The Purpose of Managing Your Time

• What is time management?

Time management is the process of controlling your life through your use of time.
Everyone has the same 168 hours a week. When you manage your time proactively,
you determine what you value in your professional and personal life, and you direct
your efforts accordingly. When you master time management, you learn to balance
the many pressures on your time and still achieve your goals. This helps you avoid
burnout and stress, and allows you to be more effective. Keep in mind that time
management is a personal process: only you can judge whether you are using your
time wisely.

• Phases of time management

The time management process has three phases. Initially, you will follow the phases
in sequence, but you will then revisit phases that you need to work on. The three
phases are as follows:

- Analysis Find out where your time goes now, paying particular attention to
what drives your use of time. In some cases, you will discover interruptions that
you can manage with specific strategies. In other cases, time factors are less
controllable but may have patterns that you can learn to work within.

- Planning Review your goals, outline the tasks required to achieve them, and
determine how much time you will allocate to each task. It is equally important to
identify tasks that do not support your goals, and assign a low priority to them.
Once you understand your key tasks, you can schedule your time using a calendar or
daily planner. You can also develop strategies for dealing with time wasters like
frequent meetings. If your work is affected by factors beyond your control, like
the stock market, develop contingency plans in advance so you are prepared for the
unexpected.

- Follow-up and evaluation After you have followed your plan for a reasonable
period of time, step back and reflect. Did you achieve your goals? How well did
your schedule work? What could be done better next time? Using your analysis,
modify your scheduling strategies for the future. Then, begin the planning process
again.
Understanding How You Spend Your Time

• Where does your time go?

Do you really know where your time goes? Often people wish there were more
hours in the day when the answer lies in spending the time they have more wisely.
With an accurate picture of where your time goes, you can see whether it is spent
effectively or is wasted on activities that do not further your goals. Most people
significantly underestimate how long things really take. For example, you might
discover that you spend 15 minutes rather than five minutes per day on "quick"
phone calls.

People also have different daily rhythms, times of day when they are most
effective. The time from 2:00 PM–4:00 PM is notorious for being a hard time to
stay focused. Understanding when you are at your peak can help you schedule your
time more effectively.

To examine your time usage, try logging your activities for at least a day,
preferably for an entire a week. Be as vigilant as you can in recording how much
time you spend on each activity. When you have completed your log, tally your
activities into categories:

-telephone calls
-scheduled appointments
-drop-in/ad hoc appointments
-meetings
-administrative work
-report writing and analysis

• Finding the patterns

Once you have logged your activities into categories, examine the time log to
identify general patterns of time usage. Perhaps you spend a lot of time Monday
mornings on the telephone, or you tend to have unexpected visitors after lunch.
Perhaps you will see that your energy level tends to dip toward the end of the
afternoon. Look at the following:
-Does your time usage match your key responsibilities? Spending most of your day
on telephone calls may be fine if you’re in sales, but not if you’re in accounting.
-How’s the payoff? You don’t want to spend 50% of your time on activities with
minimal payoff.
-What can be delegated? Remember your role, as a manager is to direct your team.
Think about whether each activity you pursued supported your goals and priorities
or whether it was a time waster. Then, you can develop ways to avoid the time
wasters.

Goals as Guideposts

Goals are critical to effective time management; they drive how you should be
spending your time. With set goals, you know what is most important to accomplish
on a daily and weekly basis. Otherwise, you may end up spending your day
performing urgent tasks that do not help you achieve your top goals.

To truly plan and manage your time, you need review your long-term goals and
priorities: organizational goals, departmental goals, and personal goals (for more,
see the "Setting Goals" section). These goals guide your time usage in two ways:

-They allow you to identify the specific tasks that you need to pursue.
-They help you to determine which tasks you should not be pursuing. Ask yourself,
"Does this activity help me achieve any of my long-term goals?" If the answer is no,
the activity does not belong on your schedule.

• Attempting too much

We all have too much to do. It is important to acknowledge that you may not be
able to achieve it all, even your top priority goals. Trying to do too much has a
negative impact on all areas of your life. The following guidelines can help you avoid
falling into this trap:

- Know your key responsibilities, and focus on your top priority goals and tasks.
- Ask for feedback from your boss and direct reports.
- Learn to delegate.
- Try to avoid pursuing low priority goals altogether; they have limited value and
little importance.
- Resist the urge to step in and take over because others are not doing their job
or not doing it to your standards.
- Don’t assume everything has to get done.

