This document provides information and tips on effective time management. It discusses setting goals using the SMART framework, keeping activity logs to understand how time is spent, managing interruptions, overcoming procrastination, creating action plans, and effective scheduling. The key points are to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound goals; understand current time usage; prioritize important over urgent tasks; break large goals into action steps; and schedule time proactively to achieve priorities and goals. Regular review and adjustment of schedules is recommended to manage time effectively.

1. Time
Management

2. • How often do you find yourself running out
of time? Weekly, daily, hourly?
When you know how to manage your time
you gain control.

3. Setting Goals
• Goal Setting Tips
• The following broad guidelines:
• State each goal as a positive statement:
• Be precise:
• Set priorities:
• Write goals down.

4. SMART Goals:
• A useful way of making goals more
powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic.
While there are plenty of variants, SMART
usually stands for:
• S Specific
• M Measurable
• A Attainable
• R Relevant
• T Time-bound

5. Achieving Goals
• When you have achieved a goal, take the
time to enjoy the satisfaction of having
done so.
• If the goal was a significant one, reward
yourself appropriately.

6. Golden Rules of Goal Setting
• Five Rules to Set Yourself Up for
Success

7. • Rule #1: Set Goals that Motivate You When you set goals for
yourself, it is important that they motivate you: This means making
sure it is something that's important to you and there is value in
achieving it. If you have little interest in the outcome, or it is
irrelevant given the larger picture, then the chances of you putting in
the work to make it happen are slim. Motivation is key to achieving
goals.
• Set goals that relate to the high Set goals that relate to the high
priorities in your life. Without this type of focus you can end up with
far too many goals, leaving you too little time to devote to each one.
Goal achievement requires commitment, so to maximize the
likelihood of success, you need to feel a sense of urgency and have
an "I must do this" attitude. When you don't have this "must do"
factor, you risk putting off what you need to do to make the goal a
reality. This in turn leaves you feeling disappointed and frustrated
with yourself, both of which are de-motivating. And you can end up
in a very destructive "I can't do anything or be successful at
anything" frame of mind.

8. • Rule #2: Set SMART Goals
You have probably heard of "SMART goals" already. But do you always apply the rule? The
simple fact is that for any goal to be achieved it must be designed to be SMART. There are many
variations on what SMART stands for, but the essence is this - Goals should be:
• Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time Bound
Set Specific Goals
You goal must be clear and well defined. Vague or generalized goals are not achievable because
they don't provide sufficient direction. Remember, you need goals to show you the way. How
useful would a map of the United States be if there were only state borders marked on it and you
were trying to get from Miami to Los Angeles? Do you even know which state you are starting
from let alone which one you're headed to? Make it as easy as you can to get where you want to
go by defining precisely where it is you want to end up.
Set Measurable Goals
Include precise amounts, dates, etc in your goals so you can measure your degree of success. If
your goal is simply defined as "To reduce expenses" how will you know when you are
successful? In one month's time if you have a 1% reduction or in two year's time when you have
a 10% reduction? Without a way to measure your success you miss out on the celebration that
comes with knowing you actually achieved something.

9. • Set Attainable Goals
Make sure that it's possible to achieve the goals you set. If you set a
goal that you have no hope of achieving you will only demoralize
yourself and erode your confidence.
Set Relevant Goals
• Goals should be relevant to the direction you want your life and
career to take. By keeping goals aligned with this, you'll develop the
focus you need to get ahead and do what you want. Set widely
scattered and inconsistent goals, and you'll fritter your time - and
your life - away.
Set Time-Bound Goals
You goals must have a deadline. This again, is so that you know
when to celebrate your success. When you are working on a
deadline, your sense of urgency increases and achievement will
come that much quicker.

10. • Rule #3: Set Goals in Writing
The physical act of writing down a goal
makes it real and tangible. You have no
excuse for forgetting about it. As you write,
use the word "will" instead of "would like
to" or "might".

11. • Rule #4: Make an Action Plan
This step is often missed in the process of
goal setting. You get so focused on the
outcome that you forget to plan all of the
steps that are needed along the way. By
writing out the individual steps, and then
crossing each one off as you complete it,
you'll realize that you are making progress
towards your ultimate goal..

