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THE GOOD HABITS OF TIME MANAGEMENT

Habit 1: The to do list

Make a to-do list. This will prevent you going off task every time you remember another thing to do. Simply add itto your list and return to the task in hand. This will stop the butterfly. Writing things down will help you rememberthem and is a better recorder than your memory. You need to devise a system to suit you, but many people have ageneral list, and then a specific daily or weekly list of tasks to be achieved within a certain timeframe pulled out

from the general list. A lot of people find it helpful to rank the items on their to-do list in order of importance. Noteverything is of equal importance.

Habit 2: Clear prioritiesIdentify your priorities and distinguish tasks that are urgentfrom tasks which are important. Urgent tasks have animmediate impact. Important tasks have a significant impact. Do tasks in this order:

1 urgent and important2 urgent (but do them quickly)3 important.

Try to prioritise important tasks. Dont be tempted to fill in odd moments with low-rated tasks. Try and at least start

a more important task. Be clear what the critical 20 per cent of your tasks are. Paretos Law suggests that 20 per

cent of the work produces 80 per cent of the results. Be clear what the critical 20 per cent of your tasks are and

prioritise them.

Habit 3: Saying no and delegationNot all tasks are relevant or appropriate for you to do. Some jobs are more appropriate to delegate. Delegation isnot activity dumping, you need to check that the task is suitable for the person, and you need to clarify with themwhat needs to be done and to what performance standard and check they have the ability to do it and that it isappropriate to their role or development.

You may also need to provide them with some coaching and other support, and ensure they have the responsibilityand authority required. Many managers are afraid of letting go feeling that they either are the only ones that cando the job effectively, or alternatively it will look as if they are a shirker, continually passing work on to others. Thisis often not the case, especially if they have considered carefully which tasks to delegate.

It is worth examining your job and working out which tasks are most suitable for you to do and which tasks wouldmore appropriately be done by a subordinate, colleague or even someone higher up the organisation.

Habit 4: The best use?Try not to drift between tasks as you complete one task dont float onto another. Stand back and ask yourself:What is the best use of my time now? Be honest it is very unlikely to be something trivial. It is more likely to begetting started on the big one.

Habit 5: Achieving the big one break it downIf something appears to be too difficult, then the first thing you need to do is break it down into smaller, achievabletasks. These tasks, which you can put on your to-do list, can then be given a schedule, and a priority.

Habit 6: Do it now: get started!

A written first draft is rarely very polished, so it may be a good idea to lower your expectations and tell yourself it ismore important to finish a draft, however poor, in order to create something to work on and polish, than to notbegin at all and miss an important deadline.

Habit 7: Re-engineer your day, best time for best tasks Some people are larks they get up early in themorning, bright and raring to go, yet by mid afternoon they are flagging. Others are owls, they drag themselves outof bed, sit sleepily at their desk in the morning, but then by evening they are ready to work, full of energy, burningthe midnight oil. Different people have different best times what is your best time of day for working? Ideally youshould aim to re-engineer your day so that you undertake your critical 20 per cent and your top priorities when youare at your best. Likewise you could save your routine work for when you are tired, and your energy is low.

Prepared by Jovin Hurry, for AIESEC New Horizons November 2006, Ukraine 1

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Habit 8: Cut yourself off: find a hideaway Re-engineering your day also may mean training others to respectyour concentration time. This may not always be possible in noisy office environments. You may need to findsomewhere quiet where you can work effectively it may even mean taking work home, or working in a library, orat least away from the office and the distractions of colleagues. For this to be effective, you need to make sureyour performance is being judged by outcomes and not process.

Habit 9: Wait productivelyAlternatively reading is a good space-filler, and you may find you get to like this habit, looking forward to your

commuter journey, and uninterrupted time for reading those books or reports.

Habit 10: Killing two birds with one stoneType A personalities are people who are driving, ambitious, competitive, restless, always liking to be on the go,unlike type B people who are more laid back, calm and take life a bit more easily. Type As like this habit doingtwo tasks at once. This works particularly well when you have lots of trivial tasks to do for example you could besigning letters or viewing e-mails when on the telephone to that manager who does tend to go on rather.

Habit 11: Once Is enoughHandle each piece of paper once. Stop deferring decisions. Of course there is some material that doesnt needimmediate attention, and you may be about to get started on something important and dont want to allow bits ofpaper to divert you from that important task. In that case mark the material you need to return to later with therelevant date and put a note in your diary/to-do list to remind you.

Habit 12: Tidy upYou do need to have a place for everything, and everything in its place.

Habit 13: The electronic battlefieldDelete and file as you go rather than letting old messages hang around and clog up your system.

Habit 14: Active readingThe first step in active reading is to skim abstracts to see how relevant material is. Go for quality rather thanquantity, dont download everything. Is it relevant, is it widely cited, does it appear in a top journal?

Once you have narrowed down the focus for your reading, you can then concentrate on how you read. Skimthrough first of all to check how useful it is really going to be. Then when you start reading in detail make sure you

are actively engaging with the material by asking the following: How would I sum up the message in this article in a few sentences? What are the key points? In what way

will I use this article does it provide me with material for an argument in an essay, an example methodologyto use, or what? How can I use this material?

The third step is to consider note taking.

Habit 15: Look after the goose Steven Covey (1989), in his book The 7 Habits of Effective People provides theexample of the goose that lays the golden egg. Assume you are the goose, and your work is the egg. If youexhaust yourself, work yourself into the ground, how can you expect to be able to continue to produce the goldeneggs? Everyone knows organic, free-range produced eggs are better than battery farmed ones. Why allow yourselfto become a battery farmed animal? Take care of yourself, value yourself enough to give yourself time to relax,time off, not life as one hard slog. So work productively rather than to burnout.

Habit 16: Adopt a habit Time management is a habit. You are trying to change deeply entrenched habits. Thistakes time. Adopt one new habit at a time. Move from theory to practise . . . practise . . . practise, dipping your toein the water and having a go will show you that you can do it . . ..

(Courtsey: Personal Effectiveness by Diana Winstanley. Published by the CIPD.)

Prepared by Jovin Hurry, for AIESEC New Horizons November 2006, Ukraine 2