1. Finding the Time for Time Management

2.  Time management is really all about :
Time really can’t be managed; you can’t slow it down, speed it up, or manufacture it.
 Time management is really all about :
MANAGING YOURSELF

3. Why manage your time? Is this the picture that
represents you in your “normal” state?

4. Or is it more like… We need to manage time because:?
What is YOUR reason?

5. Understand your time Time is your most valuable resource.
Analyze your time to understand the most efficient way to use it.

6. To understand the value of time…
To realize the value of one year: Ask a student who has failed a final exam.
To realize the value of one month: Ask a mother who has given birth to a
premature baby.
To realize the value of one week: Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of one hour: Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of one minute: Ask the person who has missed the
train, bus or plane.
To realize the value of one second: Ask a person who has survived an
accident.
To realize the value of one millisecond: Ask the person who has won a
silver medal in the Olympics.
Time waits for no one.
Taken from:

7. What Do People Have to Juggle Nowadays?
Education
Job(s)
Volunteer work
Community activities
Family responsibilities
Social life
??????

8. Analyze Your Time: What’s Your “LQ” Leisure Quotient?
Sometimes we just don’t realize how much time we spent in non-productive ways.
Here are some examples of leisure:
Chatting/texting
Listening to music
Watching TV
Daydreaming
Playing video games
What others can you think of? 8

9. Exercise: Finding your LQ
Keep a close record each day of how much time you spend on leisure activities.
Divide this number by 960* minutes to get your “LQ”.
*960 minutes equals 16 waking hours per day.
Leisure activities are important to help you recharge, but too much can be detrimental. 9

10. What is Time Management?
Time management refers to the development of processes and tools that increase efficiency and productivity
Time management doesn’t “just happen” for anyone – it is a skill that must be worked on, and that most people find to be a life-long challenge

11. Time Management Is Critical to Your Success In…
…getting your school work done and achieving good grades
…keeping a job (and being able to support yourself)
…maintaining your mental and physical health
…investing in and keeping good relationships with other people

12. The Benefits of Having Good TM Skills
Allows you to be better prepared for and to get the most out of your life…therefore decreases anxiety
Helps you to assign time to tasks in proportion to their importance (prioritizing)
Helps you achieve a more balanced life
Makes you a more productive, successful person

13. Early Warning Signs of TM Problems…
Handing in work late
Submitting work that is not up to your usual standard
Forgetting commitments
Finding that you often don’t have enough time to complete a task
Making excuses for why work is not done
Having to let go of activities you enjoy because of a lack of time to do the things that “have” to get done

14. Why Don’t We Use Our Time More Effectively?
Planning out your time seems like more work
Adds more “structure” to your day – we have enough of this at school or work
Forces you to look at what needs to be completed – can be overwhelming
It’s not fun
You are lazy or just don’t care enough

15. Basic Time Management Principles
Adjust your attitude
Be organized
Follow a routine
Write down your goals
Be selective
Prioritize
Give yourself extra time
Track what you do
Schedule downtime
Find shortcuts

16. Adjust Your Attitude
Being busy is not something that life does to us – we do it to ourselves. Some things are beyond our control, but many things are not.

17. Be Organized
Have a place for everything and put things away as soon as you are done using them.
Put items that are used often in a more accessible location and file everything else away.
Be ruthless about throwing things away if they are no longer needed. Clutter is a big time-waster.

18. Follow A Routine
Make a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual routine and follow it.
Routines help you make sure you don’t forget to do things.
Be proactive - stagger periodic tasks so they don’t overwhelm you all at once.
Make checklists of oft-repeated tasks, so you don’t have to think about them.
Routines are good for your mental and physical well-being.

19. Write Down Your Goals
List specific goals like buying a house, obtaining a certain job, paying off debts, finishing a big project, etc. Include specific dates.
List general goals like spending lots of time with family, having a fulfilling career, being healthy or contributing something to society.
Write your goals down and refer back to them often – keeping them fresh in your mind will help you to avoid time-wasting distractions and later regret.

20. Be Selective
Make a mental list of criteria for accepting a new task and if something doesn’t fit your criteria, say “no”.
Don’t try to please everyone, or you may end up pleasing no one.
Try to get people to answer their own questions.
Ask people what their timeline is and how crucial their needs are – don’t just assume that every new request is an emergency.
Remember that not everything is your responsibility - don’t be afraid to delegate.

