organization what are the benefits:
– Improved productivity through improved use of time by the personnel
– Better performance in terms of on time delivery to customers
– Increased profitability through better use of the human and non-human resources
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– Improved planning and control of business systems through time based management
– Better alignment of activities by incorporating a time bound system for co-ordination of tasks and projects in the business
– Reduction of stress that arises due to crisis management by reducing the incidence of crises by better planning
Time Management & The Organization
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Introduction
What is TimeManagement?
What is TimeManagement?
Time as a Commodity
Time as a Commodity
Essential HabitsEssential Habits
Types of TimeTypes of Time
Over & UnderEstimation of Time
Over & UnderEstimation of Time
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What is Time Management?
• Time management has five main aspects:
– Planning & Goal Setting– Managing Yourself– Dealing with Other People– Your Time– Getting Results
– The first 4 all interconnect and interact to generate the fifth - results
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Time as a Commodity
• Time is the most precious thing we have
• Time is ultimately the most valuable resource
• Time and how we spend it within the organization must be managed effectively
• Time is totally perishable
• Time cannot be stored up for use later
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Essential Habits
• Essential habits for good time management are:– Know where the hours are going – Keep focused on the end result – Work to defined priorities – Schedule time for important issues – Delegate routine tasks and responsibility for them – Confront your own indecision and delay – Take the stress out of work – Keep applying the essential habits!
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Types of Time
• Time can be categorized into two types:
– Fast time• when absorbed in, or enjoying an activity
– Slow time• when bored with an activity or having a bad time • when scared
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Over- & Under-estimating Time
• Time for tasks or activities can be over- or under-estimated due to
– Intensity of activity – Level of brain function – Length of gaps between enjoyments – Fear or ecstasy
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Effects of Estimating Time Incorrectly
• Under-estimation of time • Stress due to committing to too many tasks • Poor quality output• Deadlines may be missed
• Over-estimation of time• Stress due to people pressing to have activities
completed • Poor quality output• Deadlines set may not match requirements
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Time Management Principles
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Time Management Principles
Time Management PrinciplesTime Management Principles
Spent Time MatrixSpent Time Matrix
Quadrant 2Quadrant 2
Time-Based Management
Time-Based Management
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Time Management
• Covey identified 4 waves in time management
– 1 Notes and Checklists– Recognition of the demands on energy & time
– 2 Calendars and appointment books– Scheduling with some focus on the future
– 3 Prioritization – Comparison of the relative worth of activities
– 4 Self management– Realization that time cannot be managed - it is ourselves
that we have to manage!
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Covey,1989
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Spent Time Matrix
Q1
Q3
Q2
Q4
CrisesDeadlines
PreventionRelationship BuildingPlanningRecreation
InterruptionsSome MeetingsPopular Activities
Pleasant ActivitiesBusy WorkTime WastersTrivia
Urgent Not Urgent
Important
NotImportant
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Quadrant 1
• Being in Quadrant 1 brings
– Stress
– Burnout
– Crises management
– Firefighting
– Focus on the immediate
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Quadrant 3
• Being in Quadrant 3 brings
– Short term focus
– Crises management
– Low value on goals
– Feeling of victimization / lack of control
– Shallow relationships
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Quadrants 3 & 4
• Cycling between Quadrants 3 & 4 brings:
– Total irresponsibility
– High dependency on others for basics
– Short career path in the organization
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Quadrant 2
• Being in Quadrant 2 brings:– Vision
– Perspective
– Balance
– Discipline
– Control
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Covey,1989
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Characteristics of a Quadrant 2 Person
• There are six basic criteria to allow a person to function in Quadrant 2:
– Coherence– Balance– Focus– An ability to get on with people – Flexibility – Portability
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Quadrant 2 Requirements
The basic requirements to reach Quadrant 2 are:
• Clear definition of organizational roles and specifically your own role
• Selection of and focus on SMART goals
• Development and utilization of schedules
• The practice of daily adapting in work role
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Saying No and Quadrant 2
• To stay within Quadrant 2, there is a requirement that you must say no:
– In a professional manner
– When items are associated with Quadrant 3 or Quadrant 4 activities
• Not important not urgent• Not important but urgent • Will not deliver competitive advantage
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Time-Based Management
• Fundamentals:– Focus is on time and resources
– Pre-analysis of performance
– Analysis of goals and objectives
– Systemization of processes
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Focus on Time & Resources
• For effective management of time there needs to be a reasonable attempt made to look at the time and resources required to complete a task:
• The quality of the outcome is directly influenced by the resources and time constraints involved
Quality
TimeResources
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Pre-Analysis Of Performance
• The ability to learn from past experience allows time management to improve performance
• The discipline of reviewing past performance allows the organization to:– Debug projects before initiation and subsequent waste of
resources – Define critical points in processes which need to have
particular attention paid to them – Improve the overall utilization of resources by capturing and
implementing best practice
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Analysis of Goals & Objectives
• By setting goals that relate to business performance and conform to SMART criteria the organization will improve productivity:
– S -- specific and well defined objectives– M -- measurable outputs and inputs – A -- achievable in terms of resources available
and expectations– R -- relevant to the overall business strategy– T -- time bound with an operational schedule
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Systemization of Processes
• The ability to design and implement processes that allow consistency of
– Input
– Output
– Training and skill transfer
– Consistency allows for time to be gauged accurately for activities which assists in the scheduling aspect of capacity planning in the organization
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Time-based Management
• Need to look at
– Is the allotted time for completion of plans realistic for the person / team?
