TIME AND STRESS MANAGEMENT

(TMST101)

TIME MANAGEMENT

Based on Wong, L (2009) Essential Study Skills. 7th Edition. Boston, USA. Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Pg. 87 – 92.
And Swanepoel, F (2004). “Utilising Time Effectively” in Badenhorst, van Rooyen, Ferreira et al. (2004) Business and
Office Administration: An Outcome-Based Approach. 2nd Edition. Heinemann Publishers. Pg 137 – 141.
 Time Management

Are you more likely to be on time for a party,

or a job interview?
Why?
 Time Management
Time management is more than just the ability to arrive on time
for an appointment. It is a set of skills designed to help you
monitor and use time effectively to increase performance and
achieve goals.

As a student, you balance 3 main areas in your life:

 School

 Work

 Leisure

How you spend your time will vary depending on your

personal goals, needs and interests. An imbalance can cause
negative consequences, as well as frustration, low productivity,
resentment, confusion and lack of motivation.
 3 Main Areas in the Pie of Life
School Work Leisure

Classes Work/Job Family time

Homework Parenting Social time with friends
Study Time Household Chores Recreation
Tutoring Errands/Shopping Exercise
Study Groups Volunteer work Personal ‘Alone’ time
Test Preparations Committee work Hobbies
Projects Television, movies, music
Meetings/Consultations Computer time
Team Practices/Games Church
 Time Management
When it comes to managing your time effectively, you
need to identify areas of your life that are not getting
sufficient time to flourish.

Are you not performing well in your studies? Do you find

that even after planning, you are not finishing tasks on
time?

Once you identify these areas, you can make adjustments

and manage your time in new ways so as to have more
productivity, achieve your goals and create balance in
your life.
 The Pie of Life
The pie of life is graphic representation which shows
how much time you dedicate to each of the 3 main
areas: School, work and leisure.

PIE OF LIFE Your Current Pie Your Ideal Pie

Work School Leisure 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

 The Pie of Life
A balanced Pie of Life is not necessarily divided into
3 equal parts, because the amount of time dedicated
to each varies according to the individual’s
circumstances, goals and values.

Let’s look at the following examples and try to see

how the Pie of Life would change for different
people.
 The Pie of Life
 A student who lives at home with their family have
fewer responsibilities other than school.
 A student who is a single parent and is enrolled in
college, part time.
 A full time student with 3 children and family
responsibilities.
 The Pie of Life
You can see from these examples that the use of time is
distributed differently, depending on the individuals
circumstances.

Achieving your ideal Pie of Life requires you to examine

the way you spend your time and to commit to exploring
new strategies to improve your time management and
goal setting skills.

Change is not always easy, but the benefits of having a

more balanced life can make your life processes more
rewarding and worthwhile.
 Exercise
Write down on a piece of paper how your time is spent in
3 days.

 How many hours do you sleep?

 How much time is spent at university?
 How much time is allocated for leisure activities?
(Reading, watching TV, social media)
 How much time is wasted?

Is there an imbalance in how you are spending your time?

 The Increase Decrease Method
The increase-decrease method involves increasing or
decreasing time used in one area in order to make more time
for another area in your life. There are only so many hours in a
week, so if your Pie of Life is imbalanced, you have 2 choices.

 Learn more efficient ways to study, do chores, finish projects

at home or work. Be more focused, productive and efficient.

 Use the increase-decrease method to change boundaries in

your life. For example, if you want to spend more time on
studying on completing assignments and academic tasks, you
will need to decrease the amount of time spent at work, or
for leisure.
 Time Management
One of the ways in which you can do this is by
scheduling your day.

 Identify all the tasks which you need to complete.

 Decide on the completion dates and times for the
tasks.
 Do a backward plan to determine when tasks need
to be completed and how long they will take to
finish on time.
 Questions To Ask Yourself
 Do I never seem to finish everything that I have
planned?
 Does this lead to too much stress on myself?
 Does overtime become a part of my life? Do I
always take work home?
 Am I being interrupted by calls, visitors or
colleagues who want to chat?
 Effective Time Utilisation
 Punctual Arrival
 Dealing with important or tough jobs first.
 Completing a list of things that you need to do.
 Concentrate on one task at a time and work
steadily. Set a time limit for tasks.
 Schedule your day. Allocate specific times for
certain activities. Eg. Calls, socialising, studying.
 Effective Time Utilisation
 Don’t procrastinate. Start working on tasks that
need to be completed immediately.
 When you realise that you need help, don’t delay in
asking for it.
 Don’t spread yourself too thin and become
overburdened with work that you are unable to
handle by yourself.
 Effective Time Utilisation
 Organise your work pattern better
 Note patterns of failure that might be regularly
occurring.
 Look for ways to combine compatible activities to
save time.
 Personal Time Management
Personal time management is a set of tools which allows
you to:
 Eliminate time and resource wastage

 Ensure that long term tasks and projects are not

neglected.
 Be prepared for tasks

 Plan each day efficiently

 Monitor task progress and allocate appropriate time to

an important task.
Barriers to Effective Time Management

 Can you think of any barriers you encounter that

prevent you from effective time management?
 Effective Time Management
 The 80/20 rule
 Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, “discovered”
this principle in 1897 when he observed that 80
percent of the land in England (and every country
he subsequently studied) was owned by 20 percent
of the population.
 Pareto's theory of predictable imbalance has since
been applied to almost every aspect of modern
life.
 Effective Time Management
 20 percent of your efforts produce 80 percent of
the results.
 Learning to recognize and then focus on that 20
percent is the key to making the most effective use
of your time.
 Effective Time Management
80/20 rule
 We usually spend time doing the wrong things.

 Time wasting

 Following a schedule will help you focus on

completing important tasks first.
 Prioritising tasks and managing time and resources
can greatly help with this.
 Effective Time Management
 Time logs – Completing a task can sometimes take
longer than predicted.
 You need to allow time for the completion of certain
tasks.
 Take into consideration the following: Interruptions,
meetings, accidents, emergencies, technical issues.
 A systematic approach in the form of a time log
can help you to work on tasks and successfully
complete them before deadline.
Effective Time Management Techniques

 Planning
 Prioritising
 Planning
 Writing things down can help you remember.
 Using a diary or planner.
 Each individual is different, so the time you allocate
to planning your tasks may differ.
 Prioritising
 Arranging tasks in order of importance. (Very
important, to be done immediately. Not very
important, can wait)
 You should establish your priorities.
 Consider the objectives and how long it will take. Is
it a short , medium or long term priority?
 Prioritising
 If you have many high priority tasks, you need to list
them in a priority order.
 To reduce stress, you need to separate your tasks
from the time consuming, insignificant ones.