Time Management Essay Example
Time management is something that is important to master regardless of your profession or the activity a person is doing. This includes planning and keeping to a set schedule on when a task should be started and completed. Time management can also include taking breaks as a means of not “burning out”. There are a variety of elements that go into time management.
Environment
Since time management requires a good deal of focus to keep to the planned schedule, a good environment is important to make sure the schedule is kept through. This means as few distractions as possible for the most part.
Priorities and Goals
Setting these are important as a means to have something to achieve and to give the scheduling process purpose.
Carrying out scheduled tasks
This is essentially, doing the task to meet the priority and eventually the goal.
Time management has always been a larger part various task and activities such as project management and planning. The time management portion keeps everything “tight” and running on a set schedule. Keeping to the schedule also allows for better execution of tasks as opposed to the concept of “winging it” or going into a project with no set plan.
Time management is often kept track of with each achieved task being marked off. This allows for a concrete framework of identifying if a project is successful given that all required tasks are finished in the great structure of the time allotted.
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Methods of Structuring
There are several methods of structuring and achieving time management—all of which involve setting goals and establishing priorities. These methods include ABC analysis, Pareto analysis, The Eisenhower Method, and the POSEC Method. All three of these methods organize your goals in order of most important or urgent to unimportant and not urgent. These will allow for you to list which should be done first in the case that there is no particular order these tasks should be done in.
With ABC Analysis, the tasks are prioritized in order of A which is both important and urgent—meaning it will be near the top of the list—B meaning that while the task is important, it’s not essential that it be done now, and C meaning the task isn’t important or urgent so it could be finished up last or not done at all.
Pareto Analysis is pretty interesting. It suggests that the bulk of your tasks can be done in a small percentage of the time. Using the 80-20 rule, it means 80% of the tasks assigned can be done in 20% of the allotted time and that the remainder of that time—the 80 percent—should be given more time. This suggests that the 20% are small tasks such as cleaning and straightening up or so on while the 80% are more time intensive and detail oriented tasks. The Eisenhower Method is a pretty simple way of establishing importance and urgency. By using a box—usually separated into quadrants with columns for urgent and non-urgent tasks and rows for important and unimportant tasks, all tasks will fall in a combination of these four. Tasks that fall into the urgent/important box will be tended to first while tasks that fall in the un-important and not urgent box can be done last or not at all. These tasks can then be assigned a further hierarchy of importance within its quadrant. Of the methods mentioned, it is most detailed and organized in that it gives the worker a concrete idea of what to tackle and what can be dropped.
Finally POSEC method is more of a list of ideals in achieving the set goals and priorities. It doesn’t actually list the tasks in any order so that the worker has an idea of what to do next or what can be dropped. POSEC stands for Prioritize, Organizing, Streamlining, Economizing, Contributing.