Time Management

Compiled by: Biju Soman

Poor management of time will prevent you from reaching your full potential.

Three Questions
What is time management?
How do you apply time management principles in your life? What would you like to gain from the training session on Time Management?

What is time management?

Organization of activities so I can get it all done. Setting priorities so I know I can do the most important things first.

Establishing goals and intentionally managing my life instead of reacting to events or drifting aimlessly through life. Time management is making wise scheduling decisions which involve self-discipline and delayed gratification.

How do you apply time management principles in your life?

Establish deadline for project Break down the project into steps Establish realistic amounts of time steps Working backward from due date, set deadline for each step Incorporate enough time in schedule to complete step along with other weekly tasks

Challenges to Setting Priorities

The inability to prioritize
The inability or desire to organize around priorities The lack of discipline to execute around them

The Process of Prioritizing:

What are the costs vs. the benefits of doing it?
How well does it fit into my goals? Is there a deadline for doing it? How enjoyable is it? Have I promised/agreed to do it? What need of mine will I satisfy by doing it?

Assign Priorities
A Priorities: tasks you should be working on now. B Priorities: tasks that can wait until A tasks are done. C Priorities: tasks that arent very important and can wait.

The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time
Abraham Lincoln.

A Simple Time Management Plan

Get Started "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." - Will Rogers
Get into a routine Do not say yes to too many things Do not commit yourself to unimportant activities, no matter how far ahead they are

Divide large tasks

Do not put unneeded effort into a project Set start and stop times

Plan your activities

Tackle Time Wasters

First, learn to recognize when youre wasting time. Decide what you need to do and can realistically do.

Learn how to say NO when you dont have time.

Use an answering machine and return calls at your convenience. The telephone is a major time killer.

Learn to say I cant talk right now. Ill get back to you.
Wasting time is often linked to a lack of self-discipline. Ask yourself, Do I really need to do this or not?

Time and Priorities

Set priorities for your goals. A major part of successful living lies in the ability to put first things first. Indeed, the reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first.
Robert McKain

How does this pertain to Leading others?

Effective use of resources Example to others (influence) Playing a heads up game. Helps with decisiveness Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment Leaders never grow to a point where they no longer need to prioritize. Pareto Principle: If you focus your attention on the activities that rank in the top 20 percent in terms of importance, you will have an 80 percent return on your effort.

Three Rs
What is Required? Your list of priorities must always begin with what is required of you. What gives the greatest Return? Spend most of your time working in your areas of greatest strength. What brings the greatest Reward? The things that bring the greatest reward are the fire lighters in a leaders life.

Points to Ponder
Time is our most important resource. Time is the one resource that is equally distributed. Nobody seems to ever have enough time; yet everyone has all there is. The most successful people are masters of the clockthey proactively manage time wisely instead of reacting to time and letting it manage them, like a tail wagging the dog.

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save Will Rodgers.

Two Time Concepts

Mechanical time - a structured system of regular, equal distances between seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. Psychological Time - a perception of time being unequal - flying by or dragging by - depending upon what you are doing; time having a different quality than how we measure it.

Realize these three important things: Time is your most valuable resource.
Time is Money

Your psychological perception of time is what counts.

Time is psychological

You can be as productive as you want.

Time Management is a choice.

Good Time Management

Adopting more of a psychological concept of time rather than a mechanical one. Undoing practices that waste time. Practicing attitudes and behaviors that save time. Moving from doing things to being in the now moment to be more aware and get more of the right things accomplished. Working 20-80: Doing the little things that get the biggest results.

In anything, timing is everything Lao Tzu.

The first five tips

Simplify your life. Empty your basement, attic and closets and have a huge yard sale. Delete the hundreds of messages in your in-box. Make a list of your top three values and plan your life around them and nothing else. Simplify! It will help! Take advantage of the psychological nature of time. Create more time in your mind by focusing on the present moment and how you can best use it NOW! The now moment expands time to bring a more successful future. Slow yourself down. Slow down and watch how you get twice as much done in half the time. Rushing around doesnt get any more done, usually less. Re-arrange your priorities. Reverse the typical 80-20 rule by doing the little things that get the biggest results. Do what you enjoy; avoid what you dislike.

Organize! Make it easier to get and use what you need most often. Organize your physical environment and save valuable time looking for things later (not to mention preventing the needless aggravation).

The second five tips

Stop reacting and start acting. Make a choice to be more productive by getting ahead of the curve and anticipating twists and turns and thumps and bumps. Substitute productive actions for unproductive reactions. And let everyone else deal with their own emergencies! Be mentally flexible. You will be amazed at how much more you can do when you dont have to do it a certain way or expect particular results. Always over-estimate time. Underestimate what you can do in an hour and you will get more done in a week, month and year than you thought possible. Manage Your stress. When you are over-stressed you are not efficient in using time. Exercise a little, sleep well, eat right, practice a relaxing hobby and form a support network to reduce as much interfering stress as you can. Plan and prepare. A few minutes invested in planning and preparing anything will usually save hours later. So will doing a thing right the first time.

