Time Management

Doddi Pavan
Kumar
 Steps for Managing
Time
Analyze how you currently spend
your time
 Use a time log
 Tally your activities
 Determine whether time you spend
matches your key
responsibilities
Review your goals
 Review your organizational,
departmental, and personal goals
Consider the priorities that you have
Break your goals into manageable
tasks
 Review each of your goals individually
 Put the tasks in sequential order
 Estimate the time each task or activity will
require
 Establish a deadline
 Assign priorities to each task
 Note which tasks need to be completed in
a sequence
Schedule your time
 Schedule important work during your peak
  Make sure to add those time wasters you
cannot control back into your schedule
Implement your schedule
 Carry your to-do list with you during the
day
 Review your schedule and Reward yourself
for tasks completed
 Handle unexpected tasks quickly and return
to your priority tasks.
 As changes occur, modify your weekly
schedule to compensate.
 Hard to adopt at first
Evaluate your schedule and make
adjustments
 Monitor the implementation and results of
your schedule
 Ask yourself some questions
 Modify your schedule based on your
analysis
Tips for
Scheduling time
 Take both a long-term and a short-term
perspective
 Learn when your "high-energy" and "low-
energy" times occur and schedule your day
accordingly
 Balance your activities
 Tips for Sticking to Your Schedule

 Post your goals where you can always see

them.
 File time-saving ideas and tools.
 Take some time today to prepare for
tomorrow’s top priority tasks.
 Plan rewards for using work time
effectively.
 Don’t strive for perfection.
 Tips for Controlling Time
Wasters

 Schedule an hour of quiet time when you cannot

be interrupted.
 Let your colleagues and direct reports know that
you are working on managing time wasters.
 Allow at least an hour a day of unscheduled time,
so you are prepared for time wasters.
 Set end times for appointments to keep you
focused on the meeting window.
 Note how much time a time waster cost you
 Scenario:
Sharlene's manager, Al, asks her to put together a
spreadsheet detailing the payment turnaround time of
each of her direct reports. He has the raw data, but
would find the information more useful if Sharlene
could compile it for a report he's writing. He wants the
spreadsheet by the end of the week. Sharlene is
happy to create the spreadsheet, but knows she
doesn't have enough time to work on it and still
complete everything else she has to do.
What should Sharlene do?
oCreate the spreadsheet. If it's important to Al, it's
important to her.
oExplain the tasks on her plate and how they relate to
her goals, and ask Al what she should do, given that
this spreadsheet does not relate directly to her goals.
oAgree to write the report, but caution Al that she may
not be able to finish it by the end of the week, given
everything else she has to do.
 Sharlene assigned priorities to the various tasks
needed to achieve specific goals. Based on this, she
created a to-do list and schedule. However, she
finds that she's not completing things as efficiently
as she had thought she would. As a result, she's
falling behind again.

What should she do to get her schedule back on track?

o Identify ways she has been spending time that don't help her
complete tasks. Then brainstorm how to control the time
wasters and focus on the tasks at hand.
oEliminate low-priority tasks. They aren't as important, and it's
better to get the high-priority tasks completed on time. She can
always do the low-priority tasks later.
oPlace a "Do Not Disturb" sign on her door and ignore phone
calls and e-mails until she has completed the tasks. Use the
sign judiciously, but ask co-workers to take it seriously
 Tools

Daily Time Log Chart

Time Waster/Solutions Chart

To-Do List

Checklist: Evaluating Your Schedule

Breaking Goals Into Tasks Worksheet

1. The time management process in this topic has three
phases: analysis, planning and follow up and evaluation. In
the first phase, analysis, the key task is to understand how
you spend your time. To what aspect of your time usage
should you pay particular attention?
oWhat drives how you use your time
oThe balance between time spent on work and on personal
time
oThe degree of agreement between how you spent your
time this week versus last week.

2. What is a suggested strategy for dealing with factors that

are beyond your control (like fluctuations in the stock
market or customer calls)?
oTrack the daily time consumed by these factors for a
month or so. Then build extra time into your schedule to
accommodate them.
oTake charge of these factors and limit your exposure to
them; say no.
oDevelop contingency plans for these factors in advance so
3. What’s a straightforward tip for the best way to turn
paperwork into a productive activity?
oAs soon as you receive it, sort the paperwork into piles of
highest priority, medium priority, and lowest priority.
oAlways reply right on the paper received rather than create a
separate reply.
oTry to handle any paper document only once.

4. Once you have logged your activities into categories,

you can begin the process of analyzing the log. To best
evaluate your time usage, the text suggests that you
need to match "what" with "what"?
oMatch how you use your time with key responsibilities
oMatch the hours and days of the week spent on work-
related tasks with the total hours spent in the workplace.
oMatch the ratio between work-related time spent and
non-work related time spent.
5. Controlling time wasters is a key strategy to use to manage
your time more effectively. How would you describe a "time
waster"?
oA time waster is any time spent that does not match one of
your performance objectives.
oA time waster is any activity or time spent that does not
have a payoff for the organization's primary goals.
oA time waster is anything that keeps you from doing things
that have more value and importance to you

6. When you are in the process of developing and trying

strategies to deal with time wasters you've identified,
what’s recommended? Tell your colleagues and direct
reports what you are trying, or experiment first and keep it
to yourself?
oTell your colleagues and direct reports.
oKeep your brainstorming and strategies to yourself until
you know which approaches work.
 7. Goals are critical to effective time management; they
drive how you should be spending your time. To truly plan
and manage your time, you need to keep in mind three
sets of goals. Name them.
oShort-term goals, long-term goals, and personal goals.
oOrganizational goals, department goals, and personal
goals.
oCorporate goals, current activity goals, and personal
goals.

8. Once you have identified your goals, what is the next critical
task in managing your time?
oBreaking your goals down into manageable tasks.
oRank ordering your goals.
oComparing time spent on goals and key responsibilities
9. One of the acknowledged toughest tasks in managing time
effectively is learning when and how to say "no" to non-priority
tasks, especially when the request comes from your
management. What's the suggested way to say "no" when your
manager asks you to work on a non-priority project?

oFirst, be clear in your own mind about why you are saying "no"
to your own manager’s request. If the request is unreasonable,
stand by your decision and avoid guilt.
oTry to commit only to tasks that are included in your own goals.
Say no and describe how the request will jeopardize your other
work. Stand by your decision.
oList the projects you are currently working on and ask the
requester to decide on the priority of the new project relative to
your current ones.
10. One tip for sticking to your schedule suggests: Don’t
strive for perfection. If you achieve ---% of your target for
the day, you have been successful. What is that percent?
o60%
o90%
o50%
THANK YOU