time management

Time management includes tools or techniques for planning and scheduling time, usually with the aim to increase the effectiveness and/or efficiency of personal and corporate time use. These are embodied in a number of books, seminars and courses, which may offer conflicting advice. The common denominators of these strategies are a to-do-list, setting priorities and goal management. Some of the best known examples of time management strategies are tied to specific lines of time management products.

Time management for personal use is a type of self-management. In a corporate setting, time management software can satisfy the need to control employees, make it easier to coordinate work and increases accountability of individual employees.

Planning time and writing to-do-lists also consumes time and needs to be scheduled. This is one of the major criticisms of time management.

Overview

Time management strategies are usually associated with the recommendation to set goals. These goals are written down and broken down into a project, an action plan or a simple to-do-list. Deadlines are set and priorities are assigned to the individual items on the to-do-list. This process results in a daily plan with a to-do-list. Some authors recommend a weekly instead of a daily perspective.

Task list

A task list (also to-do list) is a list of tasks to be completed, such as chores or steps toward completing a project. It is an inventory tool that serves as an alternative to memory.

Task lists are used in self-management, grocery lists, business management, project management, and software development. It may involve more than one list.

When you accomplish one of the items on a task list, you check it off or cross it off. The traditional method is to write these on a piece of paper with a pen or pencil, usually on a note pad or clip-board. Numerous software equivalents are now available, and many popular e-mail clients include task list applications, as do most PDAs. There are also several web-based task list applications, many of which are free.

Task list organization

Task lists are often tiered. The simplest tiered system includes a general to-do list (or task-holding file) to record all the tasks the person needs to accomplish, and a daily to-do list which is created each day by transferring tasks from the general to-do list.

Task lists are often prioritized:

• One method of organizing a general to-do list is the ABC method. With this approach, the list is divided into three sections, labelled A, B, and C, containing tasks that need to be done within a day, a week, and a month, respectively.

• To prioritize a daily task list, one either records the tasks in the order of highest priority, or assigns them a number after they are listed ("1" for highest priority, "2" for second highest priority, etc.) which indicates in which order to execute the tasks. The latter method is generally faster, allowing the tasks to be recorded more quickly.

Software applications

Modern task list applications may have built-in task hierarchy (tasks are composed of subtasks which again may contain subtasks), may support multiple methods of filtering and ordering the list of tasks, and may allow to associate arbitrarily long notes for each task.

Task list applications may be thought as lightweight personal information manager or project management software.

Task list is also a synonym for process list i.e. the list of program instances (processes) the computer is currently executing.

Resistors

• Fear of change: Change can be daunting and one may be afraid to change what's proven to work in the past.

• Uncertainty: Even with the change being inevitable, one may be hesitant as being not sure where to start. Uncertainty about when or how to begin making a change can be significant.

• Lack of time: To save time, one has to invest time, and this time investment may be a cause of concern. Fearing that changing may involve more work at the start is a common resistor.

• Lack of will power: Why change if one really not need to? The greatest resistor to change is a lack of will.

Drivers

• Increased effectiveness: One may feel the need to make more time so as to be more effective in performing the job and carrying out responsibilities.

• Performance improvement: Time management is an issue that often arises during performance appraisals or review meetings.

• Personal development: One may view changing the approach to time management as a personal development issue and reap the benefit of handling time differently at work and at home.

• Increased responsibilities: A change in time-management approach may become necessary as a result of a promotion or additional responsibilities. Since there are more work to do, and still the same amount of time to do it in, the approach must change.

Caveats

Dwelling on the lists

• According to Sandberg, task lists "aren't the key to productivity [that] they're cracked up to be". He reports an estimated "30% of listers spend more time managing their lists than [they do] completing what's on them".

• This could be caused by procrastination: by prolonging the planning activity, the individual avoids the tasks he should be doing by creating the illusion that he's still necessarily preparing for them. This is akin to analysis paralysis. As with any activity, there's a point of diminishing returns. For a task system to be efficient and effective, the user must recognize this, conquer his or her procrastination, and focus on completing the tasks.

Rigid adherence

• Hendrickson asserts that rigid adherence to task lists can create a "tyranny of the to-do list" that forces one to "waste time on unimportant activities".

• Again, the point of diminishing returns applies here too, but toward the size of the task. Some level of detail must be taken for granted for a task system to work. Rather than put "clean the kitchen", "clean the bedroom", and "clean the bathroom", it is more efficient to put "housekeeping" and save time spent writing and reduce the system's administrative load (each task entered into the system generates a cost in time and effort to manage it, aside from the execution of the task). The risk of consolidating tasks, however, is that "housekeeping" in this example may prove overwhelming or nebulously defined, which will either increase the risk of procrastination, or a mismanaged project.

• Listing routine tasks wastes time. If you are in the habit of brushing your teeth every day, then there is no reason to put it down on the task list. The same goes for getting out of bed, fixing meals, etc. If you need to track routine tasks, then a standard list or chart may be useful, to avoid the procedure of manually listing these items over and over.

