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Time Management

Roy Attwood

with acknowledgements to Time Manager International (TMI)and Professor Randy Pausch

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Online Quiz e.g. Wikipedia

Q1 What is the life expectancy for somebody in the UK, given he/she has reached the age of 20 today?

 Q2. How many days (or hours) does this equate to? Q3. How long (hours) is the maximum regular working

week in Europe under the Working Time Regulations? (use Google)

 Q4. What do you think of the entry "Student Syndrome“

in Wikipedia?

Q5 a) Who was the Greek God of time? b) Who was the Roman God of time?

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Time pressures and consequences

Stress

UncertaintyConflicting prioritiesInconsistenciesLack of resources

causes: fatigue irritation physical sickness

mental sickness time off

broken families death

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Time as a resource

• The most valuable resource you have

• The most democratic resource there is

• Fixed absolute rate of spend.

• Once passed, is gone for ever

• Experienced at different rates according to task in hand

• Perceived rate accelerates with age

Source: TMI

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What is time management?

But what you can do is: Manage your activity as time passes.

So what's it Time Management?

It is a collection of techniques for self management

You can choose to use to make conscious decisionsabout the activities that occupy your time.

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Time management – a personal matter

It's really about making personal choices that together make the best use of the time available.

So: - time management is a personal matter. - part of self development - you need to find out what works for you.

But best use of time depends on many thingse.g. - the culture you have been brought up in - your belief system - your stage in life and motivation

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Time Management Strategies

1. Be clear about your life goals

2. Prioritise tasks according to your goals

3. Work efficiently - get organised

4. Work smartly. Recognise and deal with time wasters

5. Avoid procrastination

6. Learn to say “No!”

7. Set a limit to the time you spend on each task. Don’t be a perfectionist.

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Setting goals

Look ahead to your retirement ceremony, (or even to your funeral). What characteristics or achievements would you hope people will mention?

This should reveal exactly what matters most to you in your life.

Based on: S. R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic, Simon and Schuster, 1989.

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Overview – Christmas tree

Life goals = tree trunk

Key areas = branches

Tasks = twigs

Activities = pine needles

Source: TMI

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Prioritising tasks

List the tasks that need doingAssign priorities e.g. A, B, C

Review and adjust the task list regularly

Tool: Pareto analysisIdentify the 20% of tasks that have 80% benefit.

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Prioritising tasks

Tool:

Urgent

Important

Not urgent

Unimportant

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Prioritising tasks

Tool:

Urgent

Important

Not urgent

Unimportant

?

Do lasti.e. never

Do immediately

?

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Prioritising tasks

Tool:

Urgent

Important

Not urgent

Unimportant

Set date to do later

Discard

Do immediately

Delegate

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Working efficiently

Choose an organiser system - paper or laptop or PDA

Number files in the same way as your goals

Organise your work area

Log the time you spend on activities (and interruptions)

Recognise the time of day when you are most effective and do the difficult tasks then.

If you don't want to do it, it's probably important

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xxxExample of

Paper-based

organiser

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Working efficiently

Questions to ask yourself regularly

• Have I developed effective work routines and habits?

• How effectively do I use my diary system?

• How well organised is my work area?

• Do I organise my time according to priorities or deal with each problem as it occurs?

• Am I dividing my time correctly?

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Managing interruptions(Recognise and deal with time wasters)

• Set aside a time of day when you are available to see people

• Consider Red/Amber/Green times

• 'Do not disturb' notice

• Make it clear how much time you have available at the start of the conversation

• Stand up!

• Use a screen around your work area

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Working smartly

• Do I focus sufficiently on my objectives?

• Am I planning effectively far enough ahead?

• Can I use the help of others more?

• Who are the people I should be seeing, and am I spending enough time with them?

• Do I procrastinate by putting off important but tough jobs until tomorrow?

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Avoiding procrastination

• more positive outlook

• scheduling

• delegate interruptions

• break it down into smaller chunks

• start in the middle - simplify it

• do the important bits first

• involve someone else - guilt / support

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Tackling large tasks – bit by bit

.

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Time Management Strategies

Summary

1. Set goals

2. Prioritise tasks according to your goals

3. Work efficiently - get organised

4. Work smartly. Recognise and deal with time wasters

5. Avoid procrastination

6. Learn to say “No!”

7. Set a limit to the time you spend on each task. Don’t be a perfectionist.

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Randy Pausch Video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758#

Start at min 17 or at min 28

http://www.alice.org/Randy/timetalk.htm

Look him up in WikipediaProfessor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and DesignCo-Director, Entertainment Technology Center Carnegie Mellon University