© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Section IIBasic Management/

Personal Skills

Chapter 6

Time Management: Minute by Minute

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Time Defined

• Time is the period between two events or during which something exists, happens or acts.

• Time is finite, instant, constant and, in a sense, an illusion.

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Time Management: Planning and Organizing Time• Best accomplished through organization, planning

and review• Involves:

– Managing yourself and your daily life– Committing yourself to make quality use of your time– Planning and organizing time to accomplish your most

important goals in the shortest time possible

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Value of Time

• Time is the greatest management resource.• All other resources can be increased, but time is

fixed.

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Goals and Time Management

• Goals are the heart of time management.• Segmenting tasks

– Tickler file system

• Goals, objectives and the Pareto principle– Identifies the (few) vital tasks and the (many) trivial tasks

• Setting priorities• Urgent vs. important

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Organizing Time

• Keep a daily time log or time list.• Without a time log, you don’t know

– Where your time goes– How much time is spent on what duties– How frequently activities occur

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Controlling Time

• The Daily To-Do List– May be the single most important time management tool

• Important and urgent (for example, budget due next week)

• Important but not urgent (getting physically fit)

• Urgent but not important (a meeting you are expected to attend—politically important, but not task related)

• Busy work (cleaning files rather than starting on a project)

• Wasted time (sitting in traffic with no audiocassettes or cell phone)

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Scheduling

• Sort tasks.• Purge whatever you can.• Assign a time.• Containerize the time needed to do the task.• Equalize.

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Time Abusers Combating Unproductive Time: External Time Wasters• Telephone• E-mail• Drop-in visitors• Meetings• Socializing• Firefighting

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Time AbusersCombating Unproductive Time: Internal Time Wasters• Meetings• Drop-in employees• Procrastination• Failure to set goals and objectives• Failure to prioritize, delegate or plan• Personal errands• Indecision• Lack of organization

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Combating Procrastination

• Start with your most unpleasant task to get it out of the way.

• Set aside half an hour a day to work on a given project—schedule the time to do it.

• Do not worry about doing a task perfectly the first time through.

• Work briskly. Speed up your actions.

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Priorities and Posteriorities

• Priorities– Tasks we must do– Have a big payoff and prevent negative consequences

• Posteriorities– Tasks we do not have to do– Have a minimal payoff and very limited negative

consequences

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Controlling the Paper Flood and the Information Load• Use single handling for most items.• Improve reading skills.

– Skimming and scanning– Subvocalization, regression and narrow eye span

• Delegate.• Share some reading tasks.• Add less to the paper flood yourself.

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

Productivity—the Bottom Line

• Overdoing is harmful to your health.• It’s also hazardous to the quality of your work.• Time is the most important and scarcest resource

managers possess.• Control time as you would budget dollars.• You cannot make time, but you can use available

time better.

© 2012 Delmar, Cengage Learning

The Physiology of Productivity

• Speed yourself up.• Walk briskly.• Talk crisply.• Write rapidly.