Scheduling Your Time

• Why do I need to schedule my time?

A schedule is a written commitment to accomplish your tasks in a specific time

frame. It also gives you a chance to visualize your days. If your schedule becomes
overbooked, you might want to revisit your priorities. You should keep only top
priority tasks and activities on the schedule.

• Why do I need to schedule my time?

A schedule is a written commitment to accomplish your tasks in a specific time

frame. It also gives you a chance to visualize your days. If your schedule becomes
overbooked, you might want to revisit your priorities. You should keep only top
priority tasks and activities on the schedule.

• Tools for scheduling

Scheduling tools help you easily organize your tasks and activities into a map. They
allow you to see whether you can afford to handle any unplanned requests. They
also provide you with a list of reasons why you are not available. Some scheduling
tools are:

-"to-do" lists.
- appointment calendars.
- daily and weekly planning guides.
- daily management software and hardware (for example, computer calendars and
personal assistants).
- wall calendars.
Your company may have standard scheduling tools. Take advantage of them if you
can. But keep in mind that scheduling is personal; if the tools available at your firm
do not fit your personal style, seek others that do.

• Breaking goals into manageable tasks

The first step in managing your time is to break your goals down into manageable
tasks. Start by reviewing each of your goals individually, and list all of the key
tasks required to achieve each goal. Put them in sequential order.

Next, estimate how much of your time each task or activity will require. If you
have completed a similar task before, you can often use that as a basis for a time
estimate. If an activity is new to you, you can consult with colleagues, your
manager, or others who know the process for help in estimating times. Remember
to add a 10–20% cushion to your time estimates to allow for other events.

You should also establish a deadline for the completion of each task or activity. For
more complex activities, set up milestones along the way to track your progress.

Once you are satisfied that your list of tasks is complete, assign priorities to each
one. The priorities you assign should reflect the priority of the goal that each task
supports:

- Priority A. Those goals and tasks having high value and primary concern.
- Priority B. Those goals and tasks having medium value and secondary importance.
- Priority C. Those goals and tasks having little value and little importance.

As you examine your tasks, you will notice that some of them need to be completed
in a sequence, with each being more or less completed before the next task can
begin. Other activities are not dependent on completion of any other particular
tasks, or may be done at any time before or after a particular stage is reached.
Make a note of these relationships and keep them in mind as you create your
schedule.

• Creating your schedule

To build your schedule, take your top priority tasks and block them into time slots
over several weeks or months, using a scheduling tool that allows you to take a
daily, weekly, and monthly perspective.

- Keep in mind what you have learned about the times during the day when your
energy is at its peak. Important work or activities that need creativity and
intelligence should be scheduled for the time when you are most alert. Routine or
mundane tasks should be carried out during the periods of low energy.
- Schedule only part of your day, leaving time to deal with crises and the
unexpected.
- Combine tasks, where possible. You might be able to open mail while you’re
booting up your PC.
- Consolidate similar activities, such as returning phone calls, appointments,
paperwork, and meetings, to one block of time. For example, make all your phone
calls at one scheduled time during the day.
- Identify tasks to work on when you have unexpected free time.
- Try scheduling backward. Determine what time you have to leave that day and
then work backward. Put in the most important things first.
- As the week progresses, move uncompleted priority tasks to the days still left
in the week. When your schedule changes, be sure to record what really
occurred. If you begin to see a trend, rework future portions of your schedule
to reflect what you have learned.
.
Once you have created your schedule, keep it easily accessible. A wall or desk
calendar should always be in view; a computer-based calendar should always be open
on your desktop. Check on your progress throughout the day to see if you are on
target.

• Working with "to-do" lists

A "to-do" list is one of the simplest, and most commonly used, scheduling tools. It
captures all of the tasks that you need to carry out on a given day. Many people use
to-do lists in combination with a weekly or monthly schedule, and many planners and
computer calendars have to-do lists built in. The lists allow you to break down the
tasks on your schedule as specifically as you require. For example, where your
schedule might direct you to "return phone calls" at a certain time on Tuesday,
your daily to-do list would likely detail each person you need to call.
An effective to-do list includes the following:

- tasks in priority order

- meetings you are scheduled to attend
- decisions you need to make
- information you are waiting for
- calls you need to make or expect to receive
- memos, letters, and e–mails you need to write
- any unfinished business.

