Time Management

Some Basic Principles:

Allah values our stewardship of the time
entrusted to us as much as our
stewardship of the money and resources
entrusted to us.

 Our effectiveness in managing time has a

direct bearing on our effectiveness in
ministry and life.
We all have the same amount of time.
Take charge of your time, or other people
will take charge of it for you.

Some Basic Principles:

We have all the time we need to do Allahs
will for our lives.
We are never powerless over time
problems.
Our psychological makeup greatly
influences our ability to manage time.

 High-anxiety creates difficulty in managing

time effectively
Depression low grade or otherwise
make concentration difficult.

 Strong relational needs that often

accompany social personalities can eat
up time.

High need for recognition can decrease

time management ability.

Some Methods
Be clear about your central purpose. Until
we get our priorities straight, we will never
get our time straight.

zero-based time management

Practice zero-based time management.
List all the things you do each month.
After two or three days, come back to the
list and ask yourself which items are
essentials.

Which items could other people do,

if you gave them the proper
opportunity and training?
Once you make these decisions,
list the people to whom you could
delegate these responsibilities.

Play to your strengths more

than your weaknesses.
Set deadlines in your mind and
on paper for accomplishing
particular major tasks

Keys to Effective Time

Management

To master your
time is to master
your life

LIFE IS NOT A
DRESS REHEARSAL

Time is Life
It is irreversible and
irreplaceable
To waste your time
is to waste your life

The more I consult my feelings

during the day,
tune into myself, to see if what I am
doing is what I want to be doing,
the less I feel at the end of the day
that Ive been wasting time.

Four Factors that Affect How

We Use Our Time????
1. What we value.
2. What our goals are.
3. What our priorities are.
4. What our actions are
and how we use our
time.

Values

Time

Priorities

Goals

What do we value????
Friends??
Family??
Education??

Do we go to class?
Do we do our homework?
Do we study before we play?
Do we actively seek to learn on our own?

What Do You Value?

Every person, all the events of
your life are there because you
have drawn them there.
What
you choose to do with them is
up to you.

What are your

Priorities??
College success and career preparation
Family/Children
Money/Survival
Friends/Relationships
Work
Athletics
Play time/Having fun

First Things First

The Time Management Matrix

Not Important

Important

Urgent

Not Urgent

II

ACTIVITES:
Crisis
Medical Emergencies
Pressing problems
Deadline Driven Projects
Last-minute Projects

III

Planning/Preparation
Relationship Building
Prevention
Values Clarification
Exercise
True recreation/relaxation

IV

ACTIVITES:

Interruptions, some calls

Pressing matters
Some mail / reports
Popular activities

ACTIVITES:

ACTIVITES:

Trivia/busy work
Junk Mail
Some phone/e-mail
Time wasters
Escape Activities
Viewing Mindless TV

Adapted from Steven Coveys- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The Time Management Matrix

Urgent

Not Important

Important

Not Urgent
II

ACTIVITES:

ACTIVITES:

Activities in this Quadrant are

Activities of Necessity
They must be Managed

Activities in this Quadrant are

Activities that will bring Control
to your life
This should be your FOCUS

III

IV

ACTIVITES:

Activities in this Quadrant are

Activities of Deception
They should be
Avoided/Controlled

ACTIVITES:

Activities in this Quadrant are

Activities of Waste
They should be
Avoided/Controlled

Adapted from Steven Coveys- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Every activity we do during the day

can be put in one of four quadrants:
1. urgent and important
2. not urgent and important
3. urgent and not important
4. not urgent and not important

Quadrant II
Answer this question: What one
thing could you do in your personal
and professional life that, if you did
on a regular basis, would make a
tremendous positive difference in
your life?

Chances are whatever you name, it

is a Quandrant II activity.
Effective, proactive people
spend most of their time in
Quadrant II.

What It Takes to Say "No"

To be effective, you need to stay out
of Quadrants III and IV.
To do this, you need to tell yourself
and other people "no" to activities
which lie in these areas. Suggest
Quadrant II activities instead.

Weekly Organizing
Plan your week instead of your day.
Each Sunday, look at your roles and
goals from your mission statement,
and assign activities throughout
your week which fulfill these roles
and goals.

Double and triple them up, so that if

your mission is that you want to be
a good father, a good husband, and
stay in shape, then on Thursday
afternoon when you all have free,
go jogging with your wife and son.

Argue for your limitations

and sure enough theyre
yours.

What are your goals?

1. Short term - one day
2. One week
3. One month
4. One semester
5. One year
6. Graduation/Career
Path Discovery
7. Career Goals
8. Lifestyle Goals

In order to be live free and

happily you must sacrifice
boredom.

It is not always an easy

sacrifice.

How do we Avoid our High

Priority Tasks???

Convince ourselves we deserve a break today

Socializing, visiting, e-mailing and telephoning
Reading the unimportant stuff, magazines, etc.
Doing things yourself that others could be doing for you.

Whats your favorite escape???

How do we Avoid our High

Priority Tasks???
Solving other peoples problems.
Overdoing it. Taking a break to watch TV
and watching it for 4 hours.
Running away. Shopping, coffee with
friends.
Daydreaming about . . . the weekend,
vacation, etc.

Procrastination:
Do you suffer from it?????
Reasons for procrastination:

Fear
Uncomfortable
Lack of proper priorities
Lack of direction/goals
Lack of value clarification

How to Improve
Time Management
Keep a record of your time for one full week--168 hours.
Make a realistic time budget sheet.
Make daily to do list -- use the A, B, C system to
prioritize the list:
As must be done today
Bs important but not As
Cs would be nice but

How to Improve
Time Management
Keep a daily planner
Keep a calendar
Use reminders -- notes.
Post- it notes.
See time as your life!!!!!

The 80:20 Rule

This is neatly summed up in the
Pareto Principle, or the '80:20
Rule'.
This argues that typically 80% of
unfocussed effort generates only
20% of results.

The remaining 80% of results are

achieved with only 20% of the
effort.
While the ratio is not always 80:20,
this broad pattern of a small
proportion of activity generating
non-scalar returns recurs so
frequently as to be the norm in
many areas.