Time Management

Flow of the session…

1. Defining time management 2. 10 Common Time Management Mistakes 3. Time thieves and how to get rid of them 4. What can you use in order to improve your

time management skills? • ABC Analysis • Pareto Analysis • Eisenhower method

5. Tips & Tricks (how to manage my day, how to deal with huge

tasks, how to delegate, how to manage my emails, )

What is Time management?

the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity.

10 Common Time Management Mistakes

Mistake #2. Not Setting Personal Goals

Mistake #3. Not Prioritizing

Mistake #1. Failing to Keep a To-Do List

Mistake #4. Failing to Manage Distractions

Mistake #5. Procrastination

Mistake #6. Taking on too Much

Mistake #7. Thriving on "Busy"

Mistake #8. Multitasking

Mistake #9. Not Taking Breaks

Mistake #10. Ineffectively Scheduling Tasks

• Facebook, Twitter, Skype…

• Chats and forums

• Internet browsing

• Long and/or ineffective meetings

• Interrupting co-workers

• Phone calls

• Too many emails

• Bad planning

• Inability to delegate

• The guy who always says YES

What is a time thief?

Which are your time thieves?

How could you get rid of the time thieves?

• Facebook, Twitter, Skype… & Chats and forums & Internet browsing

• SOLUTION – set a time when you check everything and except that time stay away from these channels. Time flies here and then you will start to panic because you don’t have time to finish your tasks

• Long and/or ineffective meetings

• SOLUTION – set from the beginning a clear outcome of the meeting and a clear agenda. A very good idea, when you have team meetings if also to assign some roles in the team:

• Time keeper – that will let you know how much time you still have to discuss different subjects (based on the agenda set before)

• Output keeper – that will note down the discussion points and main decisions taken

• Meeting leaders – who runs the meeting and has the overview on where you need to get

• Interrupting co-workers

• SOLUTION – ask people in specific times not to disturb you (have a do not disturb sign)

• Phone calls & Too many emails

• SOLUTION – set a specific time when you answer all these emails and calls (except urgent ones of course). Stop checking your email every 5 minutes

• Bad planning

• SOLUTION – work constantly on improving your planning by tracking your daily schedule and how you managed the time that you had.

• Inability to delegate

• SOLUTION – don’t do everything yourself. Delegate so that others can also learn how to do certain things.

• The guy who always says YES

• SOLUTION –Think about your time availability, if you actually need to take on another task

Useful tools to use in your time management

ABC Analysis

An analysis of a range of items that have different levels of significance and should be handled or controlled differently. The items are are grouped into three categories (A, B, and C) in order of their estimated importance.

A – Tasks that are perceived as being urgent and important, B – Tasks that are important but not urgent, C – Tasks that are neither urgent nor important.

Pareto Analysis Pareto Analysis is a simple technique for prioritizing possible changes by identifying the problems that will be resolved by making these changes. By using this approach, you can prioritize the individual changes that will most improve the situation. Pareto Analysis uses the Pareto Principle – also known as the "80/20 Rule"

20% of the actual work

generates 80% of the

results.

Makes you thing about what are the really relevant things that will bring you the best results, doesn’t it?

Eisenhower Method

The Eisenhower Method is a prioritization framework that is very effective by categorizing tasks in a very straightforward manner. It is derived from a quote supposedly attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower: “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

Urgent/Important Matrix

Imp

ort

ance

Urgency

Low

Low

High

High

“Important Goals”

“Critical Activities”

“Distractions” “Interruptions”

Urgent/Important Matrix

Imp

ort

ance

Urgency

Low

Low

High

High

Crisis Pressing problems DDL -driven projects Medical emergency

Preparation/ Planning Relationship Building True recreation New opportunities

Junk mail Some phone messages/email Time-thieves Internet Pleasant activities

Interruptions Phone calls Meetings Requests “Pressing” matters Popular activities

Urgent/Important Matrix

Imp

ort

ance

Urgency

Low

Low

High

High

Crisis Pressing problems DDL -driven projects Medical emergency

Preparation/ Planning Relationship Building True recreation New opportunities

Junk mail Some phone messages/email Time-thieves Internet Pleasant activities

Interruptions Phone calls Meetings Requests “Pressing” matters Popular activities

Necessity

Waste Deception

Tips & Tricks

Managing my daily schedule

How do you do that?

Take time to plan ahead.

Schedule.

Plan at multiple levels (school, work, free time, etc)

Allocate all the things on your To-do list to

Track your day so you can constantly improve your time management.

What should I do if…

• The task is very big.

• The task is very important.

• I don’t know where to start from.

• A difficult decision has to be made.

• Something unpleasant has to do with it

Eat the ELEPHANT ? The elephant technique is a useful and helpful time management technique. Complex projects/tasks can be broken down into bite size chunks.

Managing my daily schedule

How do you do that?

Delegating effectively… • What has to be done? (content)

• Should I do it by myself? (priority)

• If not, who has to do it? (person)

• Why should (s)he do it? (motivation, objective)

• How does (s)he have to do it? (range, details)

• Until when does (s)he have to do it? (timeline)

• How will I control the fulfilment? (milestones, evaluation)

Don’t forget to control and evaluate

the status of delegated

tasks and to follow-up.

Delegating effectively… • Treat your people well.

• Challenge your people.

• Give your people a goal, not procedures.

• Tell the importance of each task.

• Communicate clearly.

• Be specific:

-- Give a specific thing to do

-- Set a specific date and time

-- Specific penalty / reward

How should I manage my emails?

Email is not your to-do list!

• Filter emails through your key areas (example – school, AIESEC EB,

AIESEC GIP ICX, Free time, etc)

• Use Gmail Labels

• Only handle it once (OHIO). Inbox “zero”.

Reply.

Delete.

Forward.

Schedule reply (don’t put it into your never-ending To-do list!!!).

Managing e-mails

• Don’t send an email to (5) people!

• If there is no reply within 48 hours – chase people!

• Schedule email times (3-4 times per day)

• Check and respond to email at low-productivity times

• Keep your email program closed (damn difficult!)

• If you are reading emails, you are NOT on vacation!

Managing meetings

• Filter meetings with other people through your key areas

• Learn to say NO.

• Manage people interrupting.

• Close your door. Use a sign for your office door

• Use headphones (You don’t have to be listening to music!)

• Once you have a meeting, conduct it effectively.

Managing my environments

• Keep your desk clean and organized.

• Get rid of paper piles you’ll never come to read. A file system is

essential.

• Use labels for hard copy documents.

• Arrange facilities conveniently (phone, printer, book shelves etc).

• Keep your Desktop clean.

• Structure your files and folders according to key

areas.

What did you learn?

What can you do starting today so that you can improve your time management?