Find a point in the day, possibly at the end of the day or first thing in the morning,
to write down your to-do list. Periodically review your list as the issues of the day
arise.
Here are some strategies for creating and using your list:

Be realistic about how many things you can do. A rule of thumb is to include half
the number of things you think you should be able to do.

- Include time required and completion date for each task.

- Don’t worry about putting items on the list in a particular order.
- Cross off each item as you complete it.
- Save old lists in a box or drawer. You’ll enjoy seeing how much you’ve
accomplished.

- If you are not a list person, experiment with different ways of recording daily
activities. For example, you might use a software graphics program or Post–It
notes on a big piece of paper to create a mind map of your key tasks.

Controlling Time Wasters

• What is a time waster?

A time waster is anything that keeps you from doing things that have more value
and importance to you. Time wasters are different for everyone. For some, a chat
with a colleague might be a time waster; for others, it’s a chance to manage the
stress of the day.
Identify your time wasters, and then develop strategies for dealing with them. For
example, instead of personally handling certain emergencies, set procedures in
place for others to handle them or to prevent them in the future.

For each time waster, brainstorm strategies that match your personal style. That
means, don’t commit yourself to making 10-minute call backs if you enjoy making
personal contact in a relaxed manner. Instead, spend your energy on organizing
your thoughts before a call, so you complete all your business in one call and don’t
need to make additional ones.

Experiment with the strategies you develop and keep the ones that are effective.
And, let your colleagues and direct reports know that you are working on managing
time wasters. Enlist their support and ask for feedback. Remember, though, that
only you can determine whether you are using your time wisely.

Some common time wasters include

- interruptions
- unexpected visitors
- telephone calls
- paperwork
- procrastination
- meetings
- travel

• How to handle interruptions

As a manager, you often are presented with interruptions that must be addressed
immediately (for example, binders for your important meeting did not arrive).

You can often delegate the handling of the interruption. But in the cases where you
are the only one who can address the interruption, handle it quickly, so you can
return to your priority tasks. Even when handling the interruption takes half the
day, focus your energy on the time in the day you have left.
Review the types of interruptions that tend to occur, and try to develop
contingency plans. Then authorize others to deal with the problems if they happen
again.

• How to handle unexpected visitors

You do not always need to be open for visitors. In some cases, you may find it
appropriate to refuse to see a visitor without an appointment.

- Determine whether your unexpected visitor has an immediate crisis or an issue

that has to be dealt with quickly.
- Schedule another time to meet with the visitor, if possible. ( For example, "I think
I can help you, but right now I’m in the middle of something. Can we meet after
lunch about this?")
- Refer the unexpected visitor to another appropriate person, if possible. (For
example, "I can’t pull away right now, but check with Bob and see if he can help. Let
me know what the two of you work out.")
If you must with meet someone, make a note of where you are before you break
away from your work. Quickly return to that task after the interruption.

• Manage your phone calls—don’t let them manage you

Phone calls can be extremely distracting. You spend time not only in taking the call,
but also in taking follow–up action, and then in recapturing your mental position
before the interruption.

Some strategies for managing phone calls include the following:

- screening telephone calls, using either an assistant or voice mail

- referring the caller to someone else, where possible
- keeping the call brief and focused if you must take it (determine the amount of
time you want to spend in advance, and do not exceed it).
- improving your phone skills to reduce the length of time you need to spend on
the phone
- carving out a block of time in the day when you take phone calls and letting
everyone know the schedule
- working in a room without a phone
- using e-mail instead of phone calls as much as possible

• How to deal with paperwork

Try to handle paper only once. Respond to it, file it, pass it along, or toss it out.

For quick responses, communicate in person, by e-mail, or on the telephone. You can
also respond directly on the memo you received.
Avoid sending back a paper with the comment "let’s discuss." Instead, set up a
specific time to meet.

- Fight procrastination

Procrastination keeps you from completing high priority activities and jeopardizes
your long-term goals as well. It can take a number of forms:

 Overplanning: you may prolong a planning process to avoid beginning the work.
 Perfectionism: tasks are never fully completed and keep you from moving on to
the next activity.
 Boredom: the tasks seem unpleasant or uninteresting, so you delay.
 "The Deadline High": Working against a tight deadline can be stimulating for
some people.

When you delay work to get this rush of adrenaline, projects may fail due to lack
of time.
To fight procrastination, assess when and why you tend to put things off. Ask
yourself: "Can someone else do these things? Can I break projects into smaller
units with a deadline for each unit?"
If you’re having trouble starting, set an arbitrary start and go from there. If the
task is unpleasant or tedious, create some motivation for yourself: plan a reward to
give yourself upon successful completion.