12. • Rule #5: Stick With It!
Your end destination may remain quite
similar over the long term but the action
plan you set for yourself along the way
can change significantly. Make sure the
relevance, value, and necessity remain
high

13. Activity Logs
• Find Out How You Really Spend Your Time
How long do you spend each day on
unimportant things; Things that don't really
contribute to your success at work? Do you
KNOW how much time you've spent reading
junk mail, talking to colleagues, making coffee
and eating lunch? And how often have you
thought, "I could achieve so much more if I just
had another half hour each day."

14. • Most people find they function at different levels of
effectiveness at different times of day as their energy
levels fluctuate. Your effectiveness may vary depending
on the amount of sugar in your blood, the length of time
since you last took a break, routine distractions, stress,
discomfort, or a range of other factors.
• Activity logs help you to analyze how you actually spend
your time. The first time you use an activity log you may
be shocked to see the amount of time that you waste!
Memory is a very poor guide when it comes to this, as it
can be too easy to forget time spent on non-core tasks.

15. • Keeping an Activity Log for several days helps
you to understand how you spend your time, and
when you perform at your best. Without
modifying your behavior any further than you
have to, note down the things you do as you do
them on this template.

16. Treasure Mapping
• Visualizing your goal for greater achievement
• When you want to achieve something really badly, have
you ever tried closing your eyes and imagining yourself
"there"? You touch it, feel it and see it clearly. You scan
every detail in your mind's eye.
• This is a powerful and important technique for motivating
yourself and building the self-confidence needed to
achieve your goals. Yet when you open your eyes, the
vivid image start fades: it takes real concentration to
visualize again each time you want some inspiration.
• What if you could keep hold of that vivid image and refer
to it when ever you need a little motivation or reminder of
what you are working towards?

17. Managing Interruptions
Maintain focus. Keep control of your
time.
• Everyday interruptions at work can be a
key barrier to managing your time
effectively and, ultimately, a barrier to your
success.
• Think back to your workday yesterday and
consider for a minute the many
interruptions that occurred.

18. Great time management
• means being effective as well as efficient. Managing time
effectively, and achieving the things that you want to
achieve, means spending your time on things that are
important and not just urgent.
• Important activities have an outcome that leads to the
achievement of your goals.
• Urgent activities demand immediate attention, and are
usually associated with the achievement of someone
else’s goals, or with an uncomfortable problem or
situation that needs to be resolved.
• Urgent activities are often the ones we concentrate on.
These are the “squeaky wheels that get the grease.”
They demand attention because the consequences of
not dealing with them are immediate

19. Beating Procrastination
Manage Your Time. Get It All Done.
If you’ve found yourself putting off important
tasks over and over again, you’re not alone. In
fact, many people procrastinate to some degree
- but some are so chronically affected by
procrastination that it stops them achieving
things they're capable of and disrupts their
careers.
• The key to controlling and ultimately combating
this destructive habit is to recognize when you
start procrastinating.

20. Why do we Procrastinate?
• In a nutshell, you procrastinate when you put off
things that you should be focusing on right now,
usually in favor of doing something that is more
enjoyable or that you’re more comfortable doing.
• Procrastinators work as many hours in the day
as other people (and often work longer hours)
but they invest their time in the wrong tasks.
Sometimes this is simply because they don't
understand the difference between urgent tasks
and important tasks, and jump straight into
getting on with urgent tasks that aren't actually
important.

21. • Another common cause of procrastination is feeling overwhelmed
by the task. You may not know where to begin. Or you may doubt
that you have the skills or resources you think you need. So you
seek comfort in doing tasks you know you're capable of completing.
Unfortunately, the big task isn't going to go away – truly important
tasks rarely do.
• Other causes of procrastination include:
• Waiting for the “right” mood or the “right” time to tackle the important
task at hand
• A fear of failure or success
• Underdeveloped decision making skills
• Poor organizational skills
• Perfectionism ("I don't have the right skills or resources to do this
perfectly now, so I won't do it at all.")

