This document provides an overview of time management techniques. It discusses common time management mistakes like keeping too many tasks in your head, doing whatever grabs your attention, and not prioritizing important tasks. To address these mistakes, it recommends strategies like writing to-do lists, planning your time, and focusing on top priorities. The document also outlines time management personalities and provides practical tips, such as getting organized, learning to say no, and using a calendar and reminders, to help people make better use of their time.

1. Time Management

2. ~ The bad news is time flies;
the good news is you are the
pilot.~
Michael Altshuler

3. Overview
• Fun look at time management personalities
• Common time management mistakes
– 10 mistakes outlined
– Ideas on how to change behaviors
• Microsoft Outlook basics
• Practical ideas on saving time

4. Time Management Personalities
• The Fireman
• The Over-committer
• The Acquarian
• The Chatty Kathy
• The Perfectionist

5. Now let’s get serious…..
• The myth of time management;
– All we can manage is ourselves and the time
that we have. Despite all our best efforts,
there will never be more than 24 hours in one
day.
– Time management is really about changing
behaviors, not changing time itself.
– Goals must be set to improve time
management and then followed up on to see
whether or not you are accomplishing them.

6. 1. Keeping too many things in your head
• Using memory to keep track of what you
need to do and where you need to be
– Leads to feelings of anxiety and being
overwhelmed
– Easy to forget important things
– Hard to plan and prioritize
– Waste time trying to remember what you need
to do
– Causes distractions and lack of focus

7. 1. Ideas to help change behaviors
• Write to do lists (I do a monthly list)
• Outlook reminders
• Cell phone reminders
• Planner
• Calender

8. 2. Doing whatever grabs your attention
• Things that grab your attention are not
always important, and don’t always
represent the best way to spend your time
• Urgent things are not always important and
important things are not always urgent
• It is much more effective to work on related
tasks for a period of time than to jump from
one unrelated task to another

9. 2. Ideas to help change behaviors
• Make a plan and work your plan
• Figure out how much time you have to work
on tasks for the planned time
• Plan your time based on order of priority,
then you can complete the important things
and defer the other tasks to someone else or
to another day

10. 3. Not spending enough time on top priorities
• Symptoms of poor prioritization
– Too much to do and not enough time
– Feeling overwhelmed and out of control
– Feeling under constant time pressure
– Not making significant progress on important
goals
• You must consciously choose to spend time
on what is most important, don’t let others
choose for you

11. 3. Ideas to help change behaviors
• Prioritize your to-do list
– ABCD system
– Make supervisor priorities your priorities
• Make time for important things
– You will never find time, if you want time, you
must make it
• Avoid ‘drifting into trivia’
– Drifiting away from the important to the trivial;
a phone call, email, visitor, colleague etc…

12. High Urgency Low
1 2
Urgent and important Important not urgent
Do it now Decide when to do it
Importance
4 3
Urgent not important Not important not
urgent
Delegate it Dump it
Low

13. 4. Efficiently doing things that don’t need done
• Habit that you fall into without realizing
• Usually one of the following is to blame
– Perfectionism
– Gold-plating (spending time doing things that
are easy, interesting, and fun but don’t add
value)
– Human nature (doing easy ‘filler’ tasks such
as organizing the desk)
– Lack of clarity (losing track of what is to be
accomplished)

14. 4. Ideas to help change behaviors
• Plan out your weekly/monthly goals
• Post the goals where they are visible or seen
often by you
• Write out what you do by item every day with
times listed. Go back and assign priorities to
see where you are missing things or doing
things that don’t need done at all.

15. 5. Poor planning
• One of the most important factors in time
management
• Every minute spent planning can save three in
execution
• People don’t plan because;
– They don’t understand the value (often you do well
despite lack of planning, not because you are not
planning
– Immediate gratification (takes time to see results)
– Don’t know how to plan effectively (practice to avoid
overplanning)

16. 6. Disorganized/distracted work environment
• Piles of paper
• Lack of inflow management
• Need of reminders
• Mental context of your work

17. 6. Ideas to help change behavior
• Get your desk, office, and email organized
• Create ‘homes’ for everything in your office
as well as for the work you know will be
coming
• Utilize MS Outlook as a reminder system
instead of just an email system
• When you are finished looking at something,
file it or throw it away

18. 7. Attempting to do too much
• Most of the time the cause for this is you
• Underestimating time tasks will take
• Overestimating how much you can
accomplish
• Always saying ‘yes’
• Doing tasks out of guilt

19. 7. Ideas to help change behaviors
• Understand you cannot do everything
• Learn to say ‘no’
• Listen to yourself, if you feel like you are
overloading yourself, take a step back and
prioritize
• At some point, you have to choose what you
are going to need to give up to accomplish
what is truly important and meaningful in
your life

20. 8. Always saying ‘yes’
• Major reason for overloading and stress
• May feel like you are really going to make a
difference (ex: service projects)
• May feel like it will get you the pay
raise/promotion you desire
• Don’t realize how much it costs you
• Desire to please, fear of rejection

21. 8. Ideas to help change behaviors
• Know that whenever you take on something
new, you always give up something else
• Instead of responding immediately, tell the
requesting party that you will think about it
• “A ‘no’ uttered from deepest conviction is
better and greater than a ‘yes’ merely uttered
to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.”
~Mahatma Ghandi~

22. 9. Not Managing your Inflows
• Work arrives in different ways – email, phone
call, drop-in visitor, items from meetings,
self-imposed
• Causes forgotten requests, incomplete work,
misplaced information, feelings of anxiety
and being overwhelmed

23. 9. Ideas to help change behaviors
• Learn to read through and prioritize content
of inflow; handle right away, postpone or
delegate, file away, or trash
• Develop a systematic way of handling,
capturing, and processing all inputs and
projects
• Capture and process each item effectively,
determine relevance, write it down so it won’t
be forgotten

24. 10. Confusing Activity with Productivity
• Just because you are active and busy
doesn’t mean that you are productive or
making significant progress
• Doing meaningless work that doesn’t bring
you closer to your ultimate goals
• Fixing problems or putting out fires
• Presenteeism – physically present at work
but distracted and unfocused

25. 10. Ideas to help change behaviors
• Look at the higher levels of purpose,
mission, vision, and goals to improve levels
of productivity and effectiveness
• Take time for rest and renewal so your focus
and productivity levels are at their peak
• Get comfortable, eliminate distractions from
your work environment

26. Microsoft Outlook Basics
• Email and much more
• Setting up additional files
• Calendar reminders
• Calendar invites

27. Practical Ideas on Saving Time
• Write things down, prioritize your list
• Carry a notebook for ideas and notes
• Think before acting
• Strive for continual improvement
• Use a time management system
• Identify bad habits
• Don’t do other peoples work
• Know and use your energy cycles

28. Practical Ideas on Saving Time (cont)
• Avoid saving too much in your files
• Weigh task importance
• Clean off your work area
• Take time to relax every day
• Don’t overschedule
• Establish weekly planning routines
• Record your favorite TV shows
• Backup your computer files

29. Practical Ideas on Saving Time (cont)
• Make checklists for repeat tasks
• Take baby steps to good time management
• Get active
• Get enough sleep
• Have fun!