 How to handle meetings

A few simple strategies can help you maximize the time you spend in meetings.
- Before you attend any meeting, decide whether you are the best
representative. If you do decide its worth it to attend, make sure that the
meeting has clear objectives and proposed outcomes.
- If you have not received an agenda for the meeting, request to see it in
advance. Let others know you cannot send the best person until you know more
about the purpose of the meeting.
- Arrange to attend only the part of the meeting that is relevant to you.
- If you are running the meeting, send out the agenda and points to consider
before the meeting. This ensures that you maximize all the participants’ time
and keep the meeting on track.

• Make travel time productive

When you are planning to travel for meetings, make sure that it is truly necessary
to hold the meetings face-to-face rather than via conference call. Then, make sure
that you are the best person to make the trip. If not, send someone else.

When you do travel, try to make waiting and in-transit time as productive as
possible.

- Organize your materials before the trip, reviewing all background information
you may need on the road.
- Take a well-organized briefcase with you.
- Consider using a cell phone to keep in contact.
- Consider using a portable laptop computer to catch up on correspondence and
outgoing e-mail while in transit. Bring a replacement battery and all accessories
you need for communication and hookup.

You may find that if you upgrade your plane ticket, you get a more effective
working environment. The extra work that you get done may be worth the extra
cost.

Putting Your Schedule Into Action

• Implement your schedule

Once you have analyzed your time, scheduled your time, and examined time
wasters, you are ready to implement your schedule. Some strategies follow:

Review your schedule the night or afternoon before.

Adhere as closely to your schedule as possible. Handle unexpected tasks quickly
and return to your priority tasks.
As changes to your schedule occur, modify your weekly schedule to compensate.
Remember, new habits, like adhering to a schedule, are hard to adopt at first. The
more you do it, the more automatic it becomes.

• Monitor and evaluate your schedule

Check your progress against your schedule at least once a day.

- Are you completing the tasks you set for the week?
- Are you making progress on achieving your goals? If not, perhaps you are
scheduling too many activities. Review the activities on your schedule, and
eliminate any that do not support your top priority goals.
- Do you feel better prepared and focused?
- What was the impact of not doing some tasks?
- Are you avoiding time wasters? If not, look for other solutions by asking
colleagues how they deal with this issue. Maybe your initial strategies were
unrealistic but can be modified. For example, reducing e-mail responses to five
minutes proves impossible, so try for 10 minutes.
- Is this a schedule you can keep up?

Ask your manager and direct reports for feedback. Use their observations and the
results of your own analysis to continuously improve your scheduling efforts.

The investment you make now in monitoring and evaluating will pay off down the
road. The more you can learn about what works and doesn’t work for you, the more
skilled you will become at creating accurate, realistic schedules—and sticking to
them.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How can I take advantage of unexpected free time?

Unexpected free time can appear due to many factors: travel delays, cancelled
meetings, appointments that begin late. This is time that is often wasted. Make a
habit of having tasks available to fill these spare moments.

Suggested Tasks to Fill Free Time

5-Minute Blocks 10-Minute Blocks 30-Minute Blocks

Schedule an appointment Make a brief phone call Skim journals, magazines, newspapers
Write a quick note Outline an agenda for a meeting Plan your weekly schedule
Update your schedule Read and respond to e-mail Outline notes for a report
Plan an upcoming trip Fill out an expense report

• How can delegating help me manage my time?

Delegating allows you to expand the work you can accomplish within the time that
you have. Closely examine the tasks you wish to delegate and choose the right
person for the job. If you do not have direct reports, perhaps you can trade the
task with a colleague.

When you delegate, make sure that you explain your expectations and your level of
involvement. Give the person the authority he or she needs to complete the task.

• Does it ever make sense to delay important tasks?

It is often best not to work on jobs that require sensitivity and clarity of thought
when you are upset, angry, or tired. It also may make sense to delay until you have
the information or skills required to do a job properly. Delaying in these cases
gives you time to find a better solution.

• How do I learn to say "no"?

