Time Management

Biju Soman
Poor management of time will
prevent you from reaching
your full potential.
 Three Questions

• What is time management?

• How do you apply time management principles in your
life?
• What would you like to gain from the training session on
Time Management?
 What is time management?
• Organization of activities so I can get it all done.

• Setting priorities so I know I can do the most

important things first.

• Establishing goals and intentionally managing

my life instead of reacting to events or drifting
aimlessly through life.

• Time management is making wise scheduling

decisions which involve self-discipline and
delayed gratification.
 How do you apply time management
principles in your life?

• Establish deadline for project

• Break down the project into steps

• Establish realistic amounts of time steps

• Working backward from due date, set deadline

for each step

• Incorporate enough time in schedule to

complete step along with other weekly tasks
 Challenges to Setting
Priorities

• The inability to prioritize

• The inability or desire to organize around

priorities

• The lack of discipline to execute around

them
 The Process of Prioritizing:

• What are the costs vs. the benefits of doing it?

• How well does it fit into my goals?

• Is there a deadline for doing it?

• How enjoyable is it?

• Have I promised/agreed to do it?

• What need of mine will I satisfy by doing it?

 Assign Priorities
• “A” Priorities: tasks you should be
working on now.

• “B” Priorities: tasks that can wait until “A”

tasks are done.

• “C” Priorities: tasks that aren’t very

important and can wait.
“The best thing about the
future is that it only comes
one day at a time”

Abraham Lincoln.
 A Simple Time
Management Plan
• Get Started "Even if you are on the right track,
you'll get run over if you just sit there." - Will
Rogers
• Get into a routine
• Do not say “yes” to too many things
• Do not commit yourself to unimportant activities,
no matter how far ahead they are
• Divide large tasks
• Do not put unneeded effort into a project
• Set start and stop times
• Plan your activities
 Tackle Time Wasters
• First, learn to recognize when you’re wasting time.
• Decide what you need to do and can realistically do.
• Learn how to say “NO” when you don’t have time.
• Use an answering machine and return calls at your
convenience. The telephone is a major time killer.
• Learn to say “I can’t talk right now. I’ll get back to you.”
• Wasting time is often linked to a lack of self-discipline.
• Ask yourself, “ Do I really need to do this or not?”
 Time and Priorities

“Set priorities for your goals. A major part

of successful living lies in the ability to put
first things first. Indeed, the reason most
major goals are not achieved is that we
spend our time doing second things first.”
Robert McKain
 How does this pertain to
Leading others?
• Effective use of resources
• Example to others (influence)
• Playing a “head’s up game”.
• Helps with decisiveness
• Leaders understand that activity is not
necessarily accomplishment
• Leaders never grow to a point where they no
longer need to prioritize.
• Pareto Principle: If you focus your attention on
the activities that rank in the top 20 percent in
terms of importance, you will have an 80
percent return on your effort.
 Three R’s
• What is Required? Your list of priorities
must always begin with what is required
of you.
• What gives the greatest Return? Spend
most of your time working in your areas of
greatest strength.
• What brings the greatest Reward? The
things that bring the greatest reward are
the fire lighters in a leader’s life.
 Points to Ponder…
• Time is our most important resource.
• Time is the one resource that is equally
distributed.
• Nobody seems to ever have enough time;
yet everyone has all there is.
• The most successful people are masters
of the clock—they proactively manage
time wisely instead of reacting to time and
letting it manage them, like a tail wagging
the dog.
“Half our life is spent trying to
find something to do with the
time we have rushed through
life trying to save”

–Will Rodgers.
 Two Time Concepts…
• Mechanical time - a structured system of
regular, equal distances between
seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks,
months and years.
• Psychological Time - a perception of
time being unequal - flying by or dragging
by - depending upon what you are doing;
time having a different quality than how
we measure it.
 Realize these three
important things:
• Time is your most valuable resource.
– Time is Money
• Your psychological perception of time is
what counts.
– Time is psychological
• You can be as productive as you want.
– Time Management is a choice.
 Good Time Management
• Adopting more of a psychological concept of time rather
than a mechanical one.
• Undoing practices that waste time.
• Practicing attitudes and behaviors that save time.
• Moving from “doing” things to “being” in the now
moment to be more aware and get more of the right
things accomplished.
• Working 20-80: Doing the little things that get the
biggest results.
“In anything, timing is everything”

–Lao Tzu.
 The first five tips…
• Simplify your life. Empty your basement, attic and closets and have a
huge yard sale. Delete the hundreds of messages in your in-box. Make a
list of your top three values and plan your life around them and nothing
else. Simplify! It will help!
• Take advantage of the psychological nature of time. Create more time
in your mind by focusing on the present moment and how you can best
use it NOW! The now moment expands time to bring a more successful
future.
• Slow yourself down. Slow down and watch how you get twice as much
done in half the time. Rushing around doesn’t get any more done, usually
less.
• Re-arrange your priorities. Reverse the typical 80-20 rule by doing the
little things that get the biggest results. Do what you enjoy; avoid what you
dislike.
• Organize! Make it easier to get and use what you need most often.
Organize your physical environment and save valuable time looking for
things later (not to mention preventing the needless aggravation).
 The second five tips…
• Stop reacting and start acting. Make a choice to be more productive by
getting ahead of the curve and anticipating twists and turns and thumps
and bumps. Substitute productive actions for unproductive reactions. And
let everyone else deal with their own emergencies!
• Be mentally flexible. You will be amazed at how much more you can do
when you don’t have to do it a certain way or expect particular results.
• Always over-estimate time. Underestimate what you can do in an hour
and you will get more done in a week, month and year than you thought
possible.
• Manage Your stress. When you are over-stressed you are not efficient in
using time. Exercise a little, sleep well, eat right, practice a relaxing hobby
and form a support network to reduce as much interfering stress as you
can.
• Plan and prepare. A few minutes invested in planning and preparing
anything will usually save hours later. So will doing a thing right the first
time.
“Time only seems to matter when
it is running out”

–Peter Strup.
 How to save 12 hours a day…

1. STOP REACTING TO OTHER PEOPLE'S

EMERGENCIES AND NON-PRIORITIES.

