Time Management

UNP-0051, November 2004, Bernice B. Wilson, Extension Urban Specialist, Resource management, Alabama A&M University

Time is a personal conception and how you manage time is determined by how you set personal goals. How you utilize time also determines the boundaries of your life. Being competent in managing time is to be competent in living. This is easier said than done since an individual is a creature of habit. In other words, things are usually done at the same time and in the same way daily, and you may need to change your habits to better utilize your time.

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Time management involves:

• Accepting responsibility for your actions.
• Being cognizant that you can influence, change, and control many aspects of your life.
• Adopting a systematic approach to the use of time.
• Spending your time in the best way possible.
• Improving those things you can, learning to live with the things you cannot change, and seeking the wisdom to know the difference.
• Living life with a purpose.
• Setting priorities.
• Allowing time for interruptions to your schedule.
• Using "prime time" for jobs that require high energy and concentration. Think of yourself in regard to intent and purpose by setting realistic goals.
• Setting time aside for you. Ten minutes a day adds up to 60 hours per year.
• Considering tasks you dislike carefully and limiting time spent on those tasks.
• Letting others help. The hardest part about delegation is letting go. "If you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself," said Don Whetmore, time management speaker and consultant. He further stated, "One hour of planning will save ten hours of doing."
  Hiring someone to do routine tasks such as grocery shopping, yard work, or household chores may free up as much as 20 hours per week for the average person to do more important tasks.
• Consolidating tasks saves time. Do similar tasks ogether like letter writing, making phone calls, or running errands.
• Checking off or crossing out completed tasks. This helps you visualize what you have accomplished.
• Eliminating tasks that are unimportant.
• Rewarding yourself for accomplishing tasks.
• Using your time on tasks that gives you greater productivity or results.

Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto devised the 80-20 principle- 20 percent of causes are responsible for 80 percent of the outcomes. For example, 80 percent of an organization's work is done by 20 percent of its employees. Eighty percent of your pay raise comes from 20 percent of the work you do. The key is to find the 20 percent that will give you an 80 percent return. Then concentrate your time and energy on the 20 percent that pays high dividends.

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What is Good Time Management?

Good time management is doing important things now rather than putting them off for later. When time is used wisely, you will receive higher dividends by reaching goals that are meaningful. Good time management skills may also increase satisfaction and reduce stress.

In addition, an individual may want to jot down his/her dreams and plot strategies to achieve those dreams. Jotting them down helps you to examine the value of your dreams and to carefully plan how to make them a reality.

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Points to consider when focusing on good time management:

• Is there enough time?
• Look at all activities and determine the possible uses of time. An individual may ask these questions. What is the best use of my time? What are the appropriate priorities for this activity? How important is this activity?
• Try estimating priorities by determining what is:
  • Important and urgent.
  • Important, but not urgent.
  • Urgent, but unimportant.
  • Neither urgent nor important.

You need to consider the importance of a task in relation to one's personal values. Determine what an individual is trying to accomplish through use of time.

Time management also requires daily planning. "Daily planning" is the time you set aside each day to have a board of director's meeting for the most important corporation in the world, "Me, Inc." Time management helps you to plan not only what you "have to do" for the next day, but, more importantly, what you "want to do." And, time management is not an expense; it's an investment. For every hour of daily planning, you will get ten hours back ("a stitch in time saves nine") by focusing your time on the most important things you need to do (Whetmore).

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Whetmore further stated:

• Eighty percent of employees do not want to go to work on Monday morning. By Friday, the rate drops to 60 percent.
• The average person uses 13 different methods to control and manage their time.
• The average person gets one interruption every eight minutes, or approximately seven an hour or 50-60 per day. The average interruption takes five minutes, totaling four hours or 50 percent of the average workday. Eighty percent of those interruptions are typically rated as "little value" or "no value" creating approximately three hours of wasted time per day.
• Twenty percent of the average workday is spent on "crucial" and "important" things, while 80 percent of the average workday is spent on things that have "little value" or "no value".
• In the last 20 years, working time has increased by 15 percent and leisure time has decreased by 33 percent.

People do not plan to fail but many fail to plan. Therefore, planning ahead helps you to control and maximize the use of our time. If we are not in control of our time, invariably, someone else is in control. Research supports that the person with a written plan usually obtains his/her goal. A written list entails all that you "have to do" and all that you "want to do." Start by making a prioritized list in order of importance to you. Then follow-up each day by working on the most important items first.

Remember, if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. On the contrary, if you do know your destination, you can quickly determine which route is best for you. In that same vain, if you don't know your job anybody can waste your time while trying to tell you how to do it.

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References

"The resource called time. The reporter, Vol. 35, No. 2, p. 7.

North Central Regional Extension. (February 1985). It's about time. NCR 229.

Whetmore, Don. Professional speaker. Productivity Institute: Shelton, CT.

For more information, contact your county Extension office. Visit http://www.aces.edu/counties or look in your telephone directory under your county's name to find contact information. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work in agriculture and home economics, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, and other related acts, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (Alabama A&M University and Auburn University) offers educational programs, materials, and equal opportunity employment to all people without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, veteran status, or disability.