22. How to Overcome

23. Step 1: Recognize that you're
Procrastinating
• If you're honest with yourself, you probably know when you're
procrastinating.
• But to be sure, you first need to make sure you know your priorities. Putting
off an unimportant task isn't procrastination, it's probably good prioritization.
Some useful indicators which will help you pull yourself up as soon as you
start procrastinating include:
• Filling your day with low priority tasks from your To Do List;
• Reading an e-mail or request that you've noted in your notebook or on your
To Do List more than once, without starting work on it or deciding when
you're going to start work on it;
• Sitting down to start a high-priority task, and almost immediately going off to
make a cup of coffee or check your e-mails;
• Leaving an item on your To Do list for a long time, even though you know
it's important;
• Regularly saying "Yes" to unimportant tasks that others ask you to do, and
filling your time with these instead of getting on with the important tasks
already on your list.

24. Step 2: Work out WHY You're
Procrastinating
• Why you procrastinate can depend on both you
and the task. But it's important to understand
what the reasons for procrastination are for each
situation, so that you can select the best
approach for overcoming your reluctance to get
going.
• Common causes of procrastination were
discussed in detail above, but they can often be
reduced to two main reasons:
• You find the task unpleasant; or
• You find the task overwhelming

25. Step 3:
Get over it!
• If you are putting something off because you just don't
want to do it, and you really can't delegate the work to
someone else, you need to find ways of motivating
yourself to get moving. The following approaches can be
helpful here:
• Make up your own rewards. For example, promise
yourself a piece of tasty flapjack at lunchtime if you've
completed a certain task.
• Ask someone else to check up on you. Peer pressure
works! This is the principle behind slimming and other
self-help groups, and it is widely recognized as a highly
effective approach.
• Identify the unpleasant consequences of NOT doing the
task.
• Work out the cost of your time

26. Action Plan
• An Action Plan is a simple list of all of the
tasks that you need to carry out to achieve
an objective. It differs from a To Do List in
that it focuses on the achievement of a
single goal.

27. Effective Scheduling
• Plan Your Time. Make Time for Yourself.
•
So far in this section of Mind Tools, we have
looked at your priorities and your goals – these
define what you aspire to do with your time.
Scheduling is where these aspirations meet
reality.
• Scheduling is the process by which you look at
the time available to you, and plan how you will
use it to achieve the goals you have identified.
By using a schedule properly, you can

28. Scheduling
• Understand what you can realistically
achieve with your time;
• Plan to make the best use of the time
available;
• Leave enough time for things you
absolutely must do;
• Preserve contingency time to handle 'the
unexpected'; and
• Minimize stress by avoiding over-
commitment to others.

29. • Scheduling is best done on a regular basis, for
example at the start of every week. Go through
the following steps in preparing your schedule:
• Start by identifying the time you want to make
available for your work. This will depend on the
design of your job and on your personal goals in
life.
• Next, block in the actions you absolutely must
take to do a good job. These will often be the
things you are assessed against.

30. • Next, block in appropriate contingency time. You will learn how
much of this you need by experience. Normally, the more
unpredictable your job, the more contingency time you need. The
reality of many people's work is of constant interruption Studies
show some managers getting an average of as little as six minutes
uninterrupted work done at a time.
Obviously, you cannot tell when interruptions will occur. However,
by leaving space in your schedule, you give yourself the flexibility to
rearrange your schedule to react effectively to urgent issues.
• What you now have left is your "discretionary time": the time
available to deliver your priorities and achieve your goals. Review
your Prioritized To Do List and personal goals, evaluate the time
needed to achieve these actions, and schedule them in.

31. • Remember that one of the most important
ways people learn to achieve success is
by maximizing the 'leverage' they can
achieve with their time.

32. Scheduling is then a five-step
process:
• Identify the time you have available.
• Block in the essential tasks you must carry
out to succeed in your job.
• Schedule in high priority urgent tasks and
vital "house-keeping" activities.
• Block in appropriate contingency time to
handle unpredictable interruptions.
• In the time that remains, schedule the
activities that address your priorities and
personal goals.

33. Time Management
• Remember your first Listing. How did you
do?
• Practice Make Perfect