• Set your own urgent priorities and keep them.

• Learn to say “no.”
• Demonstrate the value of what you are doing for others to see.
• Teach others the importance of your time.
• Don’t react to other people’s poor planning and don’t bail them
out.
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…

2. STOP MAKING BAD CHOICES.

• Think ahead to make the right choice to get the best results.
• The right choice is the easiest and quickest one that gets the best
results and costs the least in side effects or negative
consequences.
• Anticipate likely negative consequences of a wrong decision to
prevent that from happening.
• Bad choices and wrong decisions have to be repaired and that
wastes time.
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…

3. THINK MORE CRITICALLY.

• Ask more and better questions.

• Dig below the surface.
• Take the time to understand something more fully.
• Admit what you don’t know and commit to learning it.
• Focus on making small changes in your thinking to get results.
• Look to disprove something rather than to prove yourself right.
• Realize the importance of where you are seeing something from;
try to change viewpoints when you get stuck.
• Slow down and think about your thinking—be critical of yourself.
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…

4. MAKE INSIGNIFICANT DECISIONS HASTILY AND

DELIBERATE ON THE DIFFICULT ONES.

• Separate insignificant decisions from significant ones, as well as

fact from emotion.
• Deal with the insignificant decisions quickly.
• Get a reasonable amount of information and details about difficult,
complex decisions and then make a written decision matrix with
the pro’s and cons of each alternative. The winner will be clearly
visible.
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…
5. SEPARATE CORE PROBLEMS FROM SURFACE
SYMPTOMS

• Avoid getting distracted by “sexy” symptoms.

• Dig below the surface to uncover the real problem that is causing
all the symptoms.
• Make quick fixes but look for longer range cures to apply to
prevent the problem from ever re-occurring; no change = same
problem again.
• Realize some problems are recurring and not permanently
solvable; settle for temporary relief and move on.
• Practice asking five successive questions to get to the core
problem
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…

6. INVEST Rs. 25 IN A DO-LIST TABLET.

• Start out each day with a list of things you must finish.
• Keep the list in front of you.
• Check of the items you have completed for record- keeping and
save results.
• Take unfinished items and put them at the head of the next day’s
list.
• Do the tedious things on the list early in the day.
• Make it a habit of finishing things.
• Look at your accomplishments and feel proud of working smart
getting the right results in the right way quickly and effectively.
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…

7. CLAIM SOME PRIVATE TIME.

• Close your door at times or go somewhere private.

• Claim some free time to free your mind; a free mind sees things a
cluttered one can’t—real priorities.
• Get this private time in your schedule for others to know about it
being “sacred;” it’s more important than you may think.
• Don’t make the mistake of violating your own private time or letting
others violate it for you.
“Take care of the moments and the
years will take care of themselves”

–Maria Edgeworth
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…

8. PLAN SOME SPONTANEITY.

• Set a time during each day when you can just walk around without
a set agenda; you will be surprised what you can learn and get
accomplished.
• By not appearing to be your usual over-worked over- busy self,
people will tell you more.
• Practice the three L’s during your spontaneity: Looking, Listening
and Learning.
• You may find that you actually get more done during this time than
what you plan to do.
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…

9. S –L- O -W DOWN.

• When you rush you are just speeding up time and making it pass
much quicker; when you slow yourself down, so does time.
• If you think you have enough tie to do something you will; when
you don’t, you won’t. Take and make time.
• Rushing around 1000 mph is a mistake waiting to happen and
mistakes take time to repair.
• Slow but sure gets things finished right.
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…

10. ORGANIZE YOUR PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT.

• Much time gets wasted looking for things in a cluttered, chaotic

physical environment.
• One hour’s effort organizing a work environment will save weeks
over the long haul.
• Arrange frequently used things conveniently and makes things
generally easily retrievable.
• It is much easier to find things in neat, orderly environment.
• Fix broken things as they waste time.
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…

11. UNPLUG YOUR PHONE.

• Phone interruptions are the biggest time waster; you are always
doing something else more important.
• Take and return phone calls at a pre-arranged time during your
day.
• When phone calls are on your own time, you won’t rush too much
or project impatience; both these things may require more time to
correct.
• Special note on e-mail: There is too much of it and messages are
too long. Do your part in making a much needed cut back!
 Saving 12 hours a day cont…

12. APPLY "P" POINTS.

• “P” Points are psychological power points—the smaller, well-

placed and well-timed interventions that get the biggest results
(example newspaper headlines, political sound bytes, aggressive
listening, etc.
• All these time-saving tips are good examples of “P” Points.
• Another good example is to take a few minutes to plan your
communication with another person so you maximize clarity,
connection, understanding, listening and impact.
 Time Management

High Urgency High Urgency

Low Importance High Importance

Delegate Do it
U
R
G
E
N Low Urgency Low Urgency
C Low Importance High Importance
Y
Trash Plan

IMPORTANCE
 How effective Time
Management works for you…

You are more productive.

You reduce your stress.
You improve your self-esteem.
You achieve balance in your life.
You conquer multitasking.
You establish an important skill.
You reach your goals.
 Parting advice…
Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock is upon us:
We are all over-loaded. Too much to do and too
little time to do it in.

• Good time management is necessary for surviving.

surviving
• Excellent time management is necessary for thriving.
thriving

Do you want to just survive or thrive?

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iju S o man
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biju.som