– In the effort to achieve results, is efficient use made of the available time?
– For teams - how can the time available be used to generate the optimal results?
– Is task-related time management appropriate and realistic in the situation?
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Productive Work
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Productive Work
Busy V’s ProductiveBusy V’s Productive
Indecision & DelayIndecision & Delay
OverworkOverwork
Urgency V ImportanceUrgency V Importance
PrioritizationPrioritization
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Busy Work
• Just because you are busy does not mean that you are productive
• Differentiate between
– Effectiveness -- doing the right things
– Efficiency -- doing the right things correctly
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Busy v Productive Work
• Problem No 1: Procrastination• Putting off doing the things that you should be
doing at this point!
• Solution• List all tasks that you are currently putting off • Remove two from the list by doing them now!• Plan and set a schedule for dealing with the rest • Reward when tasks are completed • Punish when tasks are not completed on schedule
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Dealing with Indecision or Delay
• When faced with a task - decide to deal with it according to one of the following actions:
– Do it
– Delegate it
– Dump it
– Deadline it
– Dissect it
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Busy v Productive Work
• Problem No 2: Paralyzing perfectionism – This is a failure to recognize the difference between
excellence and perfection
• Excellence• Achievable
• Healthy
• Satisfying
• Realistic
• Perfection• Unattainable
• Frustrating
• Unrealistic
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Busy v Productive Work
• Problem No 3: Setting unchallenging objectives – Objectives need to be set that challenge you in a realistic
manner and take heed of resource availability Otherwise you are busy without any possibility of success
• Use SMARTS criteria where the objectives are:– Specific– Measurable– Attainable– Realistic– Time-bound– Supported by the organization
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Overwork
• Overwork can have effects that may be classified as– Psychological– Physiological
• People are overloaded for two main reasons
– The person or team does too much
– The person or team have too much to do
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Overwork
• To deal with over-work, try the following – Understand your pressures – Don’t get worked up or panicked – Don’t blame everything on yourself – Walk away – Estimate time as well as possible – Agree priorities and keep them – Remind yourself that there is a limited
amount of time available to you
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Urgency V Importance
• Differentiating between – Urgent tasks
• assume importance as they demand immediate attention
– Important tasks• May become urgent if left undone • Usually have a long term effect
– To judge importance v urgency, gauge tasks in terms of
• Impact of doing them• Effect of not doing them
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Prioritization Grid
Importance
Urgency
Priority 1Priority 2
Priority 3Priority 4
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Prioritization
• The main aim of prioritization is to avoid a crisis
• To do this then you must
Schedule your Priorities
as opposed to
Prioritizing your Schedule
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Crisis Management
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Crisis Management
Proactive V ReactiveProactive V Reactive
Why Crises OccurWhy Crises Occur
Anticipating & PreventingCrises
Anticipating & PreventingCrises
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Proactive v Reactive Work
• Reactive work - concentrates on getting things done
– Handling daily routines
– Dealing with urgency
– Resolving crises
– Handling interruptions
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Proactive v Reactive Work
• Proactive work - concentrates on making things happen
– Developing plans and schedules
– Focusing on key tasks
– Achieving deadlines & targets
– Managing projects
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Why Crises Occur
• Checklist of reasons:
– Failure to recognize the crisis
– Underestimation of time required
– No contingency plan is ready
– No follow-up on delegated tasks
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Anticipating & Preventing Crises
• The most effective way to anticipate and prevent crises is to:
– Set deadlines and stick with them
– Use interim targets and milestones to break the task or project into manageable chunks
– Build the schedule so that it is realistic
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Planning
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Planning
What is a Plan?What is a Plan?
Information & PlanningInformation & Planning
Time Management SystemsTime Management Systems
Goals & Time SpansGoals & Time Spans
CascadingCascading
The Daily PlanThe Daily Plan
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Planning in Time Management
Rule No 1
Failing to Plan
is Planning to Fail
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What is a Plan?
