Defining Time

Management, Time
Issues, and Prioritization

Section Overview

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 In this section (talking head)
Time and schedule management
Contrast: Effort-driven and Fixed-duration activities
Time is a constraint
Prioritization means discipline and self-governance
Assignment: What are your priorities?

Time Management
and Schedule
Management

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 Time Management
Managing time or managing things?
Manage what we do with time
Time management means:
◦ Getting things done
◦ Prioritizing activities
◦ Effort given in ratio to results received

Management Terms
Management – getting things done
Managing up – supporting supervisors /
influence
Managing down – delegating / supervising
Desk work – busy work, emails, reports
Public work – customer management
Organization involvement – other
groups/departments

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 Where does time go?
Managing up Training and
Managing 7% development
down 1%
10%
Desk-based
work
Public work 32%
12%

Organization
involvement
38%

*Harvard Business Review, Being More Productive

Valuable Activities
Perception of looking busy equates to value?
Value is in results
What activities add little value?
◦ Emails
◦ Phone calls
◦ Meetings

What activities add value?

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 Managing Activity Types

Effort-Driven
Activities
Adding more effort means faster
completion
Painting 100 rooms
Assembling 50 reports
Printing 1,000 pages

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 Law of Diminishing Returns
Adding more effort won’t always diminish duration
◦ People getting in each other’s way
◦ People waiting for others
◦ Cost increases for task due to more labor

Fixed-Duration
Activities
Added effort won’t reduce
duration
◦ Software testing
◦ Installing software
◦ Paint drying
◦ Baking a cake

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 Efficiency and
Productivity
Productivity is about results
◦ 1,000 units Week One
◦ 1,100 units Week Two

Efficiency is about quality of work process

◦ Accurate and precise results
◦ Less waste in the process (non-value add)

Identify low-value tasks

◦ Quit doing them
◦ Get someone else to do them
Managing Efficiency ◦ Redesign the process or work
and Productivity
Develop a process for repeatable results
10 minutes of planning

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 How valuable is the task to the
organization?
Are you required to do the task?
Assessment of
Tasks
How much personal value does
the task offer?
Can you delegate the task?

Managing Constraints

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 What is a constraint?
Anything that limits your options
◦ Deadlines
◦ Predetermined budget
◦ Equipment or software
◦ Organizational requirements

Time is a natural constraint

Constraints create stress

Yerkes-Dodson Law
Strong

Optimal arousal Performance

Optimal performance increases with
physiological or
mental arousal.
Performance Impaired performance
Strong anxiety
Increasing interest The curve is based
and attention on complexity and
familiarity of the
task(s).
Weak
Low Arousal High

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 Prioritization:
Discipline & Governance

Time Management is Self-Discipline

Internet
Office chit-chat
Ad hoc meetings
Balance social interactions with value-add
Determine what’s best use of my time right now?

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 Identifying
Governance
Governance is following the rules
Understand why the rules exist
◦ Policies
◦ Laws and regulations
◦ Risk mitigation
◦ Tradition

Self-Discipline is Paramount
Commitment to get things done
Focus on results
Prioritize tasks
Consistently do the work – that’s the key
Develop a system that works for you

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 1: Define Your
Work
Backlog of what you need to
accomplish
Break up the list by days of the
week
Capture all of the actions to be
completed

2: Urgent or
Important
Urgency: Immediate attention
Important: impacts the
organization
Ask:
◦ Who’s affect by the work?
◦ Is this work result a dependency?
◦ What’s the value of completing the
work?

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 Eisenhower Decision Matrix
Urgent Not Urgent
Quadrant 1 Quadrant 2
Important
Important

Important
and urgent but not urgent

Crises Relationships
Deadlines Planning
Big problems Social at work

Quadrant 3 Quadrant 4
Not Important

Not important Not important

but urgent and not urgent

Interruptions Time wasters

Meetings Trivial matters
Activities

3: Prioritize by
Required Effort
Which task will take the most
effort to do next?
Start with the task that takes the
most effort
Balance with Urgency and
Importance

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 4: Review the
Results
Were you able to complete all of
the tasks on time?
◦ Why or why not?
◦ What worked or didn’t?

First-time, first-use penalty

Estimates of the work
What would you do differently?

5: Balance
Forward
Whatever you can’t complete today,
move it to tomorrow
Repeat the prioritization process

Identify procrastination
◦ Fear
◦ Doubt
◦ Dread

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 Assignment: What are
your priorities?

Section Wrap
Time and schedule management
Contrast: Effort-driven and fixed-duration activities
Time is a constraint
Prioritization means discipline and self-governance
Assignment: What are your priorities?

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