21. Prioritize
Once you have a list of things to do, schedule them according to their importance.
Sometimes it may make sense to do a bunch of small tasks first, to clear your mind for a bigger task.
Other times you may have to just ignore the small stuff to get the big projects done.
If you are more alert at certain times of the day, do harder tasks then and save the more menial stuff for another time.

22. Give Yourself Extra Time
Allow for the unexpected. If it takes 15 minutes to get to work, give yourself 30.
Be prepared - check the weather forecast ahead of time so that you’ll know if you need more time to get to work.
For time-critical things like catching a plane, give yourself lots of extra time. The cost of being an hour early is much less than the cost of being even a second too late.

23. Track What You Do
Keep a detailed log on occasion to see how you are really spending your time.
Write a daily journal to help yourself remember why you made certain decisions or how you fixed something. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
Evaluate yourself on a regular basis to make sure that the way you are prioritizing tasks is in line with your goals.

24. Schedule Downtime
If you don’t make time for downtime, you may either never get it or end up sacrificing something you shouldn’t because you’re going crazy.
Schedule specific times to spend with family or friends on a regular basis, and keep the appointment.
Don’t sacrifice downtime for work – your work will end up suffering in the long run.

25. Find Shortcuts For the super-busy person: Learn to speed-read.
Take notes in shorthand.
Take reading materials or note cards with you everywhere - you can read them on the bus, while waiting in line at the bank, etc.
Don’t do things at the same time or in the same place as everyone else.
Batch related tasks – save up several errands that are in the same part of town and do them at the same time.
Learn the flow and schedules of people and places around you, and adapt yourself to them.

26. Three Key Steps to Good Time Management
Developing a Weekly Schedule
to provide an overview of free and committed time
Writing a Daily To-Do List
to provide daily reminders to assure key tasks are not forgotten
Preparing a Long-Term Plan
to promote overall organization and
future planning

27. Step 1: Creating a Weekly Schedule
Can use a weekly schedule template, an agenda, or a computer program
Will allow you to:
Organize your regular activities
Determine your available free time
Look at hours spent on extra-curricular activities
Know how and where you tend to waste time

28. Step 1: Creating a Weekly Schedule (cont …)
Fill in the weekly schedule in this sequence:
Personal Maintenance (i.e. eating, sleeping, getting ready, travel)
Your classes / work commitments
Other Commitments (volunteer, extra-curricular etc.)
THEN fill in other OPTIONAL commitments

29. Step 2: Daily To-Do Lists
It’s even more effective to actually create a daily schedule and block out the time when events will happen
It’s important to tick things off on your daily to-do list as you complete them – gives you a sense of accomplishment
Try to put down a little more on your list than you think you can realistically accomplish
Breaking down large projects into smaller tasks that you can accomplish in small chunks of time is one of the most effective TM strategies

30. Step 3: Long-Term Plans Best to use a monthly calendar
Important to be able to look ahead by at least 4 weeks
As soon as you are informed of deadlines put them on the calendar so you can ensure that you’re able to do some long-range planning

31. Time management and Organization Tools
Agenda
Calendar /
Highlighters/Colour coding
PDAs/Smartphone
Cell Phones, watches, etc.
Agenda – Record appointments, homework, group meetings, due dates, test dates, etc
Calendar – good for the big picture and seeing things in advance. Record assignment and test dates
Highlighters/Colour coding - Color coding may be used to organize lecture notes, study materials and school supplies, time management planners, and test preparation materials. Use color to organize study materials and school supplies. Buy notebooks, three-ring binders, and folders of different colors, and assign each course a different color. This will make it easier to locate needed materials before rushing to class or a study session.
PDAs - Personal Digital Assistants
PDA’s are used for time management and organization. Higher end, feature-rich devices are capable of word processing, sound recording, and wireless internet access.
Benefits
• Keep track of your deadlines with a calendar
• Plan required tasks with to do lists and priorities
• Alarms help you keep all appointments on time
• Take notes in class with a portable keyboard
• Import electronic course readings, including PDF files
Cell Phones, watches, etc.

