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There is a saying that “Time and tide wait for no man” or even “An ounce of gold will not buy an inch of time”. This means that an individual should understand the value of time to succeed in all areas of life. Time management is defined as managing the time effectively so that the right time is allocated to the right activity.
It plays a very important role not only in the organization but also in our personal lives. This is why there are time management techniques which can be used and some these are an important part of project management as well.
Rules of Time Management
This involves different steps as follows:
Effective Planning
Without an effective plan, there is no control. Likewise, without time planning, you cannot manage things properly.
- Prepare a “To Do” list.
- Write down the important activities to do in a single day against the time allocated to each activity.
- Prioritize the high priority work.
- Start finishing task one by one.
- Please mark the ones you have finished.
- Do not begin fresh work unless you have finished your previous task.
- Make sure that you finish the tasks within the allocated time.
Note that, more than 90% of the project managers use Microsoft Project as a project management tool for planning their projects. To enhance their planning skills, they attend to MS Project course programs.
Setting Goals and Objectives
- Set Goals and objectives clearly. Make sure that goals are realistic and achievable.
Setting Deadlines
- The best person to set deadlines is you. Hence determine the time and days you require to complete the task.
- Set deadlines for yourself.
- Work hard to complete the task ahead of deadlines.
- Take ownership of work
- Make use of some planner to mark the important dates against the set deadlines.
Delegation of Responsibilities
- Delegate the Roles and responsibilities based on skills and interest.
- Don’t do everything on your own.
- Learn to say “No” at the workplace.
- Don’t accept the work without understanding the problem in detail.
Prioritizing activities
- Prioritize the task based on urgency and importance.
- Learn to distinguish between important and urgent task.
- First, do the task which is important.
- Identify which task needs to be done within a day or month and so on
Spending the right time on the right activity
- Develop the habit of doing the right thing at the right time.
- Don’t waste the entire day on something which can be completed in an hour.
- Work done at the wrong time is not of much use.
Effective time management techniques involve one to be focused, organized, and make use of time properly.
Time Management Techniques
There are numerous time management techniques in the industry. These time management techniques used in the right manner can help you boost your productivity. Most of the project managers use project management tool options as well to manage time effectively when they are managing the projects. Especially, attending in a MS Project training will enhance your planning skills.
We will be listing a few techniques which will help you in effective time management:
- Getting Things Done
One of the time management techniques is a five-step method to convert tasks into straightforward ‘To Do” list.
- The first step is to Capture: Jot down every task that comes to your mind.
- The second step is to Clarify: Determine whether a task is actionable and has concrete steps that can be laid out and followed.
- The third step is to Organize: You need to file the tasks under different labels with context such as Office, Request from Manager, etc.
- The fourth step is to Reflect: You need to review the tasks from time to time. This means to determine what is next step for the task?
- The last step is to Engage: Once all tasks are listed, identified as actionable, proper filing and task has been reviewed. Now simply start working on them.
| The advantage | The disadvantage |
| The time management technique is that all tasks, assignments, and projects are kept in perspective while laying out, so your mind is free, and all tasks are laid in front of you. | The of this technique is that you will not be able to structure your day properly if there are too many items on the list. |
- Eat that frog
This technique aims at prioritizing tasks. First, pick the most important or worst task (This is your frog). Now tackle it as first thing tomorrow. Once you have finished with your frog, you can then move on to other tasks for that day but not before.
It works in a way that you must identify tasks based on priority and label them.
- The most important task is Task A. Hence you should tackle it or face consequences.
- Task B is the next most important task, and you need to handle it after Task A. This means that it is less important but still vital.
- Task C is a task that can be done by you, but you wouldn’t face any consequences even if you don’t do it.
- You should delegate Task D to someone else and allocate the time of this task-to-Task A.
- Task E is the task you don’t really need to do, and you are free to eliminate it.
| The advantage | The disadvantage |
| The technique is that prioritizing task becomes easier, also doing the most important or worst task firstly guarantees the accomplishment of the rest of the items with ease. | The technique is that if most important task changes during the day, then it will become impractical |
- Kanban
This is one of the visual time management techniques that help you track the project. It means that you can track how the tasks move across differently labelled columns. Japan developed this to increase productivity and time management in the manufacturing industry.