• To remain flexible, a task system must allow adaptation, in the form of rescheduling in the face of unexpected problems and opportunities, to save time spent on irrelevant or less than optimal tasks.

• To avoid getting stuck in a wasteful pattern, the task system should also include regular (monthly, semi-annual, and annual) planning and system-evaluation sessions, to weed out inefficiencies and ensure the user is headed in the direction he or she truly desires.

• If some time is not regularly spent on achieving long-range goals, the individual may get stuck in a perpetual holding pattern on short-term plans, like staying at a particular job much longer than originally planned.

The four generations of time management

Stephen R. Covey offers a categorization scheme for the hundreds of time management approaches that are on the market today.

Second generation: planning and preparation

People in the second generation use calendars and appointment books. They will note where meetings are held and identify deadlines; this is sometimes even done on a computer. As opposed to the first generation, the second generation plans and prepares, schedules future appointments, and sets goals. This in turn saves their time.

Third generation: planning, prioritizing, controlling

Third generation time managers prioritize their activities on a daily basis. They tend to use detailed forms of daily planning on a computer or on a paper-based organizer. This approach implies spending some time in clarifying values and priorities.

Fourth generation: being efficient and proactive

Stephen R. Covey, in First Things First, refers to his approach as the 4th generation time management, and emphasizes the difference between urgency and importance in planning. For example: some people may go their entire lives completely missing out on important things (like spending time with their children before they have grown up) because it was never "urgent." The point is not to ignore urgent things, but to embrace important things without waiting for them to become urgent.

Urgency can be deceptive. It can make some unimportant things appear to be important. Also, making time for important things may require spending less time on unimportant things, regardless of their urgency.

Techniques for setting priorities

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ABC analysis

A technique that has been used in business management for a long time is the categorization of large data into groups. These groups are often marked A, B, and C—hence the name. Activities that are perceived as having highest priority are assigned an A, those with lowest priority are labeled C. ABC analysis can incorporate more than three groups. ABC analysis is frequently combined with Pareto analysis.

Pareto analysis

This is the idea that 80% of tasks can be completed in 20% of the disposable time. The remaining 20% of tasks will take up 80% of the time. This principle is used to sort tasks into two parts. According to this form of Pareto analysis it is recommended that tasks that fall into the first category be assigned a higher priority.

The 80-20-rule can also be applied to increase productivity: it is assumed that 80% of the productivity can be achieved by doing 20% of the tasks. If productivity is the aim of time management, then these tasks should be prioritized higher.

Fit

The concept of fit is simple yet profound. Essentially, fit is the congruence of the requirements of a task (location, financial investment, time, etc.) with the available resources at the time. Often people are constrained by externally controlled schedules, locations, etc., and "fit" allows us to maximize our productivity given those constraints. For example, if one encounters a gap of 15 minutes in their schedule, it is typically more efficient to complete a task that would require 15 minutes, than to complete a task that can be done in 5 minutes, or to start a task that would take 4 weeks. This concept also applies to time of the day: free time at 7am is probably less usefully applied to the goal of learning the drums, and more productively a time to read a book. Lastly, fit can be applied to location: free time at home would be used differently from free time at work, in town, etc.

POSEC METHOD

POSEC is an acronym for Prioritize by Organizing, Streamlining, Economizing and Contributing.

The method dictates a template which emphasises an average individual's immediate sense of emotional and monetary security. It suggests that by attending to one's personal responsibilities first, an individual is better positioned to shoulder collective responsibilities.

Inherent in the acronym is a hierarchy of self-realization which mirrors Abraham Maslow's "Hierarchy of needs".

1. PRIORITIZE-Your time and define your life goals by:
2. ORGANIZING-Things you have to accomplish regularly to be successful.(Family and Finances)
3. STREAMLINING-Things you may not like to do, but must do.(Work and Chores)
4. ECONOMIZING-Things you should do or may even like to do, but they're not pressingly urgent.(Past-times and Socializing)
5. CONTRIBUTING-By paying attention to the few remaining things that make a difference.(Social obligations)

See also

• time boxing
• action item
• procrastination
• GLV

Further reading

• Stack, Laura. Leave the Office Earlier (2004).
• Make a To-Do List. George Washington University Academic Success Centre. URL accessed on October 31, 2005. — tips for students on making to-do lists and examples of bad and good to-do lists
• Becker, David (2004-06-08). "Microsoft checks off patent win". CNET News.com. http://news.com.com/2100-1008_3-5228693.html. — a report of Microsoft patenting "a glorified form of the to-do list"
• Jeffrey Yamaguchi. An Interview With Sasha Cagen, Publisher of To-Do List Magazine. Get the Word Out. URL accessed on October 31, 2005. — an interview with the publisher of a magazine based upon to-do lists
• Building a Smarter To-Do List. Article on 43folders.com
• Covey, Stephen (1994) First Things First ISBN 0-684-80203-1

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