32. Procrastination: Enemy of Time Management
While procrastinating may give immediate gratification because it delays working on an important (but sometimes undesirable) task, it also brings:
Anxiety
Reduced sleep
Illness
Lower grades
Poorer quality of work
Less learning as a result of being rushed
A personal sense of disappointment
In the end, it hurts you more than it helps you!

33. I’ll do that later…
Not keeping up with work can have a snowball effect, what you need to do continues to build and build, making it harder to get caught up
Tips to avoid procrastinating – a common problem
Break big jobs down into smaller steps
Give yourself a reward for completing your work
Make a list of things to do and cross off the items as you complete them – it helps give you a feeling of accomplishment
Take control of your study environment, lessen distractions

34. It’s All about Endorphins - The Feel Good Hormone
Develop a conditioned response to the tasks you procrastinate
Set a goal to complete a task/project
After completing the task, reward yourself with something that is pleasurable for you
The body releases endorphins- the feel good hormone
Over time with repetition, you will come to associate feeling good with completing a task/project
You won’t procrastinate as much 34

35. Expect the Unexpected
Unexpected problems may arise that can affect your time management
Try to be prepared and be able to deal with any problems that may occur
Common problems:
Mechanical / technical / computer
Illness
Family/friends
Love interest
Underestimated time

36. What If I Get Off Schedule?
It’s important to prepare for the unexpected – things will always come up that you didn’t plan for…even after great planning!
When your plan is thrown into chaos:
List each necessary activity you need to complete
Define time limits for each activity
Set priorities within the list
Tackle assignments in that order

37. The Importance of Setting Priorities
At any one time, you may have 10 tasks that ideally you should be working on – it will be impossible to do them all!
Setting priorities means making a value judgment on each task you need to complete based on it’s worth and when it must be completed
In short: the tasks that are worth the most and due the soonest should be completed first

38. What If I Just Have Too Much Going On?
If you find that you have very few hours left in your day, week or month to relax, spend time with friends or family, or pursue your own interests, it’s time to re-evaluate your commitments!
If you spread yourself too thin, you won’t fulfill any of the commitments in your life to your level of satisfaction
Again, be sure to prioritize and don’t feel guilty if you need to drop an activity or two – your health and well-being is always your #1 priority!

39. Is Not Sleeping A Solution?
Student lag… like jet lag
Are you creating the equivalent of jet lag by keeping an inconsistent sleep schedule?
Do you get up at about the same time each morning?
Do you almost always get 7-9 hours of sleep per night?
If you answered NO to any of the questions, you are compromising your body’s efficiency.

40. Symptoms Feeling tired; not rested Mood changes
Irritability
Affective liability
Impaired Cognitive Functioning
Poor concentration and memory
Decreased attention
Calculation problems
Difficulty in making quick, correct decisions
Inability to reliably estimate your own alertness due to above symptoms

41. Decreased Sleep
Cumulative sleep loss can lead to decreased waking alertness, impaired performance and worsened mood.
Bonnett, 1985; Broughton and Ogilvie, 1992
Decreased performance related to sleep loss has been implicated in some major disasters.
Exxon Valdez
Sleep deprivation is equivalent to the effects of alcohol intoxication
Fatigue Among Clinicians & the Safety of Patients, David M. Gaba, MD and Steven K. Howard, MD, New England Journal Med; Vol.347 No 16; 10/17/02
24 hrs of sustained wakefulness is equivalent to 0.10 % Blood Alcohol Concentration.
Dawson and Reid , 1997
“Surgeons awake all night had 20% more errors and took 14% longer to complete the task than those who had a full night’s sleep.”
Lancet, 1998

42. In Summary…
Time management is a skill that EVERYONE must work on in all areas of their life (personal, academic, work)
Successful time management requires self-evaluation and the desire to improve
Effective time management will require you to do things you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do them – you have to push yourself!
The pay-off of good time management is ALWAYS worth the effort

43. Time Management and Philosophy…
A philosophy professor stood before his class with some items on the table in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, about 2 inches in diameter.
He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.
He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

44. Time Management and Philosophy…
The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “Yes.”
“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, your children – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter – like your job, your house, your car.

45. Time Management and Philosophy…
The sand is everything else. The small stuff.”
“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued “there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal.
Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”