A plan is a road map set in real time to reach an
objective or set of objectives through the use of defined
resources
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Information & Planning
Essential information:
• You need to know what you have to plan
• Once this is established – Break the task into manageable chunks – Gauge the time required for each chunk – Schedule each chunk into a logical sequence
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Time Management Systems
• There are certain key criteria that need to be applied to a time management system:
– Functional
– Portable
– Intelligible
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Time Management Systems
Pitfalls
• Totally dis-organized ‘system’– Nothing can be located when required
• Perfectly maintained system– Too much time is spent keeping the system
in perfect condition as opposed to actioning the items contained within it
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Time Management Systems
• Key components– Appointments– Dated deadlines– Tasks - to do and work in progress– Ideas and notes– Key task identification– Personal information– Financial planning records– Crises log– Project log– Contact list
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Goals & Time-spans
• A time management system is ineffective if defined goals are not available to work towards
– Strategic Goals - long term goals, perhaps out to five years
– Tactical Goals - medium term goals, from 3 - 12 months ahead
– Operational Goals - short term goals defining the exact action to be taken The schedule may cover hours or days
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Checklist for Goals
• Checklist for Goals– Are they realistic and challenging?
– Have they been agreed with the manager and linked to the performance appraisal system?
– Do you know what it will look like when you have achieved the goal (visualization)?
– Are the goals important to you?
– Is there a time bound aspect to the goals?
– Are the goals SMART?
– What will the reward be once the goals have been achieved?
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Cascading
• Planning levels should cascade as follows:– Yearly overview plan
– Monthly Plan
– Weekly Plan
– Daily Plan• Note that in the cascade, the time span decreases whereas the
level of complexity increases
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The Daily Plan
• The Daily Plan should cover three main areas:
– Scheduled activities for the day showing time allocated to each
– Identification of key tasks for the day to allow them to be prioritized
– Indication of who you need to contact during the day to allow you to complete tasks
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The Daily Plan
• When setting out the daily plan pay attention to the following points:– When do you perform best, suit your bio-
rhythm
– Build in planning time at the start and end of the day
– Prioritize actions into ‘musts, shoulds and coulds and focus on the ‘musts’
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The Daily Plan
• Guidelines continued– Leave room for unexpecteds
– Don’t stack meetings back to back
– Batch telephone calls
– Build in quality time
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Tips & Techniques
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Tips & Techniques
Time LogsTime Logs
Quality TimeQuality Time
Managing DocumentsManaging Documents
Managing InterruptionsManaging Interruptions
Managing WorkspaceManaging Workspace
Managing your PhoneManaging your Phone
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Time-logs
• A time-log is an effective way to see where your time actually goes to during the working day Record the information for about 2 weeks to get a representative picture of time spent
• By logging activities and the time taken to complete them, the time-log provides useful information that can identify
• Accuracy of estimating time for tasks• Time stealing activities• Level of interruption• Loading during the day • Crises points / tasks
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Quality Time
• Quality time is where you can plan to do the most important high priority tasks
• It allows for deep concentration through eliminating interruptions
• It imposes a structure on work
• It allows you to move away from reactive work to proactive work
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Dealing with Documents
• Document handling can steal a vast quantity of time from our working day
• Improve your document handling by:• Handling documents only once by :
– Act on what is required by the document
– File the document for reference later
– Dump the document
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Dealing with Documents
• Have a good system for handling your documents that allows you to:
– Define what you need to keep and for how long
– Allows you to file materials easily and logically
– Facilitates access to materials
– Purge the files on a regular basis
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Managing Interruptions
• Try to reduce the number of interruptions by applying the following techniques:
• Create a visual barrier at your workspace to reduce the incidence of ‘drop-in’ visits
• Don’t have extra chairs in your workspace - people do not hang around as long if they must stand
• For important work - move to another space so the potential interruptors can’t find you!
• Tell people that you are busy, explain why and arrange to contact them at a more suitable time
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Managing Your Workspace
• How our workspace is organized has an impact on how efficient we are - try the following to improve efficiency
– De-clutter your desk by clearing it at the end of each working day
– File documents once they have been used
– Purge files regularly
– Organize a work flow system in your space
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Managing Your Phone
• The telephone can be responsible for eating vast quantities of time - control the phone by using:
– Batch your outward calls
– Delegate calls that you don’t have to make personally to one of your team
– Terminate calls once the business has been done
– Set up a rota in your team for handling incoming calls
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Summary
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Summary
• Have a great planning system and use it
• Take on realistic goals an schedule accurately
• Do not over-commit
• Set and agree priorities to distinguish between urgent and important tasks
• Build in some flexibility to cope with anything unexpected
• Control your documents, workspace and phone
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Summary
• Don’t procrastinate – Manage Your Time Today
• Define and use periods of quality time in your schedule
• Learn to say No in a professional manner
• Stay away from perfectionism and aim for excellence
• Build in time for personal development