The way to use this technique is to take project management software, whitepaper, sticky notes, a pen, and paper.
Now determine the number of stages in your project and create columns accordingly.
Create 4 columns and move task within a project across the stages mentioned as follows:
- Backlog: Here you are brainstorming and define all tasks to be done in the project. Then you need to determine which task you are supposed to move to “To Do” Column and which task can wait a while.
- To Do: This lists the task that you are going to work on.
- In Progress: This lists the task you are currently working on.
- Done: This lists the task you have already finished.
| The advantage | The disadvantage |
| The technique is that it gives a clear visual representation of entire work that needs to be done along with progress made so far. | The technique is that it can be time-consuming. Besides, it may be difficult to predict when your team will finish the task or project because it is using a measure of progress as moving across the columns. Furthermore, it doesn’t order the task in terms of importance and urgency. |
- Timeboxing
This technique works on the bases of timeboxes. Timeboxing often includes fixed deadlines, so project managers generally use it.
It works in a way that you allocate time periods (timeboxes) to activities, you work within this time and then stop once the set time runs out.
The steps are:
- First, you lay out all your activities and tasks on a list.
- Then decide what you want to accomplish with these tasks i.e., define your goals.
- If a task is important and requires great focus, then allocate a longer time to it (For example 2-3 hours)
- If the task is difficult then parse it and allocate shorter time periods (For example 20-30 mins) to parts of it so that task is easier to manage
- Now start from your first task and work your way down.
- When the allocated time for a task is over, stop working on it and take a break.
- Review what you have managed to finish.
- Then turn your attention to other timeboxes in your schedule.
| The advantage | The disadvantage |
| The technique is that it works for many small tasks. Also, it will be easier to keep track of them and tackle them. Further, as deadlines are an important component, so you can focus on achieving as much as you can until the timebox expires. | The time management technique is that timeboxing doesn’t allow multitasking so you will be able to focus on one task at a time. Besides, it may be challenging to stick to a strict schedule based on timeboxes when there are unavoidable disturbances such as phone calls. |
- Who’s Got the Monkey
This technique is based on delegating tasks. It is generally used by project managers. Here monkeys are tasks, and you need to consider how to deal with them.
3 types of monkeys and management time defined as follows:
- Boss-imposed time: It refers to the activities required by the boss.
- System-imposed time: This refers to the actions required by a colleague’s requests and questions.
- Self-imposed time: It refers to the actions you decide to undertake. You may use it for your own tasks and ideas (i.e., discretionary time) or to tackle subordinates’ problems and request (i.e., subordinated imposed time)
Now your aim is to eliminate subordinate-imposed time, control system and boss-imposed time, and increase the discretionary time.
The steps are:
- First, recognize and describe the monkey i.e., specify what task is and what actions are needed for its completion.
- Assigning the monkey i.e.to allocate the monkey to a person.
- Ensuring the monkey i.e., make sure that the person handles the monkey appropriately.
- If a monkey is important and allows no mistakes, then you should recommend what should be done and act if needed.
- If you are certain that the person assigned with the monkey can handle it, act, and then provide advice.
- Keep a check on monkey i.e., specify when you will provide follow up for the monkey to make sure that everything is on track.
| The advantage | The disadvantage |
| The technique is that managers can effectively use their time. It gives a clear perspective on who is assigned to what. Besides, it is a straightforward way of delegating tasks. | The technique is that it deals only with management and delegating tasks. Though, it should be combined with other time management techniques for better productivity results overall. |
Tools Used for Time Management
There are various tools to manage the time effectively on the project. In turn, they help the projects to meet the deadlines:
- Pro Workflow: It is an affordable, easy to use, professional web-based solution to manage the project, tasks, and timelines.
- Office Timeline: It is a PowerPoint timeline maker for professionals. This is useful to produce Gantt Charts and timelines directly into Microsoft PowerPoint.
- Top Tracker: It is a freely available tool. This is a simple tool for time tracking purpose.
- Click Time: This is a time tracking tool which helps you predict project needs and track budgetary concerns by tracking the amount of time your employees are spending on any given project.
- Hours: It works best for those looking to track their own productivity as well as team time tracking solution.
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