Time Management

Introduction

Time management is planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. Time management is an essential skill to get things done in the workplace.

Why

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Time management helps to:

• manage time efficiently in order to meet the demands on your limited time and fulfill key responsibilities.
• balance his/her personal and professional life.
• manage when the number of staff decreases or demands increase.

What you can expect

In eight steps we support you to organise, plan and prioritise time spent on specific activities so as to increase your effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. Here you’ll find a step-by-step guide, tools, examples and readings for building your time management skills.

Step 1: Do a Time Analysis

• Analyse how you spent your time throughout the day, using this Activity Log.
• Do this throughout the day for at least a week.
• Look at when you succeeded in getting things done in a short amount of time. Is Parkinson's Law applicable to you? Watch this video to learn more.

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Step 2: Prioritise activities

• Analyse your activities to determine which activities contribute most towards the achievement of your goals and hence you need to focus on.
• Classify the activities as per the Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix:
  • Urgent but not important
  • Neither urgent nor important.
  • Not Urgent but important
  • Urgent and important
• Give the highest priority to activities that are urgent and important and then to activities that are not urgent but important.
• Urgent but not important activities could be delegated to someone else. Activities that are neither urgent nor important could be abandoned, delegated or carried out if time permits.
• Leverage time effectively so that time is allocated to activities with the highest priority.
• Think critically about how you should spend your time and have a clear plan in mind.
• Watch this video to understand Stephen Covey's Time Management Matrix even better:

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Step 3: Create plans

• Create plans based on your priorities and your way of working e.g. you might like to plan your week first and then your day.
  • Identify which tasks will help you achieve your goals and allocate your time accordingly.
  • Break your tasks into smaller blocks of work.
  • Get small, urgent tasks out of the way first.
  • Tackle them systematically.
  • Delegate non priority work if possible.
  • Schedule important work at the time when you are most productive.
  • Create a to do list and tick off activities once completed.
• Set realistic deadlines for all your activities.
  • Factor in a little surplus time to deal with unforeseen events.
  • Strictly adhere to set timelines.
• Be disciplined and persevere with the plans.

Step 4: Set up Routine and Systems

• Prepare written procedures for dealing with routine tasks so you can delegate these tasks wherever possible.
• Build unpleasant or long-term tasks into your routine e.g. fix a date every month to prepare project reports.

Step 5: Minimise distractions

• Check your email at the beginning of the day as it may impact your activities during the rest of the day. After that check it only after two or three hours.
• Limit the time spent on calls.
• Avoid unproductive and inefficient meetings.
• Adhere to the planned duration and agenda for the meeting.
• Have a (digital) "do not disturb" sign so that colleagues know when you cannot be disturbed.

Step 6: Communicate effectively

• Communicate effectively to avoid any misunderstandings. Be a good listener, ask questions , clarify doubts and reconfirm understanding. Not communicating effectively may result in
  • time wastage
  • re-doing the task
  • strained relationships
  • stress
• Say ‘no’ to certain requests/activities if they are not related to your priority activities. However be honest and explain the reason behind the refusal.

Step 7: Use technology

• Use technology effectively to manage time.
• Use your Smartphone calendar or Google calendar for scheduling tasks. Calendars that can be accessed by your colleagues will enable them to identify the gaps in your schedule in which they can organise meetings or discussions.
• Use readily available planning apps like ‘Todoist’ to plan activities.

Step 8: Review

• Redo the Daily Activity Log exercise periodically to review the time management practices and to make any changes if required.

Key To Success

• In order to manage time effectively activities need to be prioritised and some activities require a NO.
• Monitoring the use of time regularly helps to identify the amount of time spent daily on different activities, which activities are time wasters and the part of the day when you are the most productive.
• Discipline and perseverance with plans created are necessary for good time management.

Challenges

• Some time management techniques may be too complex and result in the leader giving them up and reverting to old behaviour.