- First, you need to be clear about why you are saying "no." This will help you
stand by your decision and avoid guilt. If the request is unreasonable, but you
still want to say "yes," perhaps you can offer a reasonable alternative.
- Try to commit only to those tasks that support your goals. While you may be
tempted to commit to a task outside of your stated goals to be a team player,
you should only do so if it does not jeopardize your other work. If you do not
 have the time required to devote to it, you are not helping anybody by
committing to it.
- Learn to say "no" to nonpriority projects, even when they are presented by
management. List the projects you are currently working on and ask the
requester to decide on priorities when he or she adds new projects to your
responsibilities.

Steps for Managing Your Time

1. Analyze how you currently spend your time.

• For at least one day and preferably a week, use a time log to record the things
you do. Note each activity and how long it takes.

• Tally your activities into one of six categories:

 telephone calls
 scheduled appointments
 drop-in/ad hoc appointments
 meetings
 administrative work
 report writing and analysis

• Take each category and total the number of minutes spent on it each day.
Divide the result by the total number of minutes in your day. (An 8-hour day has
480 minutes.) This tells you the percentage of time that you spend working on that
activity.
• Determine whether the time you spend in each category matches your key
responsibilities.
• Evaluate your time usage in terms of payoff.

2. Review your goals.

• Review your organizational, departmental, and personal goals.

• Consider the priorities that you have assigned to each goal, and ask yourself
whether you are attempting too much. If the answer is yes, try adjusting your
priorities.

3. Break your goals into manageable tasks.

• Review each of your goals individually, and list all of the key tasks required to
achieve each goal.
• Put the tasks in sequential order.
• Estimate how much of your time each task or activity will require. Remember to
add a 10–20% cushion to your time estimates to allow for the unexpected.
• Establish a deadline for the completion of each task or activity. For more
complex activities, set up milestones along the way to track your progress.
• Assign priorities to each task, based on the priority of the goal that each task
supports.
• Note which tasks need to be completed in a sequence, and which may be done at
any time before or after a particular stage is reached.

4. Schedule your time.

• Take your top priority tasks and block them into time slots over several weeks
or months, using a scheduling tool that allows you to take a daily, weekly, and
monthly perspective. Bear in mind the resources you have available, and allow some
slack time for hold–ups, over–runs, failures in delivery, etc.

• Schedule important work or activities that need creativity and intelligence

during your peak energy period.
• Schedule only part of your day, leaving time to deal with crises and the
unexpected.
• Combine tasks and consolidate similar activities, where possible.
• Identify tasks to work on when you have unexpected free time.
Use to-do lists to break daily tasks into further detail.
Keep your schedule easily accessible. Check on your progress throughout the day to
see if you are on target.

5. Identify your time wasters and outline strategies to deal with them.
• Review your time log and identify the types of things that prevent you from
keeping to your schedule.
• Work with one time waster at a time.
• For each time waster, brainstorm strategies that match your personal style.
• Experiment with the strategies you develop and keep the ones that are
realistic.
• Make sure to add those time wasters you cannot control back into your
schedule.

6. Implement your schedule.

Once you have analyzed your time and time wasters, and scheduled your time, you
are ready to implement your schedule.

• Carry your to-do list with you during the day. Consult it when needed to make
sure that you at least complete your top priority tasks during the course of the
day.
• Review your schedule at the end of the day. Reward yourself for tasks
completed on schedule and make any adjustments needed during the rest of the
week.
• Handle unexpected tasks quickly and return to your priority tasks.
• As changes occur, modify your weekly schedule to compensate.
• Remember, new habits, like adhering to a schedule, are hard to adopt at first.
The more you do it, the more automatic it becomes.

7. Evaluate your schedule and make adjustments.

After you have been using scheduling tools for about one month, monitor the
implementation and results of your schedule. Ask yourself the following:

• Are you completing the tasks you set for the week?
• Are you making progress on achieving your goals? Do you feel better prepared
and focused?
• What was the impact of not doing some tasks?
• Are you avoiding time wasters?
• Is this a schedule you can keep up?
• If you have had a problem completing activities on time, ask your manager or
direct reports for feedback. Incorporate their observations into your continuous
improvements. Modify your schedule based on your analysis.
Tips for Scheduling Time

• Take both a long-term and a short-term perspective: schedule tasks for each
day, and schedule several weeks or even months at a time.
• When your schedule changes, mark what really occurred in your day for future
reference.

• Learn when your "high-energy" and "low-energy" times occur and schedule your
day accordingly.

• Balance your activities—schedule time to allow yourself to unwind. Include time

for physical exercise, recreation, and social activities.

• Remember Parkinson’s Law: Work tends to expand to fill the time allotted.