Time only seems to matter when it is running out Peter Strup.

How to save 12 hours a day

1. STOP REACTING TO OTHER PEOPLE'S EMERGENCIES AND NON-PRIORITIES.
Set your own urgent priorities and keep them. Learn to say no. Demonstrate the value of what you are doing for others to see. Teach others the importance of your time. Dont react to other peoples poor planning and dont bail them out.

Saving 12 hours a day cont

2. STOP MAKING BAD CHOICES.
Think ahead to make the right choice to get the best results. The right choice is the easiest and quickest one that gets the best results and costs the least in side effects or negative consequences. Anticipate likely negative consequences of a wrong decision to prevent that from happening. Bad choices and wrong decisions have to be repaired and that wastes time.

Saving 12 hours a day cont

3. THINK MORE CRITICALLY.
Ask more and better questions. Dig below the surface. Take the time to understand something more fully. Admit what you dont know and commit to learning it. Focus on making small changes in your thinking to get results. Look to disprove something rather than to prove yourself right. Realize the importance of where you are seeing something from; try to change viewpoints when you get stuck. Slow down and think about your thinkingbe critical of yourself.

Saving 12 hours a day cont

4. MAKE INSIGNIFICANT DECISIONS HASTILY AND

DELIBERATE ON THE DIFFICULT ONES.
Separate insignificant decisions from significant ones, as well as fact from emotion. Deal with the insignificant decisions quickly. Get a reasonable amount of information and details about difficult, complex decisions and then make a written decision matrix with the pros and cons of each alternative. The winner will be clearly visible.

Saving 12 hours a day cont

5. SEPARATE CORE PROBLEMS FROM SURFACE SYMPTOMS
Avoid getting distracted by sexy symptoms. Dig below the surface to uncover the real problem that is causing all the symptoms. Make quick fixes but look for longer range cures to apply to prevent the problem from ever re-occurring; no change = same problem again. Realize some problems are recurring and not permanently solvable; settle for temporary relief and move on. Practice asking five successive questions to get to the core problem

Saving 12 hours a day cont

6. INVEST Rs. 25 IN A DO-LIST TABLET.
Start out each day with a list of things you must finish. Keep the list in front of you. Check of the items you have completed for record- keeping and save results. Take unfinished items and put them at the head of the next days list. Do the tedious things on the list early in the day. Make it a habit of finishing things. Look at your accomplishments and feel proud of working smart getting the right results in the right way quickly and effectively.

Saving 12 hours a day cont

7. CLAIM SOME PRIVATE TIME.
Close your door at times or go somewhere private. Claim some free time to free your mind; a free mind sees things a cluttered one cantreal priorities.

Get this private time in your schedule for others to know about it being sacred; its more important than you may think.
Dont make the mistake of violating your own private time or letting others violate it for you.

Take care of the moments and the years will take care of themselves Maria Edgeworth

Saving 12 hours a day cont

8. PLAN SOME SPONTANEITY.
Set a time during each day when you can just walk around without a set agenda; you will be surprised what you can learn and get accomplished. By not appearing to be your usual over-worked over- busy self, people will tell you more. Practice the three Ls during your spontaneity: Looking, Listening and Learning. You may find that you actually get more done during this time than what you plan to do.

Saving 12 hours a day cont

9. S L- O -W DOWN.
When you rush you are just speeding up time and making it pass much quicker; when you slow yourself down, so does time. If you think you have enough tie to do something you will; when you dont, you wont. Take and make time. Rushing around 1000 mph is a mistake waiting to happen and mistakes take time to repair. Slow but sure gets things finished right.

Saving 12 hours a day cont

10. ORGANIZE YOUR PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT.
Much time gets wasted looking for things in a cluttered, chaotic physical environment. One hours effort organizing a work environment will save weeks over the long haul. Arrange frequently used things conveniently and makes things generally easily retrievable. It is much easier to find things in neat, orderly environment.

Fix broken things as they waste time.

Saving 12 hours a day cont

11. UNPLUG YOUR PHONE.
Phone interruptions are the biggest time waster; you are always doing something else more important. Take and return phone calls at a pre-arranged time during your day. When phone calls are on your own time, you wont rush too much or project impatience; both these things may require more time to correct. Special note on e-mail: There is too much of it and messages are too long. Do your part in making a much needed cut back!

Saving 12 hours a day cont

12. APPLY "P" POINTS.
P Points are psychological power pointsthe smaller, wellplaced and well-timed interventions that get the biggest results (example newspaper headlines, political sound bytes, aggressive listening, etc. All these time-saving tips are good examples of P Points.
Another good example is to take a few minutes to plan your communication with another person so you maximize clarity, connection, understanding, listening and impact.

How effective Time Management works for you

You are more productive. You reduce your stress. You improve your self-esteem. You achieve balance in your life. You conquer multitasking. You establish an important skill. You reach your goals.

Parting advice
Alvin Tofflers Future Shock is upon us: We are all over-loaded. Too much to do and too little time to do it in. Good time management is necessary for surviving. Excellent time management is necessary for thriving. Do you